I want to continue my review of "Whistles Through the Tall Timber" this week. I said it is a book that impresses me.
Author/photographer Nick Anchen was born with railways in the blood. His father and great grandfather were both railwaymen, so many stories were passed down through the family.
In 1999 he joined "what was left of the Victorian Railways" and drove trains on the suburban network. Last week I said he'd been wise to include the stories of so many of the railwaymen why they were still with us, but as the 'blurb' points out, he was privy to the many stories told by the drivers who'd worked the country lines before the system was dismantled.

That might have been what fired him to publish a series of railways histories, starting with "Puffing Billy and the Spirit of the Dandenongs" in 2007. He has also written some aviation history but I've not seen it.
One of the great strengths of the book is the collection of photographs.
There is a two-page pic of the Warragul station in about 1919, showing three locomotives at work. It is hard to look at the station yards now and imagine what a busy place they once were. A little tacker like me could stand on the road bridge for a long time, just looking at it all.
There is a photo of two coaches (of the motoring sort) waiting for passengers from the Melbourne train seen behind them. This is from the late 1930s. One is a Reo, a brand long gone, the other is a 1934 Dodge with a sign "Warragul- Wonthaggi" on its front. That would have been a long, slow journey, over some 'interesting' roads.
There is a picture of the Warragul locomotive shed, long gone, but once able to house four engines. In that pic are also piles of "light-up" firewood. An early-morning job was to light the fire in the locomotive and that was done with wood, much easier to fire up than coal. We forget these things.
Ray Johns talks of being an engine driver at Warragul – many members of the Johns family worked for "the railways" – and mentions his sister, Jean, working in the refreshment rooms, also pictured, and fondly remembered by many of us. That little tacker who watched the locos at work in the yards is a good few decades older now but he still remembers the refreshment rooms fondly.
Let me quote a significant paragraph from Ray's story. "Warragul was a real railway town, and the railways were a very big employer. There was the butter factory and there was the railways, and that was it, really… When I started at Warragul in late 1946, there were about 85 men working at the loco depot. This included drivers, firemen, cleaners, steam fitters and fitter's mates, four blokes on the coal stage, the chargemen, and the office staff. Then there were 24 guards and nine shunters, three signalmen, two signal fitters, three train examiners, four porters, two in the parcels office, three ticket clerks, and four blokes in the goods shed. There were also about 43 in the refreshment rooms, and it added up to somewhere around 200 employees".
That opened my eyes. The station must have been a main driver of the local economy, not just a good way to transport people and heavy goods.
There is a section on the Goodwood timber line, with a siding between Nayook and Noojee, and I'll say more about that another time.
There are very good pictures of the nationally-known trestle bridges between Nayook and Noojee, including one of Bridge no. 2, one of the famous trestles, after a bushfire, with the rails looping up and down across the burnt parts, before the track removal people got to them. It is a sad sight.
There were seven bridges between Nayook and Noojee. Bridge No. 2 was 600 feet long, with 27 openings, and it was 92 feet above the ground. No. 4 had pretty much the same dimensions but was a mere 84 feet above the ground.
When you see these photographs, or see the remaining example in real life, you can only wonder how they were built, how so many huge logs could be aligned so perfectly, level upon level, in such difficult terrain and with such accuracy. They really were marvels of engineering.
Another photograph that pulled me up was of a mixed train with two passenger carriages at the rear, with the guard's van. This was a railways 'kindness' in putting the passengers as far as possible from the smoke, sparks and soot of the locomotive. The picture shows a train bound for Neerim South standing at the Buln Buln station in about 1905.
It is a two-page panorama worth many more than a thousand words. It shows the skyline with its ringbarked and burnt trees on the ridge. It shows the few houses. The hall. The Buln Buln store (which accounted for surprising tonnages of goods), and it shows, of course, no motor cars.
This photo is from about 1905. There are a couple of carts in the station yard. One cart and a dray are loading bags of potatoes onto a truck on the goods siding.
Anchen also reminds us that Rokeby was Jindivick when the line was started in 1890. I had forgotten that.
The last passenger train out of Noojee was in 1954, taking a huge crowd to Warragul to see Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at Warragul. Noojee has been busy reinventing itself since then, and if the trestles were all still standing there would be a weekend clientele of passengers for Noojee, partly drawn by the particularly beautiful scenery.
I've not said much about the physical quality of "Whistles Through the Tall Timber" but I have to say something about its excellent production values. This is a book crisply presented with stunning photographs, with quality printing and a good solid cover. I found it a pleasure to handle, not just a pleasure to read.
It tells the story of the Warburton and Powelltown lines as well, but I have only commented here on 'our' line, from Noojee down to Warragul. There is far more to this book.
Ack: Anchen, Nick, "Whistles Through the Tall Timber, Sierra Publishing, 2023. Available at the Nooj Pub, Neerim Junction General Store, Neerim South Post Office and the Warragul Newsagency – all along the line.