The Great Train Meet (continued)

The evening wore on. In due course, we drove across the footpath kerbing, there being no crossing ramps or kerb lowering, and up the southern ramp onto the station platform. From there we drove down to the northern end and parked where the guard’s van would normally stop. We waited. No one questioned us why we had a car on the platform. The express duly arrived pulling up with the guard’s van right beside our parked car. It was late. The doors opened and the guard directed us to a pile of ammunition type boxes. He was the only person in the van. There were no assigned guards, apart from him. We had to move quickly as they were trying to make up time. Ewan and I proceeded to load the ones pointed out to us into the car. The boxes contained all the coins and bank notes of the new currency for the town of Gore. To say the consignment was heavy would be a bit of an understatement. The back end of the Austin got lower and lower. There was no stopping or taking some away and coming back for a second load. It had to go in the car there and then. The boot shut with a comforting click. The back seat had no more room. We locked it all and set off. There was no paperwork or signatures required. The tow bar was now less than 6 inches off the ground.

We set off along the platform to the southern end and ramp. Steering was extremely light and initially I thought it was not going to turn onto the ramp! Down it went. The front wheels did not register crossing the kerb but the back end surely did. The graunch was deafening and, as the car appeared to become grounded, to use the vernacular, I floored it. With a tremendous lurch, it broke free and launched itself across the path of oncoming southbound traffic, through the centre parks and onto the other side of the road into the path of northbound traffic. Thankfully, the ‘boy racers’ were elsewhere. Somewhere along the line, the Austin remembered where it was to go and we got around into Ashton Street to the small-enclosed yard at the back door. There was a metal plate ramp to cross the kerb, but still the tow bar made a clanging sound as it scraped across the ramps and up onto the footpath. Then a small obstacle that we completely forgot about spoke up. The tow bar found it. The concrete block in the centre of the gateway that the bolt for the one gate to lock into. I must have had the car dead centre of the gateway. The block snaring itself on the tow bar, became uprooted, dragged along and jammed under the spare wheel tray. That meant we could not close the gates securely. Ewan latched them together but they sat there daring us to turn our backs, threatening to open up as soon as we turned away. We set about relieving the poor car of the load, all the time watching and checking the gate. When the car came up far enough, we retrieved the concrete block and forced it under the gates locking them more securely.

Our instructions did not include what to do with the Smith and Weston (sans bullets) when we were finished so I locked it in the vault with the cash.

To this day, I have no idea how much money I had in my car that day. It was all the cash needed for all the Trading Banks and the Southland Savings Bank in Gore. If we made a run for it, we probably would not have travelled far as the first hill would have stopped the poor car dead.