Great Western - 8. GW Chap 8

“That’s right, it is only 14 metres long, and it is the new Diamond class, with 4 private cabins, two bathrooms, a shower room, a meeting room and a lounge, which you can all look at more closely, once all of the supplies are loaded on and put away,” my Dad explained.

Leaving Reynold to get everything loaded, Dad contacted Westnet, to make sure that all the switches are in place for our return journey south, and just as he ended the call, two official looking vehicles arrived, and much to our surprise it was the State Transport Minister and his Assistant James, who was carrying two lots of luggage.

In the other car, the Infrastructure Manager of the City of Greater Geraldton, and a young man that I had not met appeared, and they too had a piece of luggage each. “Looks like we have four extra passengers Papa” I said to Dad in German. “Minister Barrett, and James, this is a surprise,” my Dad said to the approaching men, and the Minister held his hand out to me first, which was a bit of a surprise, which I shook, before Dad did the same.

“Vern and Mr Ashburton, it is good to see you both again, we came to check out what all the hoo-ha is about, with your now famous train. It is news head-lines nation-wide this morning,” the Minister said, “Wow, we didn’t expect that,” I said. “Mr Vaughan, it’s good to see you again,” my Dad said to the City Council manger, and this time it was Dad who shook hands first, and me next.

“This looks very impressive, Mr Ashburton, and you say we can get to Albany in 7 ½ hours?’ Mr Vaughan asked, “Yes sir, that is correct, and it was a very comfortable ride up here yesterday,” I said in response, “Well I hope you don’t mind if we join you for part of the return journey, as we will disembark when we arrive in Northam, and take the Prospector back to Perth,” the State Minister stated.

“Not at all sir, we welcome any guests who wish to join us,” Dad stated, and he led the VIP’s towards car five, a heap of cars and taxis’ started to arrive, while I headed to the front of the train, where I found the three drivers relaxing in the crew lounge.

“Can I have a long warning horn please, and another one in fifteen minutes,” I asked, and one of the drivers stood up and entered the driver cab and pressed the button for a good 15 seconds, while I headed back the way I came, stopping at the first Buffet Servery in car 2. “Reynold, can you meet me in Car 4 please,” I said into the PA, before continuing on to car 4, where Reynold was waiting for me.

“All ready to get loaded with passengers?” I asked the porter, “Yes sir, I was just checking the list, that was compiled yesterday, not everyone wrote down their names yesterday, so we will have to get some photo ID, with a Northam or Albany address on it” Reynold informed me. “My fault, we should have organised a ticket system, so we wouldn’t have this problem, never mind, it is just this once, so we will have to make do,” I responded.

Once we had all the people that travelled with us yesterday on board, with the correct number of passengers compared to yesterday, there was now a group of people from Geraldton, who wanted to make the journey to as far as Northam, and since we no longer had any media, and only a few VIP’s, who are in Car 5, we decided to open the Gold class in car 7 to any people that wanted to join us, and soon all 36 seats were filled.

With an almost full train, we left Geraldton, 5 minutes late, and we made good time with the first half of the journey, arriving in Northam five minutes early, at just before 3pm, were Minister Barrett and his assistant – James, and all the Northam residents disembarked.

Leaving Northam train station, we headed for the Avon Yard, where we will change over to the southern line, and while Dad was talking to the other two drivers in the crew lounge, I was in the Driver cab, watching surroundings, and in the corner of my eye, and I saw a freight train approaching the yard on the Southern line.

“Watch out” I shouted as I leaned forward and hit the emergency brake button, and my action threw me forward, an I hit the side of my face on the windscreen, just as we came into contact with the engine of the freight train.

Over the next few seconds, I was thrown around the cab, as the force of the slow speed collision forced me sideways, and I hit the side door very hard. with the freight engine being bigger and heavier, it also caused the front car of our train to derail, coming to a stop, half on and half off the track, while the rest of the cars remained on the track.

“Is everyone alright? What happened?” I heard my Dad say, and that is when everything went black. When I woke up, I was laying on the lounge in the crew lounge, with to paramedics checking up on me, and then I saw my Dad and the driver at the doorway, talking to two police officers. “I tell you, sir the signal light was green, I am positive about that,” I heard the driver say.

When Dad saw that I was awake, he came rushing to my side, “Are you ok son?” he asked me, sounding very worried. “I am fine Papa, just a bump on the head,” I replied in German. “You are from Germany?” one of the police officers asked, “No Officer, we are Australian, and have lived in Switzerland for the past eleven years, and Vern was just 5 years old when we moved there from Western Australia,” my Dad explained.

“I too saw the signals were green, there must have been a signal error or the other driver was at fault,” I said in German. “My son, just said that he too saw that the signals were green, and he suggested maybe the signals were faulty or the other driver is at fault,” Dad said translating what I had said.

“We have spoken to the other driver, and he too say’s that his signals were green, and he suggested that your train was at fault” the officer responded. “Well, there is one way that we can solve this, our train has video surveillance on the front and the sides of each driver cab, as well as inside the driver cab, if you will follow me please gentlemen, we will go and see what the camera’s say,” my Dad said, and I tried to sit up to follow, but I was told to stay where I was by the paramedic.

Ten minutes later, Dad returned to where I still lay in the crew lounge, and he was smiling. “The officers and I have viewed the footage, and saw that it was you who gave the warning and hit the emergency brake button, which may have stopped from anyone being seriously injured, and as you said the lights were definitely green for us, and the side cab camera shows that the other track signals were orange, so the other driver was in fault.

Reynold has reported to me that all the passengers are just shaken up and a little bruised, with no injuries at all, apart from you,” my Dad report to me, and I groaned as my head started to spin, as I started to sit up, and I didn’t attempt to move any more once I will upright. “What about our train?” I asked in German.

“It has a large dent on the side where we impacted the other train, but apart from that, there is no other damage, once we get a crane here to lift it back onto the tracks, I will do a final inspection, before deciding if we continue on or not. As I speak, the passengers have been off loaded, and are waiting to see what happens,” my Dad replied.

With the freight train now in one of the side tracks of the yard, the crane eventually arrived and took very little time to get the first car back on the rail line, and Dad spent a good half hour checking everything, to see if there was any other damage.

With Dad giving the all clear for the train to continue, the crowd of passengers cheered at the good news, and they all climbed back onboard, and took their seats once more. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience, we have provided video footage to the police, that clears us of any wrong doing, and with an engineer check of car one, we are ready to continue our journey south to Albany, with our new estimated time of arrival being 10pm, thank you for your patience,” my Dad said.

With the help of the two paramedics, I was now in cabin one, in Car six, and the stewards were making regular checks on me to see that I was ok, and I eventually fell asleep, from the gentle rocking of the train, and woke only when Dad was shaking my shoulder. “Time for some dinner son, you have been asleep for nearly two hours,” Dad said to me, and I could see that it was already dark outside.

Putting the tray on the table, he helped me to sit up, and I felt quite dizzy for a few moments, and Dad found the remote for the television and turned it on, just as the news headlines were coming on. “It is 8pm, and here are the news headlines. Police confirmed today that the collision that took place between a rail freight engine and the Great Western Train, just outside of Northam, earlier this afternoon, was as a result of driver error, on the part of the freight engine driver.

Video footage from the other train clearly indicated that the Great Western had right of way, with green signals, while the other train had yellow signals showing. Mr Ashburton, the owner of the Great Western stated that he is thankful that only one person was injured during the incident, and that he was been well looked after.

After a crane had lifted the first car of the Great Western back onto the rail line, Mr Ashburton a qualified and very experienced engineer, inspected the rail car, and there was no damaged to the under carriage, meaning they could continue their journey south to Albany, with cheering from the passengers that were continuing. Police are questioning the other driver, and so far, no charges have been laid,” the reporter on the television stated.

When I opened the cover of my meal, I was very surprised to see a hot T bone steak and vegetables, and I looked at Dad in surprise. “We ordered it in advance, and picked it up from Katanning, which we left about ten minutes ago” Dad said to me, knowing that it was my favourite meal.

About an hour and a half later, we pulled into Albany Train station, and I was pleased to be back, even though I would be starting school in just over a days’ time, and to my surprise, there was an ambulance there waiting for our arrival.

“That is for you, don’t argue, you’re going to hospital for a check-up” Dad said to me, and so I was unceremoniously carted off to hospital, and I ended up being put in a ward for overnight observation, and Mum came to visit me as I was settling into my bed, even thou it was just before 11pm at night.

The next day, I had a series of tests, and the doctor informed me that I had a hairline fracture to the scull, and that is why I was having the headaches and dizziness all the time. I was not to pleased, when the doctor announced that I would be in hospital for at least two full days, and that more tests would be done again tomorrow, which was suppose to be my first day at my new school.

After 3 ½ days in hospital and I was finally released on the Wednesday afternoon, but I was told that I was to remain at home for the rest of the week, and next week I could go to school, but I was to do no physical activities or any contact sports for at least a month.

Spending four days at home with Mrs Frazier and Mum checking on me regularly and fussing over me all the time, drove me almost wild, although, I was allowed to join the family for dinner each evening, and Dad even challenged me to a few games of Billiards once the other two had gone to bed.

On my first day at my new school, Mum drove us to the school, and informed us that she would collect us when school is over at the end of the day, and I headed to the administration building to let the office know that I was at school today.

Once I had checked in, I headed for my locker, which I knew to be in the senior’s student area, and just after opening my locker and placing my bag in it, I saw a group of boys around my age approaching, “Well here is Train boy, where have you been hiding train boy?” one of the taller boys said to me.

“The name is Vern, not train boy” I said, and the boys laughed, “Did you hear that, his name is vermin, well vermin, answer the question, where have you been all of last week” the same boy demanded.

“Hey, leave my brother alone, you unsociable morons” I heard Oskar say and I soon spotted him with a few other boys his age approaching us. “Well if it isn’t Vermin’s little brother coming to the rescue, come on boys lets get out of here” the older boy said and he gave me a good hard push, before turning to leave, forcing me to slam against the lockers, hitting my head hard, and I blacked out.

When I came too, I there was plenty of noise around me, and I realised that I was in A & E at the hospital. “Hello Master Vern, it is good to have you back with us” a women’s voice said, and a nurse appeared into my view. After a series of tests, I ended up being admitted into hospital for another stay, this time for at least a week, according to the doctor, who was viewing my test results.

When Dad came to visit me, later in the day, he was pleased to see that I was awake, even if I was bored out of my mind. “Hello son, how are you feeling?” Dad said when he entered my private room. “Ok I guess, what happened with that guys at school?” I replied.

“The Headmaster said that she had disciplined the boys, with detention and suspended from school sports for the rest of the term, apparently, one is the captain of the cricket team and the swim team, so it will hurt the teams more than anything. I am not happy with just that, and I am considering taking legal action” Dad informed me.