I’m running a bit behind in my blogging due to general business. Here are some pictures from the brand new shiny West Footscray station a few weeks ago. The platforms seem uncluttered, and there are Passenger Information Displays (PIDs) and a clock, which are becoming the standard now for new stations: There’s a pretty big ... [More]
Year: 2013
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Bye bye to analogue TV
Analogue TV has been shut off in most parts of Australia in the last few months. Sydney was yesterday morning, and one enterprising bloke managed to record the last moments of all five stations. Have a watch, it’s great. Note Channel 7 (top right) which actually marked it by playing an old animation. The others ... [More]
On the road to Rutherglen a few weeks ago, we came across this: the old railway. Some photos below. Apparently it opened in 1879, with passenger trains running until 1962, and freight trains until 1995. These days the nearest operating railway is at Springhurst a few kilometres away, on the main line to Albury and ... [More]
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Cluster headaches are back
The term blog is a shortening of web log… well, this blog post is a log for primarily my own purposes, though it may be of interest to others. Seems the cluster headaches are back this morning. They often return at the change of season, but I haven’t had them since about two years ago. ... [More]
I spotted this a while back, but forgot to blog it. It was published by the ABS in October 2012, but it’s still worth noting: “While the household car is still the preferred method of travel to work for most Australians, the train has overtaken walking as one of the most preferred modes of transport,” ... [More]
The Melbourne General Post Office was built in the 1860s, and served as GPO until 2001. Nowadays it’s a shopping centre. Australia Post moved its retail operations a little north, to the other side of Little Bourke Street, with a big (but no doubt cheaper to run) Post Shop. Now that too has closed, in ... [More]
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Day of the Doctor
Well, here we are. Some more thoughts on the Doctor Who anniversary… Warning — below are spoilers for those who have not seen the special episode yet November 23rd Anniversary day finally arrived. The Doctor Who 50th anniversary special episode “Day Of The Doctor” aired in the UK at 7:50pm GMT Saturday night which is ... [More]
News from London is that they are planning 24-hour Tube services on five lines from 2015 at weekends. It’s tied to a grand plan which will also see staff taken out of ticket offices (in favour of helping customers more directly, for instance with ticket machines), more Wifi on stations, and contactless bank card (eg ... [More]
For anybody with an NFC (Near Field Contact)-compatible phone (such as my new Google Nexus 5), you can use the this little app — Tag Info Lite to read Myki cards. Not that it’ll tell you very much — see below. All the actual useful information appears to be encrypted. Apparently in some parts of ... [More]
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Pics from November 2003
Another of my collections of ten year old photos, this from November 2003. This rather striking (I thought) image is from near Seymour. I don’t remember the circumstances, but evidently it looked like a storm was coming across the hills. I’m working on a new blog template, to fix some bugs in the current one ... [More]
This tram is bigger on the inside: The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is fast approaching, and fans are getting into a fervour. Normally it’s only sports fans who wake up early to watch live TV. Sci-fi fans? Not so much. All that will change next Sunday morning, when the special anniversary episode Day Of ... [More]
Regular passengers using Flinders Street Station will have noticed that while the platforms are numbered from 1 to 14, there’s no platform 11. It’s not a Harry Potter scenario with a hidden platform. There used to be a platform 11, the twin of 10, facing the river, and commonly used by St Kilda and Port ... [More]