The Gumbys were not even proper inspectors. They hardly even went to court like the old days. The Ticket Examiners before the Gumbys..the ones who wore suits and enamel badges. now they were the real deal. Nobody stuffed up or abused them. And if you did....at your own risk.
@@125sloth in those days VicPol had the transit police division much like the protective services of today don't know the level of powers between them but they did the same thing but Victoria Police not Protective Services
@@125slothyou're talking detectives there -totally different identity with different personalities and government agencies involved. One thought they were investigating daily homicides the other knew they were a children's clay animation riding the down and up Edit: and could be played with, COULD be
I forgot they used to close the station gates and you couldn’t exit until the inspector opened the gate and you showed your ticket. This video brings back so many memories.
I got off at Ringwood, during the day, and the guy on platform duty shut the gate. There were about 7 or 8 of us standing there waiting for him to open the gate. As he was standing with his back to the gate looking up and down the platform ready to give the conductor the all clear sign a guy slowly emerged from our group, went to the gate and somehow unlocked the gate with his finger, went through and quietly closed it behind him.....the rest of us just stood there watching in silence. I have to say at the time I admired his daring.
Ahh this brings back memories, I did work experience at boronia station in the mid ‘90’s I did everything from cleaning the toilets to selling tickets and making announcements and signaling , I’ve still got the green “Gumby” jacket!
No. That's called nostalgia of the past. I assure you they weren't. People were a lot more open in who they were and how they thought. Do you not remember carriages totally bombed top to bottom? Remember over a ¼ of every carriages seats slashed open with chucks of foam missing? I do. People were a lot faster to punching on. It's all so clinical now, it's still there though
Yup. I was out and about today and got angrily ticket checked twice on the same train by 2 authos, both of whom acted like I'd personally offended them by daring to exist on the train at all, despite having a ticket and my proof of concession. I'd give anything to go back to the days of "Gumby"s - they look so friendly, unlike authos who look so evil and arrogant
2:19 Len May was the Area Manager based at Caulfield. He was previously the Station master at Frankson.Not sure why he is doing station assistants duties checking tickets ...maybe they were short staffed..or looking busy for the camera..?
Belgrave line staff used to sleep on the job ! It was almost impossible to buy a ticket ! One guy used to sleep coma style ! You'd have to bash on the grille to get service .....if guy could wake him ...despite his laziness he kept his job covered up and protected by his mates and rail management !
Station Masters duties always included checking of tickets if no other staff available. It was not just a station assistant's job. If you younger people had to work at the railways back in the 70's like us geriatrics did, there were so many tickets to learn it was mind blowing. I was a conductor on country and interstate trains (and also an Investigations Officer later), and the ticket checkers manual was like an encyclopedia, and to be a conductor or Ticket Examiner, there were exams based on the manual and you also had to know the By Laws and section 458 and 459 of the Crimes Act. No mobile phones in those days, nor radios on trains. When we finally got portable police radios, (bricks), it was like Christmas as far as on the job safety was concerned.
@@125sloth that's right! There were like 25 different types of MET tickets in many different colours and shared colour meanings. 3hrs, short trips, overlaying zones, peak time maybe, student concession fullfare pensioner, family..... This came up in conversation a little while ago. I completely forgot how many there where and then all the other ones I'd never seen before like not just the yellow blue and red but purple!?-wtf was that?
Working on the railways back then was sort of a last resort job. I remember the wildcat strikes at the drop of a hat. I think they were playing industrial games with the Kennet Govt back in about 1997. Kennett gave the transport unions and ultimatum, cease the industrial action or he would privatise the transport system. The unions unwisely called Kennets bluff and continued. The following week he announced the public transport system would be privatised.
Who was that girl SA. In the 70's I was a station Assistant in 74 & 75 I was trained at Flinders St station school for weeks had a lot of fun I was 17. We were told to use our brass gate key as a weapon if any drama. No white flag in my time I used my hat for a signal and collected tickets in it @ Preston,Reservoir, etc. Cheers. I forgot 13 Day shift back then, I said stick it.
Guessing this is from around 1989 - 1990, as the kid at 1:02 is wearing a Batman top. The movie was realised in 1989 rekindling the public's interest in Batman.
There is a 'Phonecard sold here' sticker on the window. Telecom trialled phonecards in Geelong in 1989, though I think it was not until 1990/1991 that they began rolling out more broadly. So that gives an indication too.
Wow it's sort of wild how so little have changed. Really all they've done is fire like 99% of the people that worked there, and add in myki machines. Comengs are a bit less common down those ways than they were I suppose, but that's really about it
I guess if you know nothing about engineering, signalling systems and track layout you'd probably think that but it's changed massively. Caulfield Signal Box is closed as well and the line up from Frankston is controlled out of Kananook. Those trains aren't Commenge's either, they're Hitachi sets. Tin tubes with power doors but no air-con.
@@bloggaloggs- Caulfield train station is in a larger than normal (negligible) Jewish area. OK be pedantic then; halal station then. Jewish and Muslim peoples in West Asia are mostly the same race anyway - Semites. Sasha Baron Cohen is Jewish playing a Muslim Borat; may be.
Remember when our train went to the Frankston line at caulfild instead of a Dandenong line i remember i was crying when the train went the that way. We got of at Glenhuntleigh that's what happens when you have non speaking English parents 😀😃😃
You big sook Louie, you could have walked back to Caulfield! You make a good point though. Lot's of us kids would cry if our mothers took us the wrong way, train or tram. Bloody funny now.
Please note how "present" people are, not one mobile phone distraction at all. Even a person reading is more "there" than a person scrolling a device looking for a fix of feelgoodhormone.
Geez l could understand that stationmaster on the PA system! Lol, l remember as a teenager back in the sixties when l would get off the old dog box swing doors from St.Kilda On the way back from Luna Park @ flinders street to catch a Tait or Blue Harris on the Broadmeadows line with my mates and we always laughed when a train would pull into the station as the bloke on the PA system could barely speakadaenglish and always spoke at what seemed like a million miles per hour and it just came out like gobbledegook, there was no way anybody could could understand what he was saying, the last time l caught a suburban electric train would have been in the late sixties and yes it was a Tait train, l have strong memories of these when a kid.
It's interesting, not much has really changed since the sixties then. Station PAs vary widely depending on where you are, but they're somehow worse than the ones in this video. Trains are meh, there are some nice ones like the new high capacity trains, but for the most part we're still using the comengs of the 80s on many parts of the network
Can anyone here tell me about the crumbling -I'm guessing- goods platforms just before the maintenace yards? Was that part of a now gone line? It looks like it had a shop on it, no, not the goods shed thats closer to the maintenance yards...
Most likely July 1983 when the system was rebranded to The Met. www.historyvictoria.org.au/OurCollections/OurCollections/exhibits/show/scrapbooks--from-the-collectio/the-metropolitan-transit-autho
@@simongreen2531 My bad, that comment was meant to be posted at the top level, and addressed to the videographer, not you, a helpful question answerer.
So who's the girl in the green uniform? Was she a trainee? I don't remember seeing staff in these uniforms.....female staff anyway. I thought Dandenong trains went from platform 4 at Caulfield?
The Guard typically controlled the doors on trains that had powered doors, they'd also signal the driver via internal bell to say it's safe to depart, and blow their whistle, but the guard used the station master's flag as an added assist to indicate all doors are clear. The rear guard also assisted the disabled and on occasion as I experienced more than once, would let people into his cabin when the rest of the train was packed and you couldn't get on.
@@captainsman Yes sounds right. I went to Swinburne Tech school 1980-83 with the intention of becoming a train driver (suburban trains). Looking back now the Guards job seems more appealing. Or working at METROL.
@@captainsman I was a guard and that's correct. The station staff would signal it was all clear from them but it was still up to the Guard to depart the train. 2 bells to depart. Other bell codes were 1 to call attention and 3 to set back.
@@mendocinobeano thank you sir, I thought that was the case from vague memory, sometimes guards would let us ride with them when the rest of the train was packed. Always a bit of a treat/VIP feels :)
I found a news report from 1993 that shows the same member of staff that you can see at 1:21 (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ybg1Z_yfM80.html&ab_channel=ptua) so this footage must be from 1993! In the clip I've linked, skip to 0:35 to see him. :D
Agreed and the Taits/Rattlers had even more personality before them as well, that's the way it was until now! Absolute boredom but I think that's the way they want it now. As for the Comengs, I fear that they're on a lifeline now with the impending High Capacity Metro Trains just released now.
Funny enough the technology has a meltdown in peak hour at busy stations when there's disruptions going on. Sit at Flinders st in peak and watch as the screens revert to "listen for announcements" because the train ran 2 minutes later than the screen thought it would and now it has no clue what train it is
