Imagine having your own line built, if I were rich today I would buy one of them Greek islands going cheap, build my own railway round it, have a veritable collection of BR diesel and a Hastings or Thumper and live there with a load of cats and spend my final years just going round and round my little island tootling me horn.

I could actually turn trains into little hotels, a little bar train, old sleepers and make it a sunshine shrine for BR past.

Originally posted by Dodgydruid:

Imagine having your own line built, if I were rich today I would buy one of them Greek islands going cheap, build my own railway round it, have a veritable collection of BR diesel and a Hastings or Thumper and live there with a load of cats and spend my final years just going round and round my little island tootling me horn.

I could actually turn trains into little hotels, a little bar train, old sleepers and make it a sunshine shrine for BR past.

Thanks, Dodgydruid. I hope you are enjoying what you see and don't mind the Aussie content.
I respect your love of BR etc. No problems, mate.

PS We have a good numbers of Islands too, Tasmania, for one. Lord Howe Is. Norfolk Is. (off NSW coast.) King and Flinders Is. (Victoria.) Kangaroo Is. (Sth Aust.) Rottnest Is. (Western Aust.) And that's the Southern parts of OZ. I haven't even mentione the ones, in Queensland around the Great Barrier Reef and some arcoss, the Northern Territory, in the Tropics, Ha!
Oh, and I forget that big one, New Zealand! (No, I mean Australia. Hee! Stir! Ha!) You know the one that we keep eyeing off, across the Tasman sea, thinking it's apart of us. Check them, all out on Google and Tourist info. (yes, New Zealand, too.)
We're cousins aren't, we?? I mean mates, honest.
We do have some things in Common?? Don't we??
Sheep, for one thing, Hee.
Naw, they're alright, I reckon. Would have them, on my team anytime if we needed a helping hand. Harrka or not, it's all the same to me. (Actually, I like the sound of the Harrka, it so reminds, me, of Highlanders of Scotland. Wah hee! (Funny I do have, BR in the family, too.)

See Ya.

Well, of course we are cousins, just likely your ancestors nicked a loaf of bread or gave a posh bloke a dirty look and my ancestors didn't, actually I remember an old railway pre SR sign saying trespassing on the railway would involve a fine, imprisonment or transportation, wonder how many Aussies got sent there just for taking the short cut across the rails :)

For punishment of persons obstructing the officers of any railway company, or trespassing upon any railway.

If any person shall wilfully obstruct or impede any officer or agent of any railway company in the execution of his duty upon any railway, or upon or in any of the stations or other works or premises connected therewith, or if any person shall wilfully trespass upon any railway, or any of the stations or other works or premises connected therewith, and shall refuse to quit the same upon request to him made by any officer or agent of the said company, every such person so offending, and all others aiding or assisting therein, shall and may be seized and detained by any such officer or agent, or any person whom he may call to his assistance, until such offender or offenders can be conveniently taken before some justice of the peace for the county or place wherein such offence shall be committed, and when convicted, before such justice as aforesaid, (who is hereby authorized and required, upon complaint to him . . . to take cognizance thereof, and to act summarily in the premises,) shall, in the discretion of such justice, upon conviction by a magistrates’ court, at the discretion of the court, forfeit to her Majesty any sum not exceeding £200 and in default of payment thereof shall or may be imprisoned] . . .

Now £200 in them days was a veritable fortune and trespasser likely not to have even a 1000th of that in property, transportation still carried on for another 25 years when it formally ended in 1865, getting a fine of £200 put the convicted bang in the hands of the colonial office who would say "Do six months in a hulk, take a ship to this wonderful new land or do 5 years in Newgate where you will likely die" and those who chose to stay were given a horrendous time as refuseniks of the crown and were also exposed to typhoid, cholera and other prison borne nasties, of course in times of war, the Navy got the prime "beef" of the men for its ships but the Colonial Office was one not to be denied and quite often won an argument with the Navy over who got control of a hulks worth of prisoners, William Redfern a former naval surgeon was actually one such who ended up going to Norfolk and established the convict hospital there and died a very respected man.

Originally posted by Dodgydruid:

Well, of course we are cousins, just likely your ancestors nicked a loaf of bread or gave a posh bloke a dirty look and my ancestors didn't, actually I remember an old railway pre SR sign saying trespassing on the railway would involve a fine, imprisonment or transportation, wonder how many Aussies got sent there just for taking the short cut across the rails :)

For punishment of persons obstructing the officers of any railway company, or trespassing upon any railway.

If any person shall wilfully obstruct or impede any officer or agent of any railway company in the execution of his duty upon any railway, or upon or in any of the stations or other works or premises connected therewith, or if any person shall wilfully trespass upon any railway, or any of the stations or other works or premises connected therewith, and shall refuse to quit the same upon request to him made by any officer or agent of the said company, every such person so offending, and all others aiding or assisting therein, shall and may be seized and detained by any such officer or agent, or any person whom he may call to his assistance, until such offender or offenders can be conveniently taken before some justice of the peace for the county or place wherein such offence shall be committed, and when convicted, before such justice as aforesaid, (who is hereby authorized and required, upon complaint to him . . . to take cognizance thereof, and to act summarily in the premises,) shall, in the discretion of such justice, upon conviction by a magistrates’ court, at the discretion of the court, forfeit to her Majesty any sum not exceeding £200 and in default of payment thereof shall or may be imprisoned] . . .

Now £200 in them days was a veritable fortune and trespasser likely not to have even a 1000th of that in property, transportation still carried on for another 25 years when it formally ended in 1865, getting a fine of £200 put the convicted bang in the hands of the colonial office who would say "Do six months in a hulk, take a ship to this wonderful new land or do 5 years in Newgate where you will likely die" and those who chose to stay were given a horrendous time as refuseniks of the crown and were also exposed to typhoid, cholera and other prison borne nasties, of course in times of war, the Navy got the prime "beef" of the men for its ships but the Colonial Office was one not to be denied and quite often won an argument with the Navy over who got control of a hulks worth of prisoners, William Redfern a former naval surgeon was actually one such who ended up going to Norfolk and established the convict hospital there and died a very respected man.

@Dodgydruid.
The Cheek of you Sir. Ha!
Not all my ancestors, who came to Australia, came as Convicts. Most of them, came as Free Settlers, either with employment at the ready, to an employer or to themselves.
And we have some very good Convicts, who made good of themselves, whereby thier descendants, have done some great things, for OZ and the World.
As for my Scottish ancestors, similar. Except, one branch, who sadly was forced from their lands, and were given not, to many choices. Isle of Skye, ring a bell.

But I did like what you wrote, think Charles Dickens, etc. With what he and others, where trying to change. Not just in the U.K, either. A Christmas Carol, should be a good read, of one of it's moive's?? (Muppets Hee!, Patrick Stewart, or Alister Sims etc, your choice.)

Oh, as for the cousins, as a good hearted stir. I meant the Kiwis and us Aussie's, Ha!

Good night, from here, until next time.

See Ya.

The nations of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand are truly unique, the story of Redfern itself just one of many who were fighting for a better world and made the difference for so many people trapped in a cycle of poverty and hardship and helped them survive in to a better world, I love Australia and if I had the money would live there but sadly old and disabled, no room for us pom's and we missed the £10 immigration thing by a year as my dad was offered a job there to oversee a major resignalling project but he declined as he didn't like the idea of flying, a shame.

Yes a lot of Scots were dispossessed by the English, our current Prime Minister's family were guilty of kinslaying at Culloden and rewarded richly for killing their own of the Cameron clan, one branch of my own family used to own the lands around Glen Lyon and they were dispossessed in same manner but a lot of my ancestors can still be found in Fortingull's cemetery dating back hundreds of years, Ogilvy, Scott, Naughton, McNaughton, Baynham, Watson, Cameron, George Watson's academy in Edinburgh was founded by my direct paternal great great add a few great grandfather and was accorded the first headmaster Ogilvy who was the cousin of my direct ancestor.

kiwirail locos cant fine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4j1mt9sdzQ&ab_channel=TransportHeritageNSW