Blacktown Christmas drinks

Friday December 11 saw the Blacktown Train Crew gather together for their annual Christmas drinks and, as usual, a great time was had by the large number of Train Crew who attended. Especially encouraging was the number of crew from other depots who came along and made the afternoon a resounding success.

It was also great to see quite a few retired drivers and other rail employees come along and share the Christmas spirit which gave us one of those rare occasions where previous Number 1 Blacktown Drivers could be seen in the same room as the current Number 1:

Bob Innes (current No. 1), J.D. Hughes, Bill Todd and Alan Tebbut
(Who knows, maybe next year there will be a new Number 1 to add into the picture…..)

It was also the opportunity to celebrate the retirement of two of Blacktown’s finest.

Bob Matthews officially retired back in July 2015 after a colourful career on the railways. It may have been the end of Bobs 3^rd bite of the cherry but his extended broken service was recognised – if Bob had not left due to medical issues, all totalled together, he would have had around 41 years of service.

It was the honour of (soon to be retired) driver Wayne Howard, Leppington Depot, to say a few words about Bob as they both worked together at Punchbowl and Flemington and have been close mates for decades.

Bob always said he had a preference for the old faithful “Red Rattler” trains, and as a parting gift, the Blacktown Social Club presented him with a framed photograph of the heritage unit “Red Rattler”. In recognition of his broken service, it was arranged that he also be presented with 10, 20 and 30 year service pins. Finally, in recognition of his full time Union membership over the last 12 years, he was presented with a Certificate Of Recognition from the RTBU Locomotive Division.

Gerry O’Sullivan technically hasn’t retired as yet but he is currently on pre-retirement leave and will finally hang up his Drivers Key Kit early in 2016 and we didn’t want him to have to wait almost a full year to get recognition of his time with us so we included him in the celebrations.

By the time he does retire though, Gerry will have had a little over 25 years of service with the railways, although his previous career found him driving buses. The honour of speaking on behalf of Gerry was given to Driver Peter Eldred from Richmond who regaled us with a couple of amusing stories about Gerrys life away from the job.

The Blacktown Social Club presented Gerry with a framed photograph of an 81 Class locomotive. In recognition of his full time Union membership, he was presented with a Certificate Of Recognition from the RTBU Locomotive Division. The Blacktown Social Club also gave Gerry a small gift in appreciation of the work he has done over the years in replenishing the stock of soft drinks in the drink machine in the Blacktown meal room.

The Blacktown Social Club did a great job of organising the afternoons events and their work does not go unappreciated. Many thanks to the members of the Social Club for their work throughout the year leading up to this annual event.

Blacktown Train Crew wish Bob and Gerry all the best in their retirement and we know that they won’t be disappearing off the radar for many years to come. We will certainly be reminded of Bob on a regular basis as a “Bob Replacement Program” has recently been instituted and it is expected that sometime in the future, Kim Martin from North Sydney will transfer out to Blacktown to fill the gap left by Bob: