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Cooking crabs and fish on a steam train

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Retired Queensland train driver, Henry Challinor, with his sturdy all purpose railway lunch box.

It was a typical Central Queensland summer’s day in 1955 when fireman Henry Challinor, teamed with his dad Harry, a train driver, to bring a steam engine and goods wagons slowly back from Port Alma to Rockhampton.

Henry loved firing for his dad and they were both keen sporting types. Sometimes the Port Alma run might take about 14 hours as there was often a load of meat, tallow, hides or pineapples to be shunted and unloaded for export.

Here was a team that didn’t mind telling their mates how many crabs they potted or fish they caught during their long workday. Sometimes the smell of cooked crab and fish lingered in the cabin for the next crew. The electric train engines and diesel locomotives of today would hardly pass as pie warmers by comparison.

Crabs steamed in railways toolbox

On the way home the cooking was done in a railways department metal bucket with just enough steam syphoning onto the deceased crabs. It was a tool bucket under normal circumstances.

Fish were wrapped in brown paper and placed on a ledge above the steam train’s boiler. After a couple of hours, the aroma of grilled fish galvanised the appetite of the gourmet team who then worked with renewed vigour.

Long before the invention of alfoil, Henry and his Dad wrapped the fish too sparingly in paper, only to see half of it stick to the boiler. Fuming would be a fair description of the following crew who had to endure the smell of welded fish for their entire workday.

Bacon and eggs fried on fireman’s shovel

The fireman’s shovel was a personal thing. A bit of a scrub and it could be used to fry eggs, steak and snags.

In the old days a train driver might have begun his career as a lad porter. In 1947 Henry Challenor started as an engine cleaner and within ten years became a fireman and finally a driver.
For the public, steam trains have charm and appeal but only the engine crew knew how much hard work it took to keep them oiled, watered stocked with coal and rolling down the track.

Henry drives one of the last steam trains to rumble through Rockhampton.

Today a railway employee would need to live at the local gym to get that much exercise. A sturdy galvanised iron lunch box was standard equipment for the train crew. There was room for meat, vegetables, sandwiches, cutlery, spanners, toothbrush, a good book and even a compartment for pyjamas.

You’ll rip its fur off you mug

Sometimes the crew would be away for up to 36 hours at a time and some sporting drivers caught more than fish. On one occasion driver Dave Kerr stopped his train out between Duchess and Djarra, took his rifle and plugged a kangaroo for pet food. He’d done it heaps of times before.

However as he dragged the dead animal back to the locomotive, a stentorian voice rang out from the rear of the train, “don’t drag it you mug, you’ll rip it’s fur off.” It was a railway train inspector and Kerr didn’t know he was on board.
There were no toilets on early steam and diesel locomotives but the many railway sidings with ablution facilities showed a considerate railways department.

Diarrhoea and long-distance train driving

A long trip however could be a real problem. In the outback on a goods train a crew member could duck behind a few trees hoping a distant ringer might think he was taking notes or looking for a signal box. There isn’t time to elaborate on the driver who suffered diarrhoea from a moving outback train or the fireman who rendered his shovel an unsuitable cooking implement when he couldn’t wait for the next toilet.

Did cow catchers really work?

In theory, a cow catcher was supposed to hoist a wandering cow into the air and throw it clear off the line. Once out near Capella, around 1958, a big red heifer decided to end it all by standing in front of Henry’s train as it came down a hill and rounded a bend.
Even the emergency brake didn’t stop it getting well and truly jammed underneath. Henry reversed the train while the crew tried to extract as much as they could in the way of beef, rump, bones, chops or whatever.

Cow was etched underneath the boiler

On arriving in Capella he parked the engine over a pit to remove the rest of the animal. “By that stage you’d swear someone had painted a cow underneath the boiler, remembers Henry.

(Sanderson Media's breezy writing style and great images can get your message out to the world) contact john@sanderson-media.com

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