"Only Ten Percent Iron": Sir Harold Winthrop Clapp

Harold Clapp was an Australian who "gave attention to God's truth" (Daniel 9:13) while overseeing Victoria's railways, even though he did not (as far as we know) recognize God's sovereignty in his own life.

Background

Francis Boardman Clapp, Harold's father, had been described as "an erratic genius" whose direct methods were widely frowned upon but very often succeeded. He had come to Australia from the USA at the time of the gold rush. He did not "strike it rich", but made a good amount of money from the stagecoach line he co-founded, F.B. Clapp & Co, which was as highly regarded as the famous Cobb & Co while it lasted.

Later, with 1600 horses and 178 buses, Francis established the Melbourne Omnibus Company, one of the first to guarantee buses to be "on time, all the time".

In 1877 he wound up the Omnibus Company and reconstituted it as the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company, which operated a network of cable trams. These are trams which are moved by grabbing a loop-shaped cable installed under the road, which was driven by a stationary steam engine in a pulling house. It had several advantages over over other forms of transport available at the time: it was more reliable and humane than horse power (horses which pulled trams were usually overloaded and whipped); it was quiet, safe and non-polluting, unlike steam traction; however the equipment was very complicated and expensive. When electric motors became more powerful and reliable, electric trams (as we know them today) took over.

Clapp's cable tram venture was inspired from a similar operation in San Francisco, but many improvements were made to the engineering for the MT&O, making Melbourne's the best cable tram network in the world. It formed the backbone of Melbourne's public transport system until the last route was replaced by an electric system in October 1940. Clapp remained the Managing Director of the tramway company until it was merged into the government-operated Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board in 1916, when he was 83 years old and had been totally blind for eight years.

Clapp's early life

Harold, born in Melbourne on 7 May 1875, was like his father in many ways: his methods of direct action, his outlandish but not misplaced ideas, his mania for cleanliness and efficiency, and his driving personality. After enduring lessons at Brighton and Melbourne Grammar Schools without enthusiasm², he took an apprenticeship at Austral Otis Engineering Works, in South Melbourne, at the age of 18.

The first indication of Clapp's own genius was a four-year job with the Brisbane Tramway Company (of which his father was a shareholder). He was appointed Superintendent of Motive Power and put in charge of the conversion from horse to electric power, installing the new equipment and training the crews. He was actually given the honour of driving the first electric tram down Logan Road on 21 June 1897. Brisbane retained its electric tram network until April 1969.

Then in 1901, Clapp travelled to America, at the request of the General Electric Company, to give assistance in their project of electrifying the underground railways of New York. He spent six years with GE before lending assistance to several other American companies, distinguishing himself in electrification projects in many parts of the country.

While working with the Southern Pacific Railroad³ he was told by its President, "Railroads are only ten percent iron: the other ninety percent are men". Clapp agreed with this wholeheartedly, and adopted it as his motto.

Return to Australia

While Clapp was in America, Melbourne had been electrifying its railways. Electric traction has a significant advantages over steam in "stop-start" suburban operations: it uses the power more efficiently and therefore costs less. However, Victorian Railways had nobody with real experience in the practicalities of effecting the change, so progress was very slow. Clapp was summoned from his tour of America and returned to Melbourne, to use his experience on behalf of his home city.

As he emerged from the special train which had brought him from the Melbourne docks,⁴ he became a subject of interest for a large group of railway workers, to whom he said, "I am all for efficiency and teamwork, and want to know my men and my men to know me". The men had their first indication that Clapp was no high and mighty "big boss" who would hound them into obedience, but a sympathetic leader for whom it would be a pleasure to work - and one who would never ask more of them than he would do himself.

The very next day, Friday 17 September 1920, Clapp began his work as Chairman of Commissioners⁵ of Victorian Railways. Clapp was a man of immense zeal, and his ideas were uncompromising and unusual, as we shall see. However, they were very seldom misplaced: every one succeeded in its intended purpose.

Electrification

Melbourne led Australia in moving to electric railway operation. Many other countries used it, but it was (and still is) expensive to set up, and can only pay its way when there is a lot of traffic on the lines.

In 1896, A.W. Jones of the General Electric Co in the USA (the company from which Clapp would later gain much valuable experience) had submitted a scheme for electrification of some suburban areas of the Victorian Railways. However, John Mathieson, the Chairman of Commissioners, opposed the scheme when it became known that it would lose money for several years.

However, Parliament was interested and a Select Committee of the Legislative Council was set up in 1898 to study the matter. The Committee recommended that: a) no new suburban lines be constructed until a conclusion had been reached about the merits of electrification; and b) some of the existing suburban lines should be considered for conversion to electric power. However, no action resulted.

Another Parliamentary Committee was set up in 1901, and it recommended that an expert be hired to examine the VR suburban system and give advice. This time the Acting Chairman was in favour, but again the matter was dropped without any action being taken.

In 1907 Thomas Tait, the Chairman of Commissioners, hired an English expert on the subject, Charles Merz, to study Melbourne's railway system and design a way to electrify it. Merz submitted a plan, but it was calculated that the electric railway would lose money for more than a year before the advantages would start to pay off, so the idea was "postponed."⁶

In 1911 it was realised that the technology used in electric railways had progressed and become much more efficient. The possibility was again suggested in Parliament, and the government asked Merz to review his plan (against the wishes of the Commissioners). Merz came to Melbourne in 1912, and proposed two different schemes, one using AC (Alternating Current) and the other DC (Direct Current). At last in December the Victorian government selected DC (due to a reported saving of £700,000⁷ over AC for construction) and authorised the project. It cost nearly £8 million.

Construction of the first power station started in December 1913. The first train was due to run by the end of 1915, and the whole project was to be completed by 1917.

The project was delayed by the First World War (1914-1918) but eventually the great day came on 28 May, 1919: electric trains ran from Flinders Street Station to Essendon, Sandringham and the Flemington Racecourse. The red painted trains were arranged in sets of seven, with three motored cars and four unpowered. In off-peak hours they were broken into sets of four or two, or even one single motored car. The electrical gear in the motor cars was mounted under the floor and on the roof, so apart from a compact control cabin for the driver, there was little to distinguish a Motor from a Trailer. Both types of car were, in fact, converted from ordinary passenger carriages which had been built in the 1880s and 90s - the resemblance was so striking that many commuters mistook the train for a set of carriages missing its engine, and feared a runaway when they were seen moving under their own power.

Inside the cars, each eight-seat compartment was separated from the rest of the car, with its own door to the outside - there was no corridor, as there would be in later passenger carriages. This looked to the suburban passengers similar to the starting boxes used in greyhound racing, and the trains were given the name "Dog-boxes", by which they are still referred to (mainly by railway historians) today. The Dog-boxes gave very good and long service, and the last ones were withdrawn from service as late as January 1974.

The advantages of electric traction were obvious for freight and light duties as well as for passengers. Therefore two 600 horsepower electric engines were built at the VR's Newport Workshops in 1923⁸ to shunt carriages and freight trucks around the yards and stations in preparation for departure. Previously small steam engines had been used for this purpose, but steam engines take hours to get ready for work, so they have to be kept in steam⁹ all the time, which is a waste of fuel. The new electric engines could be stopped or started in seconds.

Electrification had obvious benefits in decreased cost, labour and pollution, but without expert guidance such a big project could not be very successful. Clapp did not arrive on the scene until the starting work had been completed. However, his experience and zeal were so valuable that railway historians still credit the electrification of the suburban network to him.

Shakers of the Mountains

Nobody who has seen a steam locomotive at speed can ever forget it. From the tiny engines of the Puffing Billy Railway to the great monsters of over 250 tons, they all hold a power and majesty which can never be forgotten.

The Clapp era was one of a high rate of growth for Victorian Railways: no fewer than seven different engine classes were designed and commissioned, representing around 400 locomotives. These included two of the most sucessful classes ever to operate in Victoria: the K-class light freight engine, which eventually turned its wheels to just about every job imaginable, and the D3-class light passenger type, loved by crews and passengers alike. Both classes have several representatives still in service today.

Another Clapp Era type was later to become almost a legend. Concerning this design, Clapp's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Alf Smith, asked him, "Why design a new engine when two A2s [a highly successful passenger engine from 1907] will do the job?" But Clapp would not accept such an excuse, and the type, known as the S-class, was born. So much steam was generated in the boiler that three cylinders (instead of the usual two) were installed - another first for Australia. The S-class engines were later to pull the Spirit of Progress for many years, only to be replaced by diesels after less than 20 years in service and cut up for scrap before any coherent effort could be made to preserve them. They have become a symbol of the majesty of steam, now lost forever to the world.

The culmination of all steam power rolled out of the Workshops in 1941, after Clapp had left. This one-of-a-kind locomotive, number H220, became widely known as "Heavy Harry" because of his 260 ton weight. Heavy Harry was and remains the largest non-articulated¹⁰ locomotive in the Southern Hemisphere. Designed to eliminate double-heading over the steep hills on the line to Adelaide, Heavy Harry was destined, because of war shortages, to remain on the more strongly built Albury line, hauling fast, heavy freight trains. However, on occasions he was called upon to show his style by pulling the Spirit of Progress, in case of the failure of the regular engine. Heavy Harry also has become an icon of steam's grandeur, but unlike the S-class, he survives intact, the prize exhibit of the ARHS Victorian Division's Railway Museum in Williamstown, in Melbourne.

These, and all other very powerful engines, were called the "Shakers of the Mountains" by railway people.

Outlandinsh Idea Number One: Safety First!

Early this century, railways were not nearly as safe as they are today. Gruesome stories of what the railways could do to a person, mostly rather doubtful in authenticity,¹¹ abounded. However, real accidents did happen, with a frequency that appalled Clapp. He therefore decided to initiate a campaign to reduce the number of mishaps that occurred due to either carelessness or lack of judgement, usually not the fault of the railway people. This poster was designed and copies were placed in prominent places.

Stop, and let the train go by -
It hardly takes a minute;
Your car starts out again, intact,
And better still, you're in it!

Level crossing accidents decreased to a more acceptable level, but the problem still existed until flashing lights, bells and boom gates were installed. These are still normal equipment, and level crossing accidents have become so rare that when they happen, they gain front page stories on city-wide newspapers.

It had long been a sore point in railways that shunters had a very dangerous job. They had to stand between carriages to couple them by means of a hook and chain. The driver could not see or hear them while they were there. However, Clapp had seen automatic couplers in the United States. These would "grab" each other automatically, so that the shunters could simply stand to one side and supervise the operation in safety. Clapp quickly introduced the technology in Australia.

These visible aspects were only a part of Clapp's drive for safety. His most valuable work was in educating the people concerned, teaching them to consider their own and others' safety when on the job, the same as is done today by Government-initiated agencies such as WorkCover. A label on the mirror of the washroom at Newport Workshops proclaims, "The person you are looking at is responsible for your safety". In this Clapp was at least fifty years ahead of his time. And his employees appreciated that he was working in their best interests, and gave abundant evidence of their appreciation by their great efforts to make the railways work.

One man who spent his working life in the Jolimont Workshops, where the electric trains were serviced, remembers well the emphasis placed on safety. The Jolimont Workshops Safety Committee met every week with the Workshops' manager to discuss safety aspects, and every section of the Workshops had a safety manager. If anybody broke the safety rules he was made aware of it. Major offences included leaving oil on the floor (to slip over on a concrete floor can cause severe injuries), obstructing a walkway, jumping over the inspection pits (which were designed for a person to get into to work on the electricals under the train - at least a meter wide and two meters deep), running, misusing tools, or lifting heavy items without calling for help. These rules might seem a little restrictive, but as we all know, "Better safe than sorry". Too many people were taking these seemingly small risks, and getting badly injured. Clapp put these rules into effect to prevent these serious accidents that should never have happened.

Outlandinsh Idea Number Two: Workers are real people!

Clapp's many acts as head of VR were in keeping with his motto: although he did a lot to improve the hardware used by the railway, his main focus was on increasing the morale and productivity of the workers (whom, incidentally, he called "the great family of railway workers") by improving their working conditions. In his speeches, he always addressed his subordinates as "fellow railwaymen". This was not just a manner of speech; he treated them as such, never lording it over the workers but being examples to them (see 1 Peter 5:3).

He firmly believed that "there was no-one to equal the Australian worker, when he was given the job to do." He would never ask more of them than he would of himself. This was a remarkable attitude in a time when workers were not often well treated.

Clapp spent large amounts of time with his Fellow Railwaymen, on the coal stages and water towers, in the locomotive cleaning pits, or on the workshop floors. He showed a genuine interest in the details of the building of a new locomotive or carriage, asking about a certain piece which didn't look right, and yet trusting his men to know what they were doing. "He was a man you could talk to", said one of the workmen who helped build the Spirit of Progress. Almost all of the railway workers from the time, and many of their children, have stories to tell about their personal experiences with Clapp's leadership.¹² He was that sort of leader.

As well as encouraging railwaymen to study at the Working Men's College, Clapp founded the Victorian Railways Institute with a library, sporting and social facilities. This provided opportunities for his men and women to improve themselves and to prepare for whatever responsible jobs they wanted to do.

The more we see of Clapp's methods the more we suspect that he at least had a Godly heritage. He certainly understood certain key principles of teaching: under his leadership, there were no specialised "instructors" or "teachers" in any particular job. Instead, newcomers to the railways were apprenticed to a worker who had been doing the job for many years. These men knew everything about their job, and undertook to pass on to the younger workers not only the skills, but the attitude of pride in a job well done. Many of the workers who learned their jobs in this manner went on to become senior officials in the railways. Now that training is done by specialist "consultants", not only are the skills being inadequately transferred (because the teaching is abstract rather than practical), but the good attitudes and values are disappearing. Railway people no longer work in such harmony, and the railway management people no longer regard them so highly as "the experts" of the job in question. This is evidenced by the dramatic shift in recent years towards more automation and less people employed by the railways: there are no longer guards or ticket collectors on suburban trains, many stations are manned only by automatic ticket selling machines and video cameras, and staffing cuts are common. If the old style of discipling newcomers and passing on good attitudes was still in place, we might be seeing a much more successful, and certainly more personal, system of railways today.

A logical outcome of this focus on people in Clapp was to give more responsible jobs to people who knew how to do them. Most businesses today, when they find a need for another worker, advertise outside the company for one. Then a total newcomer is given the job, even if there is someone already in the company who would be better suited to the job. Instead, Clapp ruled that when a position was vacant, a person already in the railways would be promoted into it. This means that the only way to start a railway career is at the bottom, with promotions as skill increases.

Workers received personalised messages from Clapp encouraging their best efforts, and memos about "developing a pleasing personality" and fighting "selfishness and complacency".

Working conditions were greatly improved at this time via suggestion boxes. Knowing that the person on the spot was the one most able to solve a problem, Clapp made a way to give every worker a say in how the railway was run. He even gave monetary rewards for ideas which were adopted (Lev 19:13).

Clapp always showed a genuine interest in and concern for the families of his men, a very considerate and unusual character trait. A story is told of one of Clapp's annual inspections of the outlying stations, in this case Kyneton. He asked if there were any deputations to see him, and was told, "No, but a Repairer wants to see you". He went to the man's house and was told that they wanted to move to Morwell. He had applied for the shift through the normal channels, but had been refused. Clapp stated that he didn't like to go over the heads of his subordinates (a very wise principle of leadership - not making trouble if it can be helped), and asked why he wanted to move. He was taken inside saw that the man's wife was a wheelchair-bound invalid and in need of care, the family was young and they were barely coping with the work load. "We've a sister in Morwell. I just thought that if we were there we could..." Clapp interrupted him, "Start packing. You can move next week." In this and all other cases when Clapp promised something, he made it his business to see that it was done (Tit 2:7-8).

It is almost a paradox that he was also a high-pressure boss. "Mr Clapp's fiendish efficiency removes every last excuse to be late for work in the mornings" reported the Melbourne Punch. He also insisted that stations and trains were very clean, even in the desert where the dust settled fast enough to be watched. This was so important to him that he was nicknamed "Clever Mary" after a popular cleaning fluid if the time.

With his visions, Clapp inspired them to work their hardest to "sell" the railways. He said that "Every railwayman is a potential salesman, whatever position he may occupy. The aim and ambition of everyone of us in the railway family is to GET THE BUSINESS". In 1932 he created a position for a man to travel the system, looking for freight which could be transported by rail, and observing how the railways were performing. It was reported that he said that by the time he'd finished with the road transporters they "wouldn't have a feather to fly with".

Patsy Adam-Smith was a daughter of a Clapp-era railway family, and later a devoted railway historian, summed him up: "Clapp encouraged initiative and pride and he got in return extraordinary loyalty from his men".

Outlandinsh Idea Number Three: Support of Primary Industry

It's almost impossible for us to understand how important the railways were in opening up the lonely rural areas of Australia. In those days, the railways were the life blood of all country towns: transport, telegraph, often the only telephones, jobs for locals, and skilled leaders. The Station Master was a prominent citizen, equal in status to the bank manager. At the same time as Rev John Flynn was riding on camels to open up the interior of South and Central Australia, Clapp already knew that the steam locomotive had been the key to unlocking the daunting vastness of the Australian landscape. Flynn was motivated by his knowledge of God's Word, but Clapp didn't have that advantage.

Clapp considered it important to work closely with primary producers, the foundation of the economy. He plastered railway stations with advertisements saying, "Eat more fruit"¹³. The largest, which was at Flinders Street station, said, "Travel by rail" almost as an afterthought! Stalls selling raisins, vegetables, canned fruit, fruit juice and cheese sprang up on the platforms. What had this to do with railways? "Everything," Clapp told the questioning parliamentarians. "The primary producers must sell their produce. If they don't, none of us will have any money. Railways are the biggest industry in Australia and can help the primary producer by advertising and selling his product. Merely carrying their produce, even if we carried it for nothing, wouldn't get them or us anywhere". Whether the campaign was liked or not, it succeeded: in the first year, the railway station stalls sold £2,000 worth of fruit that would otherwise have been totally wasted. At the same time, canned fruit was marketed by the railways. Again, surpluses were sold, waste was eliminated, and the wounded economy was helped towards recovery.

A few years later, in late 1926, Clapp started up stalls selling natural, freshly squeezed fruit juice on the stations. Priced at four pennies, the stalls sold 10,000 glasses of juice a day in the heat and rush of Christmas time.

A campaign to sell excess vegetables was started, with a railway truck loaded with six shilling bags of mixed vegetables and a salesman. At every stop (of which there were many, in the days when steam engines had to take on water very frequently) the salesman would open the van door and offer his wares to the locals. On the first trip he sold out before the train was half way to its destination.

As well as moving the produce, the railways were the link between the farmers and their supplies: every sack of fertiliser, every spare part for an agricultural machine, everything was brought in by train. Reliable road transport just did not exist, and operating costs of motor vehicles were very high anyway.

What the railway lost on shipping onions at low prices, it could make up by shipping wireless sets to the onion growers at higher prices. The growers would be able to buy a wireless set, the manufacturers would be able to sell one, the consumers would be able to buy onions at a lower price, and the railway would gain the goodwill of all concerned.¹⁴

Clapp also had leaflets printed for the farmers extolling the virtues of the use of superphosphate to fertilise stock paddocks, which make grass grow more plentifully and allow the same area of land to support more sheep. He even made a speech on the subject to the farmers' conference in 1929, in person. Whatever the farmers thought of Clapp, a "city slicker" (complete with hat, coat and waistcoat), telling them how to run their farms, sales of super went up, and every sack was transported by rail.

In 1922 he thought up the Victorian National Resources Development Train, later to be known as the Reso. This was born out of a perceived need for the industrialists in the metropolitan areas to get together with the primary producers in the country so each could find out what problems the others were facing. Formal meetings had failed to adequately transmit ideas, but the Reso allowed the parties to continue communicating for five to six days at a time, as well as travelling over the areas concerned for inspection.

Similarly in 1924 Clapp inaugurated the Better Farming Train, which was described as "an agricultural college on wheels," teaching farmers how to make best use of their land. Farmers' wives were taught how to manage their households so as to decrease costs and increase revenue-earning production. The whole family was taught how to stay safe and healthy, in surroundings that were still in many respects an outback pioneering environment. All this helped the farmers prosper, by decreasing the amount of wasted work, to such an extent that even today people in the areas the Train visited count its coming as a milestone in their history. The Better Farming Train continued in service until World War II.

A Public's Eye View

In the 1880s the railways grew at a great rate, and stations, especially those from which trains depart for several different destinations, became enormous structures like medieval cathedrals. For instance it was asked, "Where is Maryborough?" with the answer being, "Behind the railway station". However, for a passenger overloaded with luggage, trying to find the right platform before the train left, it could be overwhelming in complexity. Therefore Clapp initiated the "man in grey" on railway stations, an easily identifiable person whose job was specifically to answer questions and help the passengers find what they needed. Previously this task had been done by porters or station masters, both of whom were extremely busy with their own duties.

Many other improvements were made to help the passengers feel at home. Baby change rooms and children's play areas were installed at Spencer Street Station in June 1933, with a hygenic kitchen suitable for preparing meals for babies. It was closed in January 1942 due to war restrictions.

All railway staff were taught to be polite - again, over fifty years before "The customer is always right" became popular in businesses.

Railway Refreshment Rooms sold good quality food at low prices (in contrast to the practices of most other railway eating places¹⁵). Most of the Refreshment Rooms closed in the 1970s, when trains no longer stopped as often, and when other restaurants became easily accessible. However, in recent years, a cafe and coffee shop was re-opened on Spencer Street station.

In the suburbs, fast parcel vans (converted from surplus Dog-Box cars) carried mail at very reasonable rates. This service lasted until 1986, when the vans were found to be too old for use.

Quality was a very high priority for Clapp. An often-repeated story tells of a request by the girls who served at the fruit juice stalls. They wanted permission to squeeze the juice and keep it in a jug, instead of having to do the whole job when the customer arrived. Surprisingly, Clapp refused, saying, "From a jug it could be anything. As it is, freshly squeezed, the customer knows he's getting fresh fruit juice".

Sometimes his drive for quality seemed "irrational" to other people. For instance, when he inspected the large refreshment rooms in Seymour, he noticed several cracked tea cups. He walked along the counter, picking them up and smashing them on the floor. His outraged colleagues protested that the cracked cups were usually donated to the old men's home, but Clapp said, "Why should the old men's home use cracked cups?"

In spite of all his good leadership qualities and the valuable services he gave the public, Clapp was never painted as a "good fellow" in the daily newspapers. The public called him a "megalomaniac," or a person who thinks big, especially of himself. Clapp certainly did do things in a big way, but never aimed to honour himself.

Clapp's Faults

I must be quite fair and tell about some of Clapp's faults. Most of them stem from the fact that he had no active faith in God, nor did he uphold the Bible as his absolute rule for life.

As I have mentioned already, Clapp was a government employee, overseeing a government-funded railway. He saw no problems with this, and was in fact in favour of all government-operation and centralization of major industries. His thinking was therefore more along socialist than Biblical lines. This became even more apparent after Clapp left the VR - in his work at the Department of Aircraft Production, he had great differences of opinion with the heads of the private aerospace industry such as Lawrence Wackett. Clapp was in favour of complete nationalisation and government control of all aircraft production. Such a condition never came about in Australia, but several European countries made such "reforms", and the results were disastrous.¹⁶

In keeping with this philosophy of centralization, under his domain the VR was doing many things itself which were, in a way, none of its business. The Reso and Better Farming Trains were examples of these - railways are about running trains, not teaching farmers. Clapp convinced people of the necessity of these enterprises because of the extra railway business they would generate, but it would have been better if another operation had the running of them. Today many private companies have such arrangements with the railways, such as Hoy's Buslines, who hire engines, carriages and crews from V/Line Passenger, and sell and market the trips themselves. It would have been very easy for a Better Farming Company to hire engines and drivers, and purchase carriages to be modified as necessary. Since the railways were a department of the state government, it was very difficult to do this; however this is really not a valid excuse.

Similarly VR had its own poultry farm, which provided eggs and meat for the Railway Refreshment Rooms and Dining Cars. This also would have been better left to another operator, but was undertaken by the VR because of the bad quality of such products available on the general market.

VR also operated a power station, generating electricity for the suburban network, until it was demolished in favour of a contract with the State Electricity Commission. However, this was built before electricity was generally available.

So there were seemingly good reasons for the railways to do these things, but they would have been better operated outside of the railway. Businesses today have found that the best arrangement is to contract outside companies to do things which are not their own central activities.

However, in spite of all Clapp's faults, his methods of leadership were a very valuable asset for any large organization, as seen by his many "postings" during World War II.

The Spirit of Progress

Probably Clapp's most eye-catching act as the chief of VR was the starting of the Spirit of Progress, a super fast express train running from Melbourne to Albury¹⁷. The four powerful S-class steam engines, which had been built in 1928, were totally overhauled and "streamlined"¹⁸ with a metal shroud. A winged VR painted on the nose, and a blue coat with a gold stripe, made an eye-catching difference from the overall black colour scheme of most other engines¹⁹. Each was named after a figure significant to Victoria's history: S300 after Matthew Flinders, an explorer and navigator; S301 after Sir Thomas Mitchell, an explorer of the inland; S302 after Edward Henty, one of the first settlers in John Batman's "village"; and S303 after CJ LaTrobe, Victoria's first Lieutenant-Governor.

New tenders were built, with twelve wheels to carry the weight of sufficient coal and water for the whole three-hour trip. However, there was no automatic stoker (as there would be in some later engines), so the fireman had to move all that coal by his own muscle power. To keep the engine running at full speed, he had to be shovelling into the fire nonstop. There is a story of one fireman, who used to fire for a notoriously hard drivier, who was asked after his retirement about the normal cylinder cut-off used on the runs. His reply was, "I don't know. I was too busy shovelling coal to worry about things like that!" - he was so occupied feeding the hungry fire that he couldn't even glance at the controls over the whole trip, in spite of his many years on the job.

The train consisted of four first class carriages (each one seating 48 passengers in eight-person compartments), four second class (seating 64), a dining car, a guard's van, and a parlour car. The parlour car had observation windows giving an all-round view, and an illuminated sign identifying the train. All the cars were mounted on bogies and shock-absorbers to give a smooth ride.²⁰ The whole train was air-conditioned, which was almost unheard-of in Australia at the time. Each carriage was painted in the same style as the engine, and the gold stripes lined up, giving an impression of one single unit. All the work was done by the Victorian Railways workshops at Newport, at a total cost of £360,000.

Below: The Spirit of Progress at Spencer Street Station, just before its initial run.

On 17 November 1937 the Spirit of Progress was officially launched, and 300 honoured guests took the initial run to Geelong. On the return trip, a speed of 128km/h was reached, a record that remained unbroken for many years. With its high speed and luxurious accommodation, the Spirit represented the epitome of luxury express trains of the time.

The Spirit of Progress kept running for many years, even throughout the war. The coal used in and after the war was of bad quality, so the four engines were converted to burn oil in 1952. This also reduced the fireman's work to controlling the flow of oil by adjusting taps, a welcome relief. However, the engines were badly worn out because of the high demands placed on them and a lack of good maintenance during the war, so they were all cut up for scrap in 1954. It is indeed unfortunate that we have no representative of these great engines preserved for us now.

The Spirit lived on though, hauled by diesels, until the service declined to the point that it was merged with the Southern Aurora (which ran the same route, aiming for a slightly different market) in 1986 to form the less interestingly named Melbourne-Sydney Express. Soon afterward the Express was replaced by a new high speed XPT (Express Passenger Transport) service, travelling at up to 160km/h. However the railways have taken less and less interest in the comfort of their customers, who responded by opting for air or road transport. Clapp's focus on satisfying customers, and the prosperity of the railways under his leadership, were not coincidental.

Rail Standardisation

In 1939 the Second World War was beginning, and a new government body, the Department of Aircraft Production, was formed on the First of July to make war materials. Clapp was transferred by direct Federal Government intervention from his position in the railways to the DAP, becoming its first Chairman. It was during his term in this position, in 1941, that he was knighted.

Then on the 25th of March 1942 Clapp was appointed Director-General of Land Transport, a job of great responsibility, as the movement of troops at high speed is essential for victory. While in this role, Clapp found that a lack of suitable motive power prevented the swift movement of military equipment. For this reason, the Land Transport Board put together a design for an articulated Garratt locomotive, which could be used on all of Australia's narrow-gauge systems, which covered Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and some areas of South Australia. 65 of these engines were to be built at various railway workshops around Australia, and they were called the Australian Standard Garratts. They were very powerful and yet light enough to run on the lightly constructed tracks common on branch lines in rural Australia (advantages of the Garratt-type locomotives), but they were troublesome and not very popular with their crews. For this reason seven were not even completed, and several others were not used very much before being cut up for scrap. In the 1950s, however, several were shipped to Tasmania where they worked well until replaced by diesels.

However the shortage of engines was a very minor problem compared with the crippling handicap of the break-of-gauge. The luxury of sleeper cars on the Spirit of Progress was somewhat offset by the disturbance of changing trains at Albury, late at night. An old newsreel, shown as part of "90 Percent Men", says it in a nutshell: "...But just try going to sleep! Albury all change! Grab the luggage - wake the children - find the tickets - call a porter - we're changing trains!..." For passengers it was an inconvenience, but for freight it was a difficult bottleneck, requiring large numbers of porters to transfer everything across the platform. Backlogs of work were common.

Ever since the confusion of Australia's gauges came about in the 1850s, people have (on and off) attempted to rectify the problem. Several parliamentary committees were set up last century to examine the situation, but there were no changes to the hardware of the railways. However, the decisions made by these committees set Australia's standard gauge at 4'8½" (other options were 3'6" and 5'3") and put the Trans-Continental Railway to the standard.

Later in the 1930s the break-of-gauge between New South Wales and Queensland was eliminated by re-gauging the line from Wallangarra to Brisbane to standard gauge. Since this was very short, the New South Wales Government Railways operated all standard-gauge trains in Queensland, as is still the case.

However there were still many break-of-gauge areas. A journey across the continent required four changes of train. Clapp's drive for efficiency revolted at the sight of all this wasted time, effort and money.

During his term at the head of VR, he had obviously entertained ideas about standardising Victoria's rail network wholesale, because he specifically ordered all new locomotives to be built in such a way as to be easily convertible to standard gauge. The big change never came to Victoria under his leadership, but such forward planning is greatly commendable.

With his new positions during the Second World War, Clapp saw the problem to a greater extent. It once took 35 days to move a division of troops from Sydney to Perth, and even then it arrived without its guns. Clapp said that with a single gauge it would only have taken eight days. The war showed that the matter was more than just an inconvenience: the security of the nation might be threatened unless the problem was solved.

Just after the war, Parliament requested Clapp to report on the break-of-gauge problem in Australia. He spent over a year working on it, presenting it in 1948. It was called, for want of a more imaginative title, the Clapp Plan. He wanted all the broad gauge lines (in Victoria and parts of South Australia), the Perth-Kalgoorlie line in Western Australia, the Darwin-Birdum line in the Northern Territory, and the Townsville-Mount Isa line in Queensland changed to the 4'8½" (1435mm) standard gauge. Also new Standard Gauge lines would be constructed from Mount Isa to Birdum and Bourke in NSW to Winton in QLD. (See the map (ClappPlan.GIF 18k)). No compromise was allowed for: it was an all-or-nothing scheme. Perhaps because of this, the short-sighted politicians who held the purse strings vetoed the plan. Clapp incredulously observed, "There are still people in high places who oppose rail unification. It is incredible but it is true."

However, the coming of diesel locomotives made standardisation much easier. Engines could simply be moved from one set of bogies onto another to change gauge. Therefore a new line was built, to standard gauge, linking Albury with Melbourne. Work started on 4 November 1957, and was completed in 1962, allowing trains to run from Melbourne to Sydney unimpeded by gauge problems. Several VR diesel locomotives, and a good selection of rolling stock, were converted to run on the new link. This included the whole consist of the Spirit of Progress.

On 3 January, the first standard gauge train reached Melbourne. A great ceremony was held at the newly-opened South Dynon freight terminal (opened on the same day), with railway officials, parliamentarians and other dignitaries present, and a great banner reading, "It's Thru!" [sic] across the track, to be broken by the train arriving. In Albury over 600 jobs ceased to exist. Bottlenecks and backlogs of freight to be transferred became a thing of the past.

Passenger trains had to wait a little longer before through traffic was started. On April 16 1962, the Spirit of Progress took its last run on broad gauge. The VR had two old steam engines (oil burning A2-class engines, because the four S-class streamliners had been scrapped) cleaned and polished, and a board mounted on the front, to replace the diesel that usually took the luxury train to Albury.

Since that great day the interstate standard gauge network has spread. In the 1970s the Trans-Continental breaks of gauge were eliminated by standardising several lines in South Australia and Western Australia. In 1995 the Melbourne-Adelaide line was standardised, linking all Australia's main line capital cities on an unbroken standard guage line. At least for interstate services, it is now possible to travel between all the mainland capital cities (except Darwin) on the standard gauge line. Most of South Australia, and many parts of Western Australia and Victoria, have been standardised.

This, however, is still short of the improvements outlined in the Clapp Plan. Victoria still has many main lines on broad gauge, and Queensland is still almost all narrow gauge. The North Australia Line has been closed, denying Darwin any rail service. (All cargo is run by truck, giving rise to the many-trailered "Road Trains".)

However, several lines not marked by the Clapp Plan for standardisation have in fact been upgraded. The Central Australia Line (Adelaide-Alice Springs) was replaced in 1980 by a standard gauge line which avoids the flood-prone area the old line ran through. A new line is being built from Alice Springs to Darwin, which will be on standard gauge. Also the mining companies which operate private railway lines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia all use standard gauge.

The coming of diesel-electric locomotives has allowed gauge changes to be made at much less cost than was required during the steam age. It is still a big move to make, and people's natural intertia will guarantee that Australia will not be freed from the confusion of break-of-gauge for some years. However, the standard gauge network is increasing in size, and hopefully some day the problem will be so small as to be no longer a serious barrier.

Gone but Not Forgotten

In 1952 a new era opened for Victorian Railways. Steam engines became obsolescent, pushed into insignificance by the shining new diesel-electric engines. Diesel-Electric engines use diesel motors to run electric generators, and use the electricity generated to run electric traction motors which drive the wheels, which is more efficient for moving large loads than the use of a gear box. Also, is allows for the installation of dynamic brakes: the traction motors are connected to resistors, slowing the train down by absorbing the kinetic energy. This gives a smoother braking effect than conventional disc brakes, and reduces wear on the wheels and brake blocks.

Diesel-electric engines had existed for some time overseas, but steam had remained supreme in Australia until the 1950s. When the new symbol of modernity arrived in Victoria, over 1000 people came to Spencer Street Station in Melbourne to welcome it. Victoria's first main line²¹ diesel, B60, was launched on July 15, 1952. It was officially named Harold W. Clapp, and Sir Harold (who was by then retired) was a guest of honour at the launching ceremonies. In keeping with his actions as Commissioner, his speech praised the efforts of the men who had worked under him and made his visions a success.

Below: Sir Harold Clapp poses in the cabin of locomotive B60, at the launching ceremony. The name plate, lower left, identifies the engine as "Harold W. Clapp".

Sir Harold died a few months later, in October. Sir Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister, who had been the Minister of Transport while Clapp commanded Victorian Railways, said, "We have lost a great expert, a great Australian and a great man... it is a fortunate country which is able to call to its service men like Harold Clapp."

For the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Sir Harold's birth, 7 May 1975, locomotive B60 was transferred to standard gauge to pull the Spirit of Progress over the rail link from Melbourne to Sydney. I am sure the crew of the train would have fondly remembered Clapp's consideration for workers as they had been through it all when he was their boss and they were apprentices or trainee enginemen. No doubt Sir Harold would have been glad and proud to see his special engine, driven by his special "fellow railwaymen," pulling his special train, over the standard gauge line which he championed but did not live to see completed.

Below: Locomotive B60 pulling the Spirit of Progress over the standard gauge flyover approaching Spencer Street Station (from Sydney).

Conclusion

The work of Sir Harold Clapp had a great impact on the people of Victoria. He warded off bad times and worked to restore prosperity by methods which are in line with God's universal principles, unlike many of the methods used by other people. His purpose was not to gain fame, wealth or honour, but to help other people to come through the bad times. Philippians 2:4 says, "Each of you should look not only to his own needs, but also to the needs of others". Even though he was not a Christian, Clapp did this very effectively.

Below: Locomotive A60 was built from components of B60 in 1984. It is now named Sir Harold Clapp. This photograph was taken by the author at Spencer Street Station.

Study Questions

1. What do these words mean? a) Erratic b) mania c) zeal d) ambition
2. Where and when was Harold Clapp born?
3. In what ways was he like his father?
4. What was his first job?
5. How old was he when he left for America? How long was he there?
6. What was Clapp's famous slogan? Who first told it to him? What did it mean to him?
7. When Clapp came to Australia, he was thought to be American. How was this (partly) justified?
8. In what year did Clapp take his position in Victorian Railways?
9. What was Clapp's first major project?
10. What is a big steam engine called by railway people?
11. Tell about Clapp's emphasis on safety. Was this the norm at the time? What is significant about the fact?
12. How did Clapp treat his people? Compare with the Golden Rule.
13. What is the significance of the "Eat More Fruit" campaign (and similar)?
14. Give some examples of Clapp's innovations that improved safety for railway workers.
15. What improvements did Clapp initiate for the help of the railway's customers (passengers)? Was this normal for businesses of the time? What can we conclude about Clapp from this?
16. Often labour unions initiate "spread the work" schemes, which harm the economy in the long run. Was Clapp's "Man In Grey", which created jobs for several people, one of these? Why or why not?
17. What was the Spirit of Progress? Where did it run? How was it different to most other express passenger trains?
18. When did Clapp retire from his position in Victorian Railways?
19. What was the Clapp Plan? Did it succeed? Explain.
20. What was the significance of the engine that was named after Sir Harold Clapp?
21. What is the difference between teaching and discipling?
22. Tell about Clapp's style of leadership. Were his methods in accordance with Biblical principles?

1. a) Erratic: literally means in error, but in this context (FB Clapp was an "erratic genius") it means he did things that weren't the "normal thing"; b) Mania: literally means a madness, but has come to mean anything given very special attention, usually seen as unreasonable; c) Zeal: a very strong desire to do something; d) Ambition: a strong desire to better oneself or achieve a certain goal.
2. Harold Winthrop Clapp was born in Melbourne on 7 May 1875.
3. Young Harold had a similar "zeal" to his father's, and a similar uncompromising drive for efficiency and good quality. However his great qualities of leadership and consideration for others must have been picked up somewhere else, because his father's management of tramway personnel was not very considerate.
4. The electrification of the Brisbane Tramway Company (which had been using horse power).
5. Clapp left for America in 1901, so he was 25 or 26 years old. He stayed in America for 19 years, and arrived in Australia at the age of 45.
6. Clapp's slogan, told to him by the president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, was: "Railways are only ten percent iron; the other 90 percent are men." On the strength of his motto, Clapp worked hardest to increase the morale and efficiency of the railway workers, rather than the engines.
7. Clapp only emerged on the international railway scene in America. He also had a strong American accent when he arrived. His American descent may have given added strength to the idea (although his father had moved to Australia as a boy and no longer considered the USA as his home).
8. Clapp began his work as head of VR on Friday 17 September 1920. He had arrived from the USA the previous day. His position was called "Chairman of Commissioners".
9. Clapp's first major project was an improvement in the electrification of the Melbourne suburban system. Electrification had begun earlier, but was progressing badly for want of expert handling. Clapp had specialised in electrification since before his American tour.
10. A large steam engine, especially a fast passenger type, is called a "Shaker of the Mountains" because of the heavy exhaust beat when it is travelling at speed with a heavy load.
11. Clapp's ideals included a very high standard of safety, which he demonstrated by his many and successful campaigns to dispel the image the railways had of constantly causing bad damage to people and property. He targeted both railway people and others, and succeeded in making the railways one of the safest means of travel available. This attitude was not common at the time, and shows a great consideration for others, as is greatly commended by the Bible.
12. Clapp always tried to consider his workers, and obliged their requests when he could. In other cases, he always gave his reasons (and the reasons were always very good ones). The Golden Rule ("Do unto others...") is pretty all-encompassing, but this is an obvious application.
13. "Eat More Fruit" (and Cheese, and Vegetables, and several other "Eat More" campaigns) utilised fruit that would otherwise be wasted, but more importantly, supported the primary industries. Without primary industries, nobody else will have any raw materials, and the whole economy will grind to a halt. Clapp understood this fact and acted upon it.
14. Automatic couplers - shunters no longer had to stand between pieces of rollingstock, so in case of bad judgement on the part of the driver, the only damage would be to the couplings (which were solid steel and could take a lot of bashing before failing to do their job).
15. Man in Grey - an attempt to make large stations less confusing for passengers without trying to make them smaller or less busy (as the City Loop did after the Man in Grey was abolished).
16. Labour Unions often try to "create" jobs for the unemployed (although they cannot "create" anything, but only insist that a company take a certain line of action), but most of these ideas simply duplicate the work of another person, or do what could be done more simply by a machine. This creates greater expenses for the company due to lessened efficiency, which in turn means that prices have to go up. Clapp's "Man in Grey" was not one of these ideas, because it filled a real gap in the railway system by providing a service that was sorely needed.
17. The Spirit of Progress was a fast passenger train to Albury, where there was a rail link to Sydney. It was air-conditioned, streamlined, painted blue with a gold stripe (most railway equipment was black in those days), and was faster than any previous means of transport, even aeroplanes.
18. Clapp retired from VR in 1939, after being summoned to the command of the Department of Aircraft Production.
19. The Clapp Plan was a large-scale standardisation of Australia's track, including the building of some new sections as well. It was rejected on the grounds of cost, but since then more and more lines have been converted to standard gauge, including all the interstate links. The break-of-gauge is still a problem, but it is much smaller than it used to be.
20. The engine B60, named Harold W. Clapp, was Victoria's first diesel-electric engine for main line use, using an internal-combustion diesel motor (similar to a truck's) to drive an electric generator, which supplies electricity to traction motors which turn the wheels. Diesels are more powerful and efficient than steam engines, and make less pollution. The building, delivery and usage of B60 introduced many very useful and efficient techniques, which have been used exclusively ever since.
21. A teacher teaches facts and skills. A discipler imparts attitudes, styles and a way of life as well.
22. Teacher check. Points to include: his consideration for his workers and passengers (the Golden Rule), his drive for efficiency (good stewardship), his help for food growers (Phil 2:4), and several others. Clapp was able to put into practice many passages that Christians struggle with: 1 Cor 13:4-7; James 2:8, 3:13-18; Proverbs 6:20, 10:7-9, 11:24-25, and more.

Adam-Smith, Patsy: Romance of Victorian Railways, Rigby Publishers Ltd, 1980. Referenced as "Adam-Smith #2".

Arkell, William; Richards, David; McInroy, Andrew and Anderson, Stewart: Liveries in the Landscape, Daws Publications, 1999

Belbin, Phil and Burke, David: Changing Trains: A Century of Travel on the Sydney-Melbourne Railway, Methuen Australia, 1982

Bermingham, Peter L: The ML2 Story, Wilke and Co Ltd, 1982

Brooke, Stephen: The Railways of Australia, PR Books, Sydney, 1988

Carroll, Brian: Australia's Railway Days: Milestones in railway history, Macmillan, 1976

Cranston, Jack: The Melbourne Cable Trams 1885-1940, Craftsman Publishing, Melbourne, 1988

Dare, John: A Changing Decade, ARHS Victorian Division, 1986

Dornan, S.E. & Henderson, R.G.: The Electric Railways of Victoria, Australian Electric Traction Association, Sydney, 1979

Harrigan, Leo J.: VR to '62, VR Printing Works, 1962

Jones, Colin: Watch for Trams, Kangaroo Press, 1993

Keating, John D.: Mind the Curve!, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1970

Kings, K.S. and Henderson, R.G.: Destination City: Electric Tramway Rollingstock of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, Australian Electric Traction Association, Sydney, 1981

Lockman, Vic: Biblical Economics in Comics, Ramona, 1985.

Newsrail magazine, published by ARHS Victorian Division

Ninety Percent Men, ARHS Film Group Video, Melbourne, 1988

Railpage Web site: http://www.railpage.org.au

Footnote #1: The classic example is the law of gravity. If someone who disbelieves it and its Maker should jump from a building, he would sustain as many bodily injuries as if he regarded the law and the Lord. However, belief and obedience could prevent him from coming to harm. Return to text.

Footnote #2: Note that the school system as we know it often labels as bad students those people who later go on to become great leaders in later life. Return to text.

Footnote #3: The American term "Railroad" has the same meaning as the British term "Railway". In Australia both are acceptable, but the British word is more commonly used. Return to text.

Footnote #4: In those days, there were no long-range airliners, so ocean liners did all the work of transporting people from continent to continent. Aircraft took over in the 1950s. Return to text.

Footnote #5: The state government took over the ownership of all of Victoria's railways in the 1880s (See All Aboard for some thoughts on government ownership), so they are operated as a government department, not a business. Therefore the "big boss" was called the Chairman of Commissioners (the Commissioners being like Vice-Presidents in a business) and he reported directly to the Minister of Railways, a Member of Parliament. However since 1993, the railways have been reformed into several separate companies. Return to text.

Footnote #6: In politics all is seldom what it seems, and diplomacy plays a large role. When a very good thing is cancelled for lack of funds (or some such excuse), it is usually reported to be "postponed" (or some other softer-sounding word) to avoid irritating the proponents of the idea. In this case, the plan was not intended to return for some time. Return to text.

Footnote #7: The £ symbol stands for Pounds, the currency Australia had until 14 Feb 1966, when each pound bought $2. Return to text.

Footnote #8: The two built in 1923 were numbered 1100 and 1101, and steeple-cabbed (that is, they had a low nose on each end and a raised cab in the middle, suitable for driving in both directions). Ten more engines, similar in dynamic components but box-cabbed (with the electricals in the centre and a flat cab at each end), built in 1928, were numbered 1102 to 1111, and later classified the E-class. The first two were scrapped in the 1950s, but several of the E-class survive today. Return to text.

Footnote #9: In Steam: kept warm enough, by use of continuously burning coal, to start quickly at any time. Return to text.

Footnote #10: Some very large locomotives have two complete motion units fed by a single boiler, the motion gear pivoting to go around the curves. These are called articulated engines, and are usually a lot longer and more powerful than conventional types of comparable axle load (which defines how much damage the engine will do to the track). Some examples of articulated locos include the Garratt and Mallet types. Return to text.

Footnote #11: Some examples, English in origin, are given in Patsy Adam-Smith's book Romance of Victorian Railways, p49. There were businessmen travelling from Manchester to London whose brains were addled by the speed: "They often forgot what they went for, and had to write home to find out"! And one elderly gentleman "became so impregnated with velocity that he dashed headlong into an iron post and shivered it to pieces"! Return to text.

Footnote #12: One amusing story is told by Patsy Adam-Smith in Romance of Victorian Railways, p112, which I reproduce here:

I was plodding along from sleeper to sleeper when along came the Commissioners' Rail Car. I stepped off the "five-foot" to let it pass but, instead, the motor stopped and Clapp called out the window, "Are you Mrs Smith's little girl?". "Yes." Of that I was proud - a mother who controlled a railway station! "Hop in", said Clapp. In I hopped.

Having arrived at Monomeith, Clapp gallantly offered to lever me up onto the platform and I, mystified, ignored his hand and nimbly leapt up as I'd done since I had learned to walk. It was at that moment, out of the corner of my eye, that I saw my mother. The little lady looked up to greet the great man and saw - her nine year old daughter who had no reputation at all for holding her tongue. Later she repeated over and over to me, "You didn't say anything, did you! You didn't, did you?"

Of course I hadn't. Oh well, not much, anyway. Like about the engine driver pulling up to give me a lift and the guards letting me hold the flag. "And you should have seen him", I told her, "when I told him you were sorry that we only had pull-trikes here, because you can drive a motor trolley on the track better than Dad!" "No! You didn't" "He and the other two men laughed and laughed and then he said that he believed you would too! I was so proud." Return to text.

Footnote #13: It was said that the fruit trees which border Flinders Street station were the result of people spitting the seeds out of carriage windows! Return to text.

Footnote #14: When studying bad times and the methods used to return to prosperity, it is a good idea to revise the basic universal principles of economics. The health of the economy leans heavily on farmers, or primary producers. Secondary industries (factories) cannot prosper if primary industries (farms, mines, etc) fail. Reference: Lockman. The student might consider buying a copy and reading it. The book is very easy to read and understand, and is well supported by Scripture quotes. Return to text.

Footnote #15: Mark Twain, in "Following the Equator" (1896), said this about railway coffee:

"And there were little villages, with neat stations well placarded with showy advertisements - mainly of almost too self-righteous brands of 'sheep dip'. If that is the name - and I think it is. It is a stuff like tar, and it is dabbed on to places where a shearer clips a piece out of the sheep. It bars out flies, and has healing properties, and a nip to it which makes the sheep skip like the cattle on a thousand hills. It is not good to eat. That is, it is not good to eat except when mixed with railroad coffee. It improves railroad coffee. Without it railroad coffee is too vague. But with it, it is quite assertive and enthusiastic. By itself, railroad coffee is too passive, but sheep-dip makes it wake up and get down to business. I wonder where they get railroad coffee?"

The author's parents, among many people, well remember the reasonable prices and good quality of VicRail coffee - Clapp's innovation lasted until the 1980s. Return to text.

Footnote #16: For instance, the Gnome-Rhône aero-engine company was, before World War II, one of the best in the world. However, after the war it was merged with all France's other engine manufacturers under governement ownership to form SNECMA, and never enjoyed the same prominence in the world aviation industry again. Return to text.

Footnote #17: Albury was the exchange station for passengers bound for Sydney. Victorian trains could not travel into New South Wales because of the "break-of-gauge" problem (see All Aboard), and for the same reason, trains from Sydney could not proceed south of the Murray. Passengers, freight, everything had to change trains at Albury station. Return to text.

Footnote #18: The streamlining did little to increase speed or reduce fuel consumption, but it made a very impressive-looking engine! Return to text.

Footnote #19: The black was, incidentally, another Clapp innovation, devised to stop engines from looking dirty (because of the deposits of soot which were almost unavoidable) so soon after being repainted. After the war a new black and red scheme was devised for new acquisitions, but this looks depressingly dirty unless it is kept well polished. Contrast, for instance, the black and red engines in "Victorian Steam in the 1960s" by ARE Video with the well preserved coloured engines run by railfan groups today. Return to text.

Footnote #20: There is a true story of Clapp and several engineers riding the dining cars with a bowl of soup on the table, armed with rulers, protractors and stopwatches, to see if the soup would spill when the train rounded a curve! Return to text.

Footnote #21: Although B60 was VR's first main line diesel, some small diesel shunting engines (built to a standard design used by the British railways) had been imported from General Electric in England in 1951. These were known as the F-class, and were used with mild success until their duties were taken over in the 1970s by the locally-built Y-class. Return to text.