Canterbury Sketchbook

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 26

Canterbury Sketchbook

It only took 10 minutes, but it became as much part of the New Zealand mystique as six o’clock closing. : You hit the platform running in the race to the railway refreshment room counter for your “cupper tea and pie.” When N.Z. Railways in 1917, as a wartime economy measure, abolished dining cars, towns such as Taumarunui and Clinton became part of New Zealand folklore. Peter Cape wrote a song ' about an ordinary joker who ' fell in love with a sheila who poured tea in the Taumarunui refreshment rooms. He became a fireman on the Limited in order to spend 10 minutes a day with the love of his life. She is unimpressed and changes to the daylight shift... love without hope. In 1971, when the Ashburton refreshment rooms closed, Mrs Dorrie Brown, of Ashburton, completed 32 years service in them. A waitress before later becoming manageress, Mrs Brown ’ remembers the five-minute warning of the approaching Ex- ‘ press, the final preparations, then the “sea of faces.” “You had to be good, really good at counting change,” she • said. At their peak, the Ashburton refreshment rooms employed 24 people. Staff saw them all — the Royal train, troop trains, Ran-

furly Shield specials, race i trains, and the biggest of them all: the Timaru excursion train i with up to 1000 passengers. 1 The platform of the Ashbur- ( ton railway station is now mel- 1

ancholy to visit. The doors to the refreshment rooms are locked. Behind them the counter and the ovens have gone and not a N.Z. Railway cup to be found.

The advertising posters along the platform belong to the early 19705. The great adventure that was passenger travel by N.Z. Rail seems to be over. FOOTNOTE: I’ve drawn two-

railway enthusiasts, Tony Cameron, of Geraldine, and Neil Cooper, of Christchurch, waiting for a train ... it’s’late and Neil isn’t very happy. - PETER McLAUCHLAN