Can you remember the peculiar, pungent smell of coal dust and soot, the wonderful hissing of excess steam and the ear-splitting screech of brakes like a Boeing 747 making a forced landing without any wheels?

Haven’t you ever shed a tear for that splendid, now gone, flotilla of land galleons?

There’s little doubt Canberra Railway Museum’s Garratt 6029 steam loco that will be in Orange this weekend still looks fit enough to rumble out and sink every diesel in sight.

The largest steam loco operating in the southern hemisphere, the Garratt will run return shuttle trips to Molong and Blayney.

Who can remember the loco yards at East Fork where trains shunted back and forth all day and drivers and firemen came on duty with impressive tin boxes containing their lunch?

Now a garden is all that’s there.

There was always something faintly perilous about a voyage in a steam train.

They rolled and swayed alarmingly on down-hill corners and almost hurled you from your seat starting and stopping.

But the greatest joy was just looking at steam trains. Standing at a crossing or on the cold platform, listening for the chuff, chuff, chuff and the whistle and then watching that great tin dinosaur come lumbering up the line with the driver’s blackened face peering out the side.

Now they’ve long gone.

Only the real enthusiasts are left but you watch them turn out this weekend in their hundreds to have a trip in the Garrett or just to look at it.

And they’ll be shedding a tear or two.

LIKE the 1951 American epic film Quo Vadis that went on forever, so is our dull federal election campaign that still has 23 days to run.

Even the TV networks seem to have lost interest. The leaders’ debate on the ABC was also given the flick with a national audience of only 529,000, compared with 1.303 million who watched The Voice. Or a whopping 2.598 million who watched the Origin match.

Present-day pollies mostly depend on getting themselves on television by visiting factories and shopping centres, patting a few dogs and nursing babies.

But back in the good old days politicians did things the practical way and really got out among the people.

Orange MP for 28 years Sir Charles Cutler was an expert at street meetings, standing mostly on the corner of Summer St and Lords Place or in front of the Post Office and spruiking policies to the masses as well as answering their questions.

His opponents like Labor’s Robert “Bob” O’Halloran did the same.

Former MP for Calare David Simmons used to take a chair and sit on footpaths in towns throughout the electorate to talk to people.

He was dubbed the “member for footpaths”. 

You won’t see today’s pollies doing things like that.

They prefer to stick up posters on poles and trees.

Tailgaters are the biggest road aggressors in Orange along with drivers lingering in the right lane and not letting others merge.

And many of us every day are exposed to some form of discourteous driving or aggressive behaviour from other road users.

Driving has become a nightmare and we’re being clobbered at every turn so what can we do about it?

We could leave the car in the garage and walk or, a much better idea, petition car makers to bring back those big solid bumper bars that could knock over a gum tree or guide post without the slightest hesitation and certainly without any damage.

The knowledge that you’re well protected up front when you venture out on one of our traffic-choked streets would certainly add a feeling of security.

Maybe then we could break the habit of closing our eyes and hoping for the best when going through a roundabout.

PETROL prices in Orange have rocketed again after a couple of weeks of semi-respite from some outlets of around 110 cents a litre.

Unleaded prices at Coles’ Shell in Summer St are still up, up, up again at 129,9 cents a litre for unleaded and 128.4c for E10, the most expensive in Orange.

BP Summer St has E10 for 127.9c.

United in Woodward St has always had the cheapest petrol but it’s up there with them now with its unleaded 129.7cents a litre and E10 127.7c.

And if you have a car that needs premium, Coles’ V power is a whopping 149.9 cents a litre while BP next door has its 95 premium at 140.9c.

NEXT Wednesday is the 154th anniversary of the biggest-ever gold robbery in Australia’s history at Escort Rock, just out of Eugowra.

Bushrangers Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall and six of their gang wearing red shirts and with faces blackened bailed up two bullock trains, ordered the drivers to leave them in the middle of the road to block it and then took cover behind big rocks.

As the Ford and Co gold coach heading from Forbes to Orange slowed the gang opened fire and wounded two of the police escorts. The frightened horses bolted, a wheel hit a rock and the coach turned over.

Coach driver John Fagan and the police escorts under gunfire took cover behind trees.

The bushrangers helped themselves to 2719 ounces of gold and 3750 pounds in cash, equal to about $4 million today, and rode off to divide the booty on Mt Wheogo in the Weddin Mountains.

Gardiner took half on a packhorse and the others 250 ounces each but with police tracking him he abandoned the horse and fled.

Police later recovered that gold but the other half taken by gang members was never found.

A BOY takes his essay on the family dog to his teacher for marking.

After reading it, she says: “Billy, a year ago I asked your brother Ben to write an essay on the family dog. This is exactly the same essay. How do you explain that?”

Billy: “Of course it’s the same essay. It’s the same dog.”