Back in Darra and Brisbane area

We are getting up much earlier in Brisbane than on the rest of the trip, primarily because the sun rises so early and curtains and windows are kept open due to the heat.  We were up, ate breakfast, cleaned the house and were on the road by mid morning for the trip back to Brisbane.  For the afternoon, Christopher (and kids), Jonathan and Jessica (niece/nephews/great-niece/great-nephew) came over and Susan and I spent some time simulating the grandparent experience with Emma and Jack--sand pile, walk, swings, etc.  It was nice to have some time away from sightseeing as all of our experiences are getting crammed into a brain that doesn't seem to have the same ability to store/organize it all.  We're also getting a dose of dog-time with Kathy and Paul's dog, Sky.  It took some warming up, but we're now getting along with her pretty well.  We've missed Tabasco and hope he is doing well.

Breanna with Emma and Jack in the sand box.

Susan, Emma and Breanna on an overhead teeter-totter with Kathy, Jack and Sky in the background.  This is at a near-by neighborhood park.

Kathy with Sky on the agility course at the same park.

On Sunday, we completed a quiet weekend with a visit to the Workshops Rail Museum in nearby North Ipswich.  This, of course, was a pleasant few hours for me!  The museum is housed in a portion of the old shop facility for Queensland Railways and was a very nice combination of history, nostalgia and the science/technology of railroad construction and operation.

A 1960s diesel-electric locomotive with sectioning of the engine and component for observation.  The locomotive was built in Australia, but not at the shops in Ipswich.

An 1860s steam locomotive that was imported from Scotland.

Susan at the controls of a locomotive simulator with Paul and Wesley kibitzing.  It only took all of us about 5 minutes to figure out how to start the train--and I don't think we ever figured out how to brake!

I especially enjoyed the displays relating to machining/casting processes and equipment used in the shops.

Wooden patterns which serve as the basis of metal castings.  Some of these are actually for support pillars in stations rather than for train components.  The display in back shows the steps in the casting process.

I mentioned the wide gauge used in Victoria in a previous post and found out that Queensland is the only mainline system in the world that uses narrow gauge (3'6" [107 mm] vs. 4'8.5" [1435 mm] in the US) as standard.  This is primarily because the initial cost of narrow gauge is considerably lower.  So Australia now has 4 different gauges if you count the private sugar cane trains with 2-ft gauge.  A large model train display, showing scenery typical of various regions in Queensland, used HO-scale dimensions for the locomotives and cars with the track accurately scaled to narrow gauge.

About 1/4 of the model layout.  You can see the coal fields in the back-right;  coal is now the biggest commodity carried by Queensland Railways.  You may also note that there are a couple places where Thomas or friends show up.  There was something of a scavenger hunt for kids to find Thomas at places all over the museum.

The museum was perhaps a bit more active with children today as they were doing special programs related to Thomas the Tank Engine (and of course his friends).  The kids all stopped to say goodbye to Thomas on the way out.

Thomas at the museum entrance.

Monday was the first day of the new school hear for Breanna, so transit would be more crowded until after 9 am or so.  We took a short 2-block walk to the Darra station and caught a train towards the city with Kathy as a guide.  Brisbane suburban stations (at least for the most part) are more modern than those in Melbourne (which were mostly historic, older structures) and the infrastructure also seems to be more recently updated.  Graffiti also appears to be less of an issue in Queensland.

On the modern platform at Darra with the train arriving.  It may not be obvious from the photo, but the rail spacing is distinctly narrower than North America.

We got off at Toowong (a few stops from the city center) and walked a few hundred meters to the City Cat dock on the Brisbane River.  The City Cat is a sort of aquatic bus service that goes up and down the river, more or less alternating sides on which it stops.  Kathy took a boat up-river to the university and we took the boat down-river about 15 minutes and disembarked at South Bank, across from downtown.

Susan on the City Cat heading towards the city.  The boat travels at about 25 knots, so the breeze is substantial.

 South Bank is riverfront park/recreation area on the site of a world exhibition held in Brisbane in 1988.  There are playgrounds, swimming pools (w/ lifeguards and free),
restaurants, museums, theaters, picnic areas, etc.  It is a very nice urban oasis and a place that locals, as well as tourists, seem to go.

Part of the swimming pool at South Bank.  You can probably see the sand beach in the middle.  This is the shallower part of the pool with depths of up to 1.8 m to the right.  The entire length of pool is probably 80-100 meters.  You can see how the "real world" is almost always visible in the background throughout the park.

Also in the park was a large "epicurean" section where volunteers grow edibles, such as melons, fruit, spices, garlic, chives, etc.  There is also a near-by kiosk staffed by the volunteers 3 days per week when you can pick up samples of the produce.

One of the playgrounds included a banyan tree as part of the play equipment. 

A remnant of the world exposition, this Nepalese pagoda still stands in the park as a quiet spot for meditation of resting.

We met Paul for lunch at the Queensland Museum (the same museum system as the train museum) and spent the entire afternoon there, looking primarily at natural history exhibits.  Susan loved the exhibit on parasites (much of which I found a bit disturbing, especially the part about medical applications of leeches after my earlier experiences).  I liked the exhibits on Australian animals, organized by geographical region/climate type, as well as a few exhibits relating to local history and culture.

A skeleton of Diprotodon Opatum, the largest marsupial ever to live.  It stands about 2-m tall at the shoulders and became extinct about 40,000 years ago.

We took the train back to Darra got to see the kids again, as well as Brittany (their mum) who brought them over for the evening