The Young and The Restless | Eventually trained to have historic interests

For years she’s watched me tune out the longer she explained the latest little morsel of family history information she’d uncovered while trawling through ancestry.com.

It’s not so much that I wasn’t interested, it’s just I know my memory isn’t reliable enough to retain names, dates, origins and the handkerchiefs my thieving ancestors stole to land them on a convict ship out here.

I know what you’re thinking, how did I become a journalist when my brain is like a sieve?

I suppose there are different parts of history that appeal to each of us.

And I’ve learnt over time that mine is mostly machines and engineering.

I love the old heavy metal inventions.

Such hefty materials and no doubt hard to work with, yet made so masterfully and precisely without software to draft anything and without computers and robots to build and assemble anything.

I’m not sure if the reason these old artefacts are more aesthetically pleasing to the eye is because of the dense, quality bronze, copper, gold and silver metals used to make them or just because they look so different to modern inventions where cogs, belts and computerised chips are hidden behind sleek layers of boring white plastic or thin and minimalistic aluminium.

Or just because they are historic and now rare; not something you see every day.

History knew some stuff.

We’ve circled right back to trading plastic supermarket bags for paper ones and refilling containers instead of tossing them out after a single use.

We’ve learnt now that plastic is terrible for our environment.

A lot of things further in the past were also bad for it, obviously, and that’s why we traded them.

But some things were traded purely for cost, efficiency and ease of use.

I don’t know whether a steam train billowing oodles of smoke into the atmosphere as it chugs along like the Little Engine That Could, thinking it can, is more damaging to the environment than the diesel or electricity more modern trains are powered by, but when the vintage trains came to town on the weekend, we went along to take a look through the window of history.

Travelling in the antiquated carriages on meticulously restored leather seats, pressed tin ceilings above us and decadent heavy wood panelling surrounding us, we breathed in the fresh (yet slightly steam-polluted) air from the open windows, without having to travel down to Belgrave and jump on Puffing Billy or one of his mates for a similar experience.

Sure, the rural winter landscape with its dry sweeping paddocks and rows of skeletal fruit trees, didn’t make for as pretty scenery as around the hilly and lush year-round greenery in the Dandenong Ranges, but how great is it to be able to have experiences like this out of your own town when you live regionally?

Plus, in all my years of catching trains from Shepparton bound for Melbourne, I’ve never once headed north on the tracks out of town.

And everything looks different from the train line.

Usually familiar factories become foreign as you fight to identify them from their back ends.

We weren’t the only ones soaking up the history.

Spectators lined the platform at Shepparton Station and at every level crossing when we passed — armed with video and photography equipment, offering a smile and a wave — as the train snaked its way along the route to Grahamvale, Congupna, Tallygaroopna and back.

Powered by the circa-1940s locomotives at both ends, the train had seven stunning (even older) carriages — including a buffet carriage with snacks, drinks and souvenirs — and they were full.

It was one of several 50-minute shuttle trips across Saturday and Sunday, which was the perfect amount of time for a taste of yesteryear without cutting too far into our weekend.

Just enough time to imagine we were heading towards Hogwarts, but not enough time for any dementors to board the train and enter the doors of our private booths to suck our souls from our bodies, thankfully.

It was the first time in five years Steamrail Victoria had brought trains to Shepparton for a steam weekend, because of track works and the pandemic; hopefully we don’t have to wait five more for another.

But at least if we do, our rapidly advancing modern technology will shine an even brighter light on the historic beauty of these ageing track warriors.