Wow, that's really amazing Hiyo! Sadly I never was given that opportunity though, but the closest I had to such an experience was a next-door neighbour who was a driver for Westrail at the time invited me into the cab of an ADK/ADB class DMU (the ones that now run in Auckland, New Zealand), while running a suburban service on the Armadale line between Gosnells and Sherwood (the last station before Armadale), in early 1990 - for a ten-year old it was awesome stuff. :3
I've also had a cab ride in 1994 in the Australind ADP/ADQ class railcars as well on the South-West mainline between Keysbrook and Armadale, which was another rail experience I'll never forget (sadly I haven't had any cab rides in locomotives though, let alone driven one).
Either way, the Perth suburban rail system has been a part of my life since I can remember - growing up only my father had a driver's license and car and thus as he was at work five days a week, if my mother needed to get anywhere, we had to rely on public transport, usually a bus, but, particularly from when I was about three or four my family moved near a railway and thus we started catching the train - something that I've continued to do ever since.
Thus I saw the many massive changes to Perth's rail network over the last three decades - but the pre-electrification era of the early to mid 1980s is the one I feel most fondly for - back when you could catch a train in Perth that was often hauled by a growling (and aging) Metropolitan-Vickers X class, complete with characteristic oil slick down the side and Aboriginal name plate, with a train consisting of elderly AY/AYB/AYE/AYF class wooden bodied coaches with manual doors (that usually didn't stay closed while the train was in motion!), all painted in Westrail orange and blue, with aged padded blue and cream vinyl seats and route maps that were ten years out of date (they still showed services to Byford which finished in the mid 1970s!), still with steel luggage racks above the seats (making them look like services went further than just twenty-something kilometres out of the city!), and still manned by a guard dressed in drab brown uniform who would cheerfully dispense your ticket on an old fashioned paper roll dispenser (with the ticket stenciled 'W.A.G.R' on it - even the tickets hadn't been updated to the 'Westrail' name!).
And of course, the experience of the antique AY stock with their ancient underframes and bogies that dated from the 1890s riding roughly at speed as the throaty Crossly-engined loco hustled on to it's destination. It's an experience that I'll never forget, and feel nostalgic for, especially looking at how thoroughly things have changed. Electrification changed the face of the Perth suburban system so thoroughly, little remains of my memories from the early to mid 1980s now sadly.
I've also had a cab ride in 1994 in the Australind ADP/ADQ class railcars as well on the South-West mainline between Keysbrook and Armadale, which was another rail experience I'll never forget (sadly I haven't had any cab rides in locomotives though, let alone driven one).
Either way, the Perth suburban rail system has been a part of my life since I can remember - growing up only my father had a driver's license and car and thus as he was at work five days a week, if my mother needed to get anywhere, we had to rely on public transport, usually a bus, but, particularly from when I was about three or four my family moved near a railway and thus we started catching the train - something that I've continued to do ever since.
Thus I saw the many massive changes to Perth's rail network over the last three decades - but the pre-electrification era of the early to mid 1980s is the one I feel most fondly for - back when you could catch a train in Perth that was often hauled by a growling (and aging) Metropolitan-Vickers X class, complete with characteristic oil slick down the side and Aboriginal name plate, with a train consisting of elderly AY/AYB/AYE/AYF class wooden bodied coaches with manual doors (that usually didn't stay closed while the train was in motion!), all painted in Westrail orange and blue, with aged padded blue and cream vinyl seats and route maps that were ten years out of date (they still showed services to Byford which finished in the mid 1970s!), still with steel luggage racks above the seats (making them look like services went further than just twenty-something kilometres out of the city!), and still manned by a guard dressed in drab brown uniform who would cheerfully dispense your ticket on an old fashioned paper roll dispenser (with the ticket stenciled 'W.A.G.R' on it - even the tickets hadn't been updated to the 'Westrail' name!).
And of course, the experience of the antique AY stock with their ancient underframes and bogies that dated from the 1890s riding roughly at speed as the throaty Crossly-engined loco hustled on to it's destination. It's an experience that I'll never forget, and feel nostalgic for, especially looking at how thoroughly things have changed. Electrification changed the face of the Perth suburban system so thoroughly, little remains of my memories from the early to mid 1980s now sadly.
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