(Train) Ticket to Ride

The Situation: I am waiting for the car brakes to be repaired, I would like a bit of lunch and I have two hours to kill.

The Weather: Fine and mild, no indication of rain.

My Location: At the garage, adjacent to the Waikanae railway station.

Solution: Take a train ride to Param, have a bit eat the Coastlands Shopping Centre and return back to Waikanae just in time to collect the car from the garage. Dear Reader, please come along with me. It's only a 10-minute ride.

I arrive at the station, take a seat in the shade. The next train is due to depart in 10 minutes. On the next bench, an elderly lady, with a hat and a shopping pram. Grocery shopping done. Two seats away, a fellow, pale white skin, British by accent. With his three little kids and large double pram. Tobie can walk and apparently talk, but still sucks on his dummy. Has cute toy sunglasses and a 'bro' cap. Probably two to three years old. His sister Miriam seems about four. The third kid is also in the four-to-five year age-group. They're all quite active. That's the full complement waiting for the ride.

First things first. The alarm at the level-crossing starts up like a bat out of the inferno. A southbound goods train is thundering down the straight towards the Waikanae bend, just beyond the garage. The elderly lady clutches her shopping pram and hat.Tobie's Dad clutches at his team of youngsters, very aware that Tobie might land up on the tracks. I get the camera to spring into action.

Waikanae station, looking Northwards

The DFT7092 goods train approaches, ready to slow down for the Waikanae bend.

Millimetres from the platform edge, the 7092 thunders by, dragging thirty-odd goods trucks 

Less than two minutes later, the level-crossing shrieks once more, this time from the southern side. It must be our ride! No... Another freight trundler, this one heading Northwards.

The 9325 approaches the level-crossing, and accelerates for the northwards straight

The trucks thunder through the station at high speed.

Moments later, its our turn, as we board the 11:30, which is headed for Wellington terminus, just on an hour away.

I have a choice of seats in the empty carriage. The one with the low deck for wheel-chairs, push-carts and the like. Tobie's dad makes use of the low deck to park his wide two-berth pram. Young Tobie proves to be a handful in the few short minutes while we wait for take-off.

"Tobie, please sit down; Tobie, please don't hang on that rail."
Tobie seems to have a hearing problem. Miriam is on top of Tobie.
"Miriam, leave Tobie alone, Tobie, please sit down... NOW."
The NOW exclamation seems to help a bit. Momentarily.
Tobie, obviously a seasoned train passenger, has been staring at the Metlink Railway Network Map above the exit door, much like the Underground Map on the tubes.
The map has three lines from Wellington: the Masterton line, the Johnsonville line and ours, The Kapiti line.

"Daddy, I want to go on the red train," Tobie pleads.
"We are on the Kapiti line, the green one, my boy."
"But I like the red one. I want to go on the red train!" Tobie lets rip with a series of shrill shrieks, ending up with terrible sobbing, "I want the red one, not the green one. I want the red one!"

"Tobie, leave you eyes alone. Stop rubbing your eyes like that.."

I am pleased that I am not Tobie's Dad...

"Tobie, the train is going to go now. You need to sit down, else you will fall!"
"But I want to fall off the train. I want to fall off!"
"Tobie, please sit down. I don't want you to fall off..."
"Why?"

The train starts moving off. I look at the very few fellow passengers. They are all sitting sullen-faced,  glum and with lives that suck, as if condemned to perpetual confinement in a train carriage. I wonder why they all look so unhappy..

"Daddy, why won't the window go down. I can't get the window to go down."
"Only the blue ones can go down, and we cannot reach them. Now, sit down, Tobie, and I mean NOW!"