SM Did Not Board The Train in Melbourne May Not Have Boarded At All

SM Did Not Board the Train In Melbourne
& May Not Have Boarded At All.

The Name Of The Train..

To be correct there wasn't one steam train, there would have been 3, two (double headed) A2 Class engines drawing 'The Overland' train up from Melbourne on through Geelong to Ballarat, Ararat, Stawell, Horsham, Dimboola, Nhil then Serviceton. A town that once marked the old border between Victoria and South Australia with a station being, wrongly, built there. There had been a surveyors error which eventually led to Serviceton being more properly placed within the State of Victoria by some 3.6 klm. 

The significance of the local was that the engines were then changed over from the double headed S class Of Vicrail to the SAR 500 Class single engine.

The image on the left shows a 'double headed' A2 Engine arrangement drawing a Royal Mail train out of Spencer Street Station in Melbourne

The video clip below shows a double headed steam train in action though not of the precise type, these engines being 'R Class.

     

The point in showing you these first images is really an 'immersion' exercise, what you see here illustrates the actual conditions, just what it was like for travellers on steam trains in those days. Imagine boarding your train in the late evening in Melbourne, the two engines billowing smoke and steam as they drew out of Spencer Street.

And they continued to do that for close to 9 hours all the way to Bordertown.

The Journey From Bordertown

From Bordertown, the train drawn by the 500 series SAR engine would have headed towards Adelaide via Murray Bridge on the flat with gradients to encounter approaching Nairne in the Adelaide Hills and then down to Adelaide. Railway Station arriving at around 9.15 a.m. if it was on time.

In 1948 the full journey would have been around 12.5 hours in duration with close to 9 of those hours being in Victoria on the run to Serviceton/Bordertown.

The image on the left shows a 500 series engine in the Adelaide Hills, again note the huge smoke clouds and some steam coming from the engine, dressed in its working clothes.

The train that drew the Overland looked somewhat smarter but the emissions were the same.

And The Point Is?

Not sure how many can recall steam train journeys in their early life. I certainly can. In the mid 50s I clearly remember the train from Holyhead to Chester at night. It was cold and the ventilation windows in the carriage let in vast amounts of smoke and steam. It got into your hair, it got into your skin and it got into your clothes. Quite some odour and it stayed with you until you and your clothes had been thoroughly cleaned.

Legend tells us that SM arrived at the station from either Melbourne, Port Augusta or Sydney. Whichever the case the engines used to draw the trains on which he travelled would have spewed forth thick, dark and sooty smoke which would have contaminated him and his clothes.

It is thought that he either went to the public baths or could have taken a shower in the Railway Station bathing rooms. That would have addressed the sooty deposits in his hair and on his skin, leaving his clothing. When he was found he was  wearing a clean shirt and his appearance was of a well dressed man. The clothing found in his suitcase was also clean or at least no mention was made of it being otherwise, certainly from the images we have they showed no sign of soiling in any way.

Back to his taking a shower, do you think that, having cleaned up and showered he would once again don the grimy and sooty clothing from his overnight journey or would he change into clean clothes? He was apparently fastidious to all accounts and I think it highly unlikely that he would not have changed into clean attire, very much the way he appeared when found on Somerton Beach. The problem with this scenario is, where are the soiled clothes? None reported and yet they really should have been there.

The foregoing and the questions raised below all add up to a very reasonable suspicion that our man did not travel from Melbourne and may be did not travel on the train that day at all.

More Questions..

Your answers and ideas are invited:

1. Adelaide being a very busy station there would no doubt be lots of luggage left in custody. You would also think that there would be a fair amount of unclaimed luggage. Was it practice for luggage room attendants to always report unclaimed luggage? Remember, until the suitcase was 'found' there was nothing at all to link the man to Adelaide Railway Station. So, how come the luggage room attendants contacted the Police some 6 or 7 weeks after the man's body was found? What would have prompted them to do that?

Photo of original Left Luggage Ticket for SM's suitcase. 

Not time stamped on this which conflicts with Ralph Craig's statement that '..it was left after 11 a.m. because it was stamped on the ticket.'

2. In the suitcase was found some square envelopes and some pre paid letter cards together with some air mail stickers. The man had apparently been keeping in touch with someone by mail. Curiously, there was no address book found in his belongings. Why would that be?

3. On every major leg of a train journey in those days, there would be a ticket inspector, these men would travel through trains and clip every passengers ticket. This applies whether the man came from Sydney, Melbourne or Port Augusta. Yet, there is no record of the Police ever having interviewed or made an effort to find the ticket inspectors for those trains on that night. The information would have been available and there would have been a fair chance that our man would have been remembered. Why was that simple, basic Police enquiry not made?

An Interesting Coincidence

That very same week, Adelaide was graced with the presence of a number of visiting International dignatories of the military kind. All had gathered to visit locations including weapons research establishments at Salisbury and Woomera.

Amongst these men was a civilian scientist and Senior Scientific Advisor, Ministry of Defence. Sir Henry Tizard. The same man that contributed greatly to the development of Radar and the Whittle Jet engine.

During the same time period, these 3
high ranking Army Officers were also in and around Adelaide.