WHEN a teenage Raymond Armstrong started work in the rail yards at Bendigo Station counting wagons in September 1976, never did he imagine that half a century later he would still be a key part of Victoria’s rail network.
Currently working at the new train depot at Shepparton, Raymond – or ‘Raydar’ as he’s known to friends, family and colleagues – got his chance to start working on the railways through a family friend named David Nelson, who was a foreman at Bendigo.
Born and bred on the Murray River at Echuca, Raymond jumped at the opportunity to leave school and start earning a salary.
It’s a career that has spanned an era of massive transformation for the state’s rail network.
Raymond’s journey has taken him from Bendigo, where he graduated from taking wagon numbers to becoming a station assistant, a yard assistant and then a shunter, to Donald where he drove “massive” wheat trains across the Wimmera and Mallee regions and worked as a guard.
In the 1990s, Raymond spent 15 months working at the South Dynon depot on the outskirts of Melbourne’s CBD before taking his skills to driving trains around suburban Melbourne for two decades.
He also helped train new drivers during that period before returning to V/Line in 2007 where he has split his time between Bendigo, Southern Cross and is now working at Shepparton’s new train depot.
Not only is he still driving trains, importantly, Raymond is passing on his knowledge and expertise of the expansive regional rail network to the next generation of V/Line drivers as a Practical Driver Trainer, and he has no plans on slowing down any time soon.
“I’m proud to have worked on Victoria’s railways for the past 50 years – it’s a milestone few people achieve,” he said. “I’ve seen so many changes to the industry over the past five decades and worked with some great colleagues right across the state.”
“Driving for V/Line you never take for granted experiencing from the cab the stunning, changing landscapes from suburban Melbourne to the countryside of regional Victoria.
“It’s a fantastic and rewarding job with heaps of opportunities and I certainly would recommend it to anyone interested in becoming a train driver.”
