Robert Donovan has been running the rails for a lifetime.
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The Dapto resident started working on the railways back in 1959 and only just clocked off for the last time on August 20.
When he started out trains on the South Coast line were still powered by steam, and fed with coal.
From there diesel trains were introduced, before most of the line was electrified.
In fact Mr Donovan, 74, took charge of the first electric train to Kiama when that section of the line was electrified in 2001.
It was his father that instilled in Mr Donovan a love of trains.
“My dad’s family was all railways and I loved steam so I followed in his footsteps,” Mr Donovan said.
“I used to ride around on the steam engine footplate with my dad and he taught me everything so I didn’t have much trouble when I joined the railways because I had the skills my dad taught me.”
Mr Donovan started out as an engineman, where the job included cleaning the coal and grime off the engines, and then took the coal-shoveling job of a fireman before eventually getting to sit in the driver’s seat.
He got his break on steam engines in Sydney but then another love called him back to the Illawarra and the South Coast line.
“I wanted to come back to Wollongong because I met a girl so I transferred back as a diesel driver and then I went down to Port Kembla there for two years and then have been here 43 years and haven’t moved,” he said.
In his 57 years in the railways, one of his favourite memories actually comes a time when he was a child.
“The biggest thrill was when I saw my dad driving a steam engine and following the Queen’s train when she came out in the 1950s,” Mr Donovan said.
“I said to myself ‘I want to be a steam driver’.”
He’s still got a love of steam – despite retiring he still plans on taking charge of the Kiama picnic train from time to time and will likely be in the driver’s cabin when an old steam train takes to the rail network for special occasions.
“I’m told I’m the number one steam driver in the state still allowed to drive steam in the railway network,” he said.
“That what I’m going to do off and on now while my health hangs in.”
For him, steam wins out over the modern computer systems in today’s trains.
“I’ve seen big changes but the biggest ones have been in the last 10 years,” he said.
“All this computer stuff – I’m hands on. I’m not into laptops and digital - I think I’ll leave that for the young blokes.
“It’s getting ahead of me and I just can’t get my head around it.”