Friday, 18 January 2000, 4:32pm Kingston  

14 February brings a glint to the eye, and not just the young eye.

Valentine's Day is not limited to the young and hopeful.

Many of the eyes we checked out had glinted at each other for decades. To talk of months and years is irrelevant though, the glint lends a timeless quality to people that steals away the mundane things others call differences.

Our Valentine's Day passengers wanted good food, fine wine and each other, and they got it.

David and his team once again enchanted the BSR's kitchen into creating entrees of Californian caesar salad or prawns served with fettuccini and chilli garlic cream.

Not satisfied with this, they conjured up main courses of roast rib eye beef with horse radish hollandaise sauce or supreme of chicken and manif ketchup jus with caramelised spring onions.

A final wave of the wand materialised deserts of freshly-baked apple strudel and ice cream or individual pavlovas.

An open bottle of champagne and a long-stemmed rose graced each table, while the sunset playing on the hills overlooking the Molonglo Gorge was just one changing scene framed by the carriage windows.

Fresh-laundered table linen graced by glasses, cutlery and crockery had transformed our carriages into an exclusive, limited booking restaurant served by scurrying wine and beverage waiters and that unique person, the Runner.

The Runner, whose running trays of food the length of the moving train ensures that the served meal is only a minute away from the sizzling stove.

Half lighting replaced the fading day, for another reason than conserving battery power. As the evening wore on, the glint became stronger.

Bob Hall and his partner, Kerrie, officially formalised our Society's worst-kept secret during the evening, while being waited on rather than being the waiter. The glint was there, and so was the teasing.

The glint and teasing go together, and our crew were not stinting on applying the latter (he looks a bit of a wild one. If he gives any trouble, Ma'am, just let me know). That line was used on those wildly hoping to become a pair to those who had been a firm couple for decades - to an identical effect.

Our train escaped Canberra's platform immediately before the evening Xplorer arrived from Sydney.

I know which passengers most enjoyed their journey. You looked for who had the glint.

Monday, 14 February 2000, 6:55am Kingston  

The Australian Railway Historical Society (ACT Division) was notified this morning that its request for exclusive use of the above Internet domain name (read web address!) has been approved.

The new name can be used immediately, and has been set up to point to our existing website.

While both the old and new addresses will work for as long as is required, members are encouraged to update their bookmarks immediately with the new address.

This can be done by clicking on the following link, bookmarking the page that appears, then deleting the old bookmark. See www.arhsact.org.au.

When telling others about our website, please use the new address.

Brochures, magazines and other organs of the Society will be changed when re-printing occurs.

At this time, there is no change to the Society's e-mail address, which remains arhsact@arhsact.org.au.

Please note, as member Max Fish is always quick to point out, the Manchester engineers who designed and built locomotive 1210 did not make allowance for World Wide Web access.

E-messages to and from the footplate of 1210 are still not possible. The Society is giving due attention to this problem.