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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 15h

On the "busbridge" at Melbourne airport. What a bloody awful nuisance. Burnie airport has no security. No security checks whatsoever. So the Dash-8 from Burnie lands and trundles over to a remote corner of MEL, where after some time a bus turns up and takes […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Busbridge at Melbourne airport for flights from security-less airports.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 23h

Now that's what I call a bus stop! Ensuite an' all! #transit #buses #publictransport

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

New rib vaulted ceiling of State Library station, there is an unstable equilibrium in there, not marked (of course the roof is not going to fall in, that is the point), it is a partial phase portrait around a saddle point. I don't suppose architects call it […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

New rib vaulted ceiling at State Library station Melbourne

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

Still standing up tall and proud. I hope the old-timer signallers who worked up there are too. Disused signal box at Footscray station. Looks like a fortress up close! Inside, the zenith of electro-mechanical engineering. What is to become of this and hundreds similar?

Disused signal box at Footscray station, Melbourne

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Really cool astronomy up above tonight - planet Venus cradled by the crescent moon! Get out there quick!

Venus cradled by the crescent moon, Canberra, Australia

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026

Leading truck wheel of legendary NSW steam locomotive 3801, currently on a visit to Canberra. See the conical profile? That is quite an interesting story. If the wheelset running on rails is shifted to the right, the effective curvature radius of the right […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026

"CHOCOLATE ORANGE'S" at the greengrocer! (Misplaced apostrophe and all.) So of course I absolutely had to buy some! Chocolate-brown-green skin and bright orange flesh. Very sweet and juicy for my dessert fruit, but I think it's BYO actual choccies. #foodie #fruit

Orange with green-brown skin and bright, sweet juicy flesh

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

and the dense morning fog wisps away to reveal landscapes and skyscapes of green and grey and gold and blue, and you never knew before that the plains, that such a vast flatness, across which you move so slowly, yet the speedo says 100 km/hr – is there […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Vast crops of canola under a blue sky as we cross the plains towards Barellan, NSW

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

A close consultation of @railmaps @railmaps.com.au online timetables indicates that you can still travel to Sydney from Spencer street via Tocumwal. Just take the Bendigo line to Echuca, stay the night, next morning – provided it's a Tues, Thurs, or Sat – take […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Hand operated crane in the yard at Narrandera station

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

Meanwhile, the engine of the down express would be turned on the turntable, ready for the up trip to Sydney in the morning. #railways #heritage

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

Now on the standard gauge, the rail motor would have taken about 4 hours, through a green and gold and grey dreamscape river gums, billabongs, canals, vast croplands, stopping at little townlets – Finlay, Jerilderie, Berrrigan, Widgewa, and more. You would […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

where you might even have time for a game of billiards before the rail motor departed for Narrandera #pubs #heritage

From inside, a window at the Terminus pub at Tocumwal reads 'BILLIARDS' in reverse

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

If you did travel by train from Melbourne to Sydney via Tocumwal before 1982, I assume the train from Spencer street might have taken about 4 hours to reach the end of the broad gauge at Tocumwal. You might arrive in time for lunch at the Refreshment Rooms on […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Terminus Hotel opposite the railway station at Tocumwal

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 23/08/2026

We followed the abandoned standard gauge line from Narrandera to Tocumwal. In case you get stuck on the vast timber trestle viaduct across the Murrumbidgee flood plain, with a train approaching, there is a thoughtfully placed timber safety refuge! Until 1982 […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Little safety refuge on the timber trestle viaduct that spans the entire Murrumbidgee flood plain, part of the abandoned Narrandera to Tocumwal branch line

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026

View from the rear balcony of our train as we cross the mighty Murray river – the racing waters almost doing a brimmer – at Tocumwal, Bangerang lands, on the 1895 centre-lift bridge. The bridge carried both trains and road traffic until 1987, so it is no. 4 in […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

View from the rear balcony of our train as we cross the mighty Murray river at Tocumwal, Bangerang lands, on the 1895 centre-lift bridge.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026

My ride for today - first class on the broad gauge! #trains #railways #heritage

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2026

Look! A three Pacific National loco looooong container train draws out of the Sun Rice factory on the triangle at Leeton, NSW, then onto the main! How lucky am I to happen on that! #trains #railways

3 Pacific National locomotives haul a loaded train out of the Sun Rice factory at Leeton, NSW

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

Many miles further along the winding highland ridge-top byway, another story is told in architecture: a tiny, lonely, humble church built of corrugated iron, long abandoned. Methodist or Presbyterian. For perhaps 60 years there was a white settler community […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

A tiny, lonely, humble church built of corrugated iron, long abandoned. Methodist or Presbyterian.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026

What an absolute beauty! A fine interwar Art Deco building on the main street of Oberon, a NSW country town of the uplands. Few visitors ever make it to Oberon; almost none at all since the highway at Victoria Pass collapsed, the town's only access from […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Art Deco building – Malachi Gilmore Hall, 1937, Oberon NSW

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026

How to keep a heritage railway station from falling down. This method works a treat! Place an iron stepladder on the platform, and hook a giant double-headed spanner from the top rung to the awning! What was such a huge spanner used for on the railways? […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

How to keep a heritage railway station from falling down. An iron stepladder on the platform, with a giant double-headed spanner hooked from the top rung to the awning! Carcoar railway station, NSW

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2026

"DRUGGISTS" in etched glass. Very old pharmacist shop window in a NSW country town. Now a shop selling vapes and cheap contraband cigarettes! #fensterfrietag #windowFriday

DRUGGISTS etched glass sign in very old shop window in NSW country town

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

Little sparkly fractal frosticles on the car window this morning! #fractals #fractalsinnature #mathematics

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

Oh no, not these irritating cursed coathangers in the motel room! Fiddle fumble fumble. They jiggle around and you can't release them then you drop all your clothes then you can't put the hangers back. Oh, complain, complain, that's all I ever do these days […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

That is a splendid iron rail bridge among the casuarinas and red gums, spanning the Lachlan and its floodplain at Cowra! The sleepers look pretty new from underneath... hmm I wonder... Couldn't really get closer to the river span, cos, you know. Snakes. I ran […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Iron rail bridge across the Lachlan at Cowra

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2026

Glowing striations to oyster pearl, on my walk home. I could have watched the scene forever, trying to understand, but it lasted about 30 seconds then it was all over. #nature #sunset

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

The moss cross. I wonder what kinds of humble wee microscopic critters make their way through that crossroads and along the mossy highways. These pavers in my courtyard were infested with weeds in the interstices, then the city rabbits burrowed under the fence […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026

Watching a documentary about urban wildlife in Prague. The Amazon Ants live underground and do nothing. Except when they do something. They crawl to the surface and march en masse over to the Tunnel Ants' nest, where they steal the Tunnel Ants' pupae. They […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

This 100-year old bus shelter in Canberra is still in use! There are a few of these survivors in the older suburbs, if you know where to look. Perhaps they are only 80 years young! #bus #transport

One of Caberra's 100-year old bus shelters

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 23/06/2026

Amazing tree on ANU campus, it is huge, of vast proportions, and has festooned itself decoratively with its own shredded bark. It is called Gully Gum. An elevated, layered wildlife city providing apartments, highways and food for a diverse population of critters! #thicktrunktuesday #trees

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2026

What is this? #fensterfreitag Window trimming lace at 9400 m over the south China sea, that's what. Little fractal ice crystals crocheted by nature in real time around the window next to my camp on an A350-900. Very cool to watch!

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2026

A doggie tale in a triptych, as told by our beloved blue cattle dog Edie. #dogs #dogsOfFedi

In which our blue cattle dog raids the kitchen tidy with a swinging-lid top, only to withdraw with the top stuck around her neck. She looks around sorrowfully.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2026

Balconies above railway stations no. 4. This triplet has been repainted since last year. The new colour scheme and pointing is kind of... rococo x arts&crafts? #railways

The triplet of balconies above Paddington station has been re-painted

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

The secret train to York eventually reaches York, where it becomes a secret train to Leeds. At lower right there is a really cool synchronized movie showing a man describing all the information in sign. Very good, but if he does not sign 'Leeds' how could […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Destination/times scrolling sign at York for the train to Burley Park that goes to Leeds, with a synchronized movie at lower right showing a man describing all the information in sign.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

I see the secret ghost train to York still leaves from Platform 0A, appropriately. I might hop on! Poppleton. *Honestly*. #trains #railways

Indicator board at Leeds station for train to York on the Harrogate line does not mention York.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

Viewed from the old canal, which after all has priority, the Bennerley viaduct seems triumphalist and marchy and win-at-all-costs. But look what happened. It has a Friends group. #railways

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

The high line lost out to the low line. Trains now sprint to Derby up the Erewash valley underneath the Bennerley viaduct. #railways

Train passing under the Bennerley viaduct

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

You can walk across the Bennerley viaduct. It's a goodly walk. #railways

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

The Bennerley viaduct is monstrous. Wrought iron, 1878. #railways

The vast, wrought iron Bennerley viaduct built 1878

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2026

Coffee in a nifty cup from trolley service on a TPE train. The coffee grounds are loose, and the dark patch in the lid is a built-in fine mesh sieve through which you sip the coffee directly so you don't get a mouthful of gritty grounds! Whoever heard of such a thing! #trains #coffee

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

I do like a grey and orange train with white polka dots. Very mid-century moderne. But which century would that be, I wonder? #trains

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 17/05/2026

Erm... humble is as humble does. At the other end of the trainishness scale, here is today's ride. #trains #eurostar

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 16/05/2026

Not for me the great railway journeys of the world! Orient Express, Indian Pacific – bah, humbug. For a delightful couple of days of trainage give me the humble, little old branch lines of Cornwall. Workers' lines, that served mines and now-silted and defunct […] [Original post on mathstodon.xyz]

Bere Ferrers station on the Tamar Valley line in Cornwall

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 12/05/2026

I love bagging a four seat table with panorama window to meself on British trains. Can't do that on Oz trains, mostly. This is GWR to Penzance ex Paddington. #trains #railways

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

Leaves on the line. Train is late! Will the Derwent valley railway ever see a train again? Watch this space. #trains #railways #autumn

Derwent Valley railway line covered in golden autumn leaves.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

Generously proportioned, you might say of the comfy hardwood bench seating at Hobart airport. Thoughtfully chiselled in bas relief, it holds derrières of all sizes. Very equitable. Splinters? Well... #wood #airport #bench

Hardwood bench seating at Hobart airport is chselled into shape so as to hold derrières of all sizes.

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Rowena Ball @rowena.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy · 02/05/2026

Tassie roadside sign of the week. Beware. Giant kangaroos will scoop up your Morris Minor and kick it into the lake, with you in it. Hmm. You'd think Tasmania would modernize its jalopy fleet. The all-new Morris Minor EV should do the trick! Bounce faster than the roos! #wildlife #roads #cars

Roadside sign in Tassie seems to show a giant kangaroo up-ending a Morris Minor

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