![Tram Trial: A Mike Baird-themed tram in Newcastle. Picture: Kevin Lewis. Tram Trial: A Mike Baird-themed tram in Newcastle. Picture: Kevin Lewis.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3AijacentBN9GedHCvcASxG/703bf635-10ce-4464-a0e0-0b4b6d6b08cc.jpg/r0_0_4470_4399_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A trial run of a new light rail system was held in Newcastle recently.
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Kevin Lewis, of Wollombi, was there to capture the event.
“I was surprised the Herald wasn’t there,” Kevin told Topics.
“Not to worry, I had my trusty old 8mm camera with me and got some footage.
“With modern technology, I managed to extract a photo and sharpen some of the faces onboard.”
Kevin dubbed it the “Baird gravy train to nowhere”.
He said it reminded him of the “Bronte bogey hole train that goes around and around in circles”.
Funnily enough, Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian was driving the tram.
Premier Mike Baird appeared to be the train itself, in the style of Thomas the Tank Engine.
We couldn’t quite make out all the passengers, so Kevin filled us in.
Former premier Nick Greiner was in the front row, next to Paterson MP Bob Baldwin.
In the next row was former premier Barry O’Farrell and former Nationals leader Andrew Stoner.
A smiling Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery was in the back, following her recent call to extend the light rail proposal from inner city Newcastle to the suburbs.
Kevin observed that Gladys “was not looking too happy”.
“She nearly wiped out a bike rider,” he said.
“I heard her yelling at him to get back on the Fernleigh Track and put a bloody helmet on.”
Kevin couldn’t help but notice that Mike Baird was looking a tad scared at what lay ahead.
Kevin said the premier was questioned about the tram’s open-air nature.
The premier responded with a smile, saying: “No worries mate, we will be handing out umbrellas”.
“Just pick them up at one end and drop them off at the other,” he said.
“We’re not going to cut costs just because it’s Newie, mate.”
Thank goodness for that.
Old Times
That great London-based bastion of newspapers, The Times, once had an office in Newcastle.
So said Vonni Morrow, of Maitland, during a recent chat with Topics.
Vonni said she worked for The Times around 1966 at an office in Bolton Street, which was opposite the Newcastle Herald’s former headquarters.
![Rupert Murdoch on the front page of The Times newspaper. Rupert Murdoch on the front page of The Times newspaper.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3AijacentBN9GedHCvcASxG/eef071cc-1910-4097-8dff-403e44de92c8.jpg/r107_0_2288_1803_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
According to Vonni, it was the Australasian office of The Times.
“Our brief was to prepare ads,” she said.
She said it was based at the office of publishing agents Bernard Robinson and his wife Dorothy.
Lost Wallets
Topics reported recently that Valentine’s Annika Coulson found a wallet on Stockton Beach.
She tracked down the owner in Queensland and posted the wallet back to him.
![Would you believe that not everyone returns a lost wallet.
Would you believe that not everyone returns a lost wallet.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3AijacentBN9GedHCvcASxG/2e020387-315a-4bc2-8134-4fd1658fa067.jpg/r74_15_966_747_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Herald also reported recently that three Aberdeen boys were rewarded for their honesty after handing in a wallet containing $700.
We had heard that if you lose your wallet, there’s a one in two chance the finder won’t return it.
But it appears there’s a few variations on the theme. A reader told us that a workmate found a wallet and took the $200 cash.
“He got his wife to contact the wallet’s owner to say she found the wallet, but nothing was in it apart from identification.
“The owner came and collected the wallet and gave her a $50 dollar reward.
“There sure are some grubs in this world.”