What a repeater station is, and what we did with one
The line that joined the continent needed somewhere to catch its breath every few hundred kilometres. This was one of those places, and most of it is still here.
What came out from under the floor
Nobody expected the crate. Forty-odd glass insulators, most of them unbroken, packed in straw under the boards at the back of the operating room.
They set the whole look of the place. The wire above the tables is the real thing, sagging exactly as much as it should, and it does the job that a hundred framed photographs would have done badly.
The grill was the only serious build. Getting a flue through a station roof of that age meant a structural engineer, two permits and most of one dry season.
Five staff
Grill, bar and floor, all of them locals.
Fifty seats
Dining end and card floor together, and no more.
Forty insulators
Found in a crate, now hanging over the tables.
Three things people ask on the tour
- Is the wire actually old?
- The run above the tables is, and so are the insulators. The bracketry holding it up is entirely new and entirely boring.
- Why keep the hourly signal?
- Because the room works better with it. Seats change over, nobody camps, and people who came in alone end up at a table.
- Do you do tours?
- Not formally, but ask at the desk on a quiet Wednesday and somebody will walk you round.