Note: Picton and Bargo are towns on the Southern rail line in Australia, and ‘Bushells’ is a brand name of tea used by Australians over many decades.
During the early 1950’s, road competition between rail and freight was fierce. Strict instructions were given to crews working interstate freight trains that they were to run exactly to the timetable. Under no circumstances was the train to be stopped out of course.
It was hot and sweaty work on steam engines in the summer months and crews were often required to work at least eight hours without a meal break. Tea breaks were few and far between.
One particular crew working south had been on duty for quite a number of hours without a break. A plan was put into action to run up excess time in order that they might stop and make a billy of tea. As there were no tea-making facilities on the engine, the train would have to be stopped out of course, strictly forbidden and punishable.
Picton was the designated spot.
The Fireman flew down off the engine with billy in hand to fill it with hot water as the Driver squared the time up with the Signalman. No lost time was debited to the train. The Driver quenched his thirst straight from the billy as he pulled back on the throttle and the train regained momentum.
Travelling under caution signal through Bargo a Locomotive Inspector flagged them down and boarded the engine. His keen eye viewed the billy of tea on the warming plate above the fire box. This was his big chance to report and punish a breach of regulations. “Who made the tea?” He demanded.
There was no answer. “Who made the tea?” He demanded again, louder.
The Driver glanced out the window pretending not to hear the question. The young Fireman asked, “Why? Would you like some?”
“No,” he barked, “I want to know who made it!”
There was dead silence. They knew they had been caught out. It wasn’t tea brewing, it was trouble.
“Who made the tea?” He demanded once more in a voice of authority.
The Fireman stood in guilty silence.
The Driver drew three deep breaths, casually turned to the Locomotive Inspector and quietly remarked, “I guess it was Bushells that made the tea.”
The one who made tea was the real source of their problems and the Lord said He knows the real source of our problems, too. ‘Your first father sinned,’ He said, Isaiah 43:27. And later, ‘all have sinned.’ (Romans 3:23)
Unlike the Locomotive Inspector, the Lord does not come to report and punish. He comes to heal and recover. ‘I, even I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.’ Isaiah 43:25.
‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,’ Romans 8:1.
Elizabeth Price