Yahgunyah Railway Museum, Victoria
One of the Well-Being Australia ministries exercised by Dr Mark Tronson is as the Footplate Padre.
This short video is from up-front of a railway convertible truck with types and railway wheels as the job is done after some years of disuse of cleaning up the once tourist line between Rutherglen and Lilliput in Victoria's north.
I wrote my first railway book 'Driving Trains - The Australian Way” in 1984 and these followed by a further 15 books on train driver's anecdotes with the 16th published in 1996.
These books not only told railway stories by train drivers, they had a Christian message in one of the stories in each book, and the funding went into the sport ministry. When I undertook the sport ministry ATO audit in 1997 for the Sports and Leisure Ministry, these monies were documented and never claimed back or deemed as tax deductions.
In our ministry newsletter I wrote a monthly Footplate Padre feature which were often published elsewhere and in 1999 the late Dave Moyle the railway magazine 'On Track' editor, invited me to write a monthly Footplate Padre article. Dave Moyle is the driver.
Enjoy the video
Rutherglen and Lilliput
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at