Mark Tronson is a retired Baptist minister who founded in 1982 the Sports and Leisure Ministry (under Heads of Churches), was the Australian Cricket Team chaplain for 17 years to 2001 and a receiptent of the Olympic Ministry Medal presented by Olympian of the Century Carl Lewis in 2009, an author of 24 books and a prolific writer.
In this series on Miracles, Mark Tronson is taking the reader of a journey of faith through his own ministry illustrating time and time again how the Lord's touch blossomed a situation where the only response was to offer praise to the Almighty.
Christian Ministries and Missions across the centuries can point to similar outcomes which has resulted not so much in new buildings but in both the intangible and tangible such as changed lives for Jesus or the excess of alcohol converted into children's shoes.
The ninth article in this series on miracles is how the opportunity to be the Footplate Padre came to Mark Tronson and the numerous expressions of ministry it has opened for him.
Mark Tronson was a Locomotive Engineman for ten years before he entered Morling Seminary to study for the Baptist ministry. From a child, he always wanted to become a train driver, he loved the railways from the time he was a youngster.
He tells the story of being about eight years old at the Mackay Railway Station when the Sunlander glided into the platform with its magnificent blue diesel locomotive and he was sold on the idea of becoming a train driver.
Over the years as a school boy he would collect train photographs and newspaper clippings of diesel locomotives. He travelled on the Sunlander a number of times as a child, and when the family relocated to Canberra it meant many more train trips, some to Queensland.
He can still see in his mind's eye looking from the carriage along the length of the Brisbane Limited and watching the huge diesel haul the train around the curves. To him it was magic.
At sixteen and nine months Mark Tronson left home in Canberra to start his life's career as a train driver at the Goulburn roundhouse in 1968. Goulburn depot at that time still ran steam engines and he learnt to fire steam locomotives and as promotion came his way he even fired the astonishingly powerful 38 class on the main south.
A year later he transferred to Port Kembla depot as his parents had bought a house at Sussex Inlet on the NSW south coast and there Mark Tronson progressed to Acting Driver having come top at the Acting Driver's School. He was offered a promotion to driver on the Sydney electrics or a transfer to Yerrongapilly in South Brisbane (NSW deopt) as Acting Driver. He took the first and then sought 10 months leave without pay for his first year at Seminary. That was 1977, the year he and Delma married.
At the end of that first year of studying theology, Mark Tronson went back to the railways for four months between academic years and finally resigned in 1978 when resuming his second year at seminary. The love of the railways never left him and he yearned for it, but he put his calling to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in first place.
In 1984 the Lord honoured his love of the railways as by that time he'd already written two highly successful books on "field hockey" and initiated a series of railway books culminating in a total of 16 by the late 90's. These were books of train driver's anecdotes from all over Australia and with many photographs. They were in a niche market and good sellers.
Some 40 years after first starting on the railways (1968) Dave Moyle rang him in 2008 from Victoria. Dave Moyle was the editor of the very popular On Track railway e-magazine and had seen a copy of a truckies magazine with the Truckies Padre monthly article.
Dave Moyle had read a couple of Mark Tronson's railway books, knew he was a Baptist minister and the Australian cricket team chaplain and asked Mark to become the Footplate Padre for the On Track railway e-magazine. He jumped at the invitation.
The Footplate Padre monthly article by Mark Tronson is now published in the On Track railway e-magazine, Christian Today Australia and then copied to other Christian newspapers and publications, and in the Well-Being Australia monthly newsletter.
It would be one of the most read columns in any niche market anywhere and he along with Dave Moyle receives voluminous e-correspondence from happy readers, many telling of their own experiences, some seeking wisdom and others wanting the Salvation that Jesus Christ offers every person.
Over these past few years Mark Tronson has been invited to many men's breakfasts and dinners to speak as the Footplate Padre where he shows a short video of a huge 38 class roaring along at top speed. It is thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The miracle of the Footplate Padre monthly article ministry is that it ever happened at all, other than a series of circumstances by Dave Moyle and then knowing who to call and that he actually made contact with Mark Tronson. It all happened at once, the Lord's timing was perfect and the outcome has been a miracle that has been and continues to be a blessing for many.