The tinkle of a bell was enough to create a frenzy of activity at Mt Victoria station.
It was back in the 1940s and 50s and the bell was the signal that a train had left Blackheath. In a few minutes the Mt Vic refreshment rooms would be inundated with dozens of hungry patrons.
There were no dining cars on trains in those days, so it was all hands on deck as the cook, kitchenmaids, bar staff and waitresses braced themselves for the sudden influx.
"The dining room seated 51 people and we had 25 minutes to serve them," recalled former employee, Doris Lindsey.
Mrs Lindsey and her sister, Shirley Merrick, were on hand last week to see their old workplace reopened after a major renovation.
Engineers, architects, specialist builders and heritage consultants have returned the 102-year-old room to its former glory, restoring the fireplace, polishing timber floorboards polished and repairing stained glass windows.
Rob Mason, chief executive of NSW TrainLink, said many artefacts were discovered during the renovation.
"Through repairing the floors, we found an old whisky bottle from the bar, pendant lights and a cup from the Rail Refreshment Room branded RRR," he said.
The room, with its high ceiling and stained glass windows, looked nothing like it did in its heyday, but it still stirred many memories for the former tea ladies who worked there.
"We scrubbed this floor on our hands and knees," Mrs Merrick said. "Later we got mops but in the early days it was on our knees."
Mrs Merrick (then Miss Thompson) started work at Mt Victoria in 1945 as a 15-year-old.
"I had a break for a few months when I got married but otherwise I worked there until it closed [in the late 1950s]," she said. "It was good but it was busy - flat out all the time."
She recalled trains full of soldiers passing through and others with Japanese POWs being taken to the Central West, presumably to camp in Cowra.
"We weren't allowed out on the platform when they were coming through but we packed their lunches," she said.
Her sister, Doris, remembered the migrant trains which brought post-World War II arrivals.
"There was a girl who came from Holland and she said 'we were told to give away all our warm clothes'. And she came through here in the middle of winter!"
Mrs Merrick said she and Doris did "everything" in the refreshment rooms, from serving meals and teas to cleaning, washing up, working in the bar and polishing.
The dining room was a classy establishment, with white linen tablecloths and napkins and silver cutlery. "And if you put silver on the table without polishing, you were in trouble," Mrs Lindsey said.
When a train was due, the cook would have vegetables already laid out on smaller plates and the waitresses would take the orders "for roast meat, or steak and kidney and fish on Friday", Mrs Lindsey said. "And when we finished, we had to polish the silver. Every day, we had to polish the silver."
After the refreshment room closed down, the building was used by railway carpenters and plumbers. In the 1980s it hosted ballroom dancing. It will now be used for training NSW TrainLink employees from the Central West.
