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| Life on the Rails
Each fortnight, a driver, paymaster and guard would set out for a circuit of metropolitan or country locations and fettlers' camps, stopping along the permanent way to dispense wages to over 5,000 employees. Cash supplies were replenished in large towns where the New South Wales Government Railways had an arrangement with local banks. Pay Bus staff were accommodated on overnight stops at railway barracks and local hotels.
Alan Brown was a Pay Bus driver (first fleet) between 1957 and 1960. Every second Monday, Alan and his guard left Clyde to travel to Lidcombe and collect the paymaster and cash for distribution between Campbelltown and Goulburn. After an overnight stop in Goulburn they would depart on Tuesday morning for a return trip to Cooma, depart on Wednesday morning for Cootamundra, then on to Junee on Thursday. The following day they would travel from Junee to Narrandera where a rail motor took the paymaster to Tocumwal, Cootamundra, Cowra, and Blayney. The Pay Bus would proceed to Bathurst where the paymaster caught a passenger service home, terminating at Clyde on Saturday. Sunday was Alan's day off and he would return to his job as a fitter and turner at Eveleigh Workshops for the next week before resuming his Pay Bus work the following week.
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| Philip Lee drove a Pay Bus (second fleet) between 1982 and 1986, including the last Pay Bus run in April 1986. He loved being paid for a job he enjoyed doing, despite the hard uncomfortable ride and the loud noise of the engine. He worked a 14 day roster, spending every alternate week on the country runs, returning to do the metropolitan runs the following week. Philip also remembers that Pay Bus staff were popular when they arrived in country towns because they brought employees' wages. They were often asked to join the locals for drinks at the pub!
Matthew Dunn, Pay Bus guard, travelled out as far as Broken Hill between 1987 to 1988. According to Matthew, the ride was so rough that if you had tooth fillings at the start of the trip you wouldn't by the end!
Historian Stephen Halgren records that crews on the Pay Buses could elect to alternate between their administrative and trade jobs and Pay Bus runs. Part of the attraction was the opportunity to travel and be out on the tracks - and perhaps the opportunity to save a little extra cash from the travel allowance which covered accommodation and meals.
Former auditor and relief paymaster Len Freeman was on call seven days a week and would often be sent out to replace a sick or absent paymaster at short notice. Pay week would alternate between the metropolitan area and country NSW and the rosters and routes for paymasters would vary as an internal form of fraud control. According to Len, life as a paymaster had its own stress because if the payments made could not be reconciled against the cash amounts, the shortfall had to be paid by the paymaster from his own pocket
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Former Pay Bus driver Philip Lee
Former Pay Bus guard Matthew Dunn
with son Adam
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