mysteryhike

It looks to me like part of that old tradition of the office picnic, which I remember as a child. Though the ones I remember usually involved some sort of organised sport (like a cricket match), which required more open ground. Aha, I was right. The mystery hike has been office organised (F.J Palmer & Sons Pty Ltd, and the 'sport' is the mystery hike.... )

I love it that there is only one car in the middle. It looks like they all squeezed in.

WOW!

Instead of "Taken circa 1900" perhaps this could be changed to 10 July 1932 in line with what it states on the Powerhouse's own website. Cheers.

You are invited to add this, and any other unusual rail shots that you have, to the All Aboard!-Trains Real and Surreal Group!! :-)

www.flickr.com/groups/all-aboard/

the mystery of the mystery hike

from the powerhouse website

Description
Glass negative, quarter plate, Palmer's Mystery Hike No. 2, Tom Lennon, Sydney, Australia, 10 July 1932

In 1932 five mystery hikes around Sydney were organised by the railways, with the department store F.J. Palmer and Sons as the commercial sponsor. Hikers purchased a two-shilling train ticket and joined a train from Central Station to a mystery destination. The hikes, held on Sundays, were enormously popular. The third Mystery Hike from Cowan Station to the Hawkesbury River on 24 July 1932 used 12 trains to carry almost 8,000 participants.

Mystery Hike No. 2 was from Valley Heights in the lower Blue Mountains to Penrith on 10 July 1932. Four trains conveyed approximately 2,000 hikers. This photo shows a group of hikers at Central Railway Station next to locomotive 3352 which bears a sign 'Palmers Mystery Express'. (References: Melissa Harper. The Ways of the bushwalker: on foot in Australia. Sydney, UNSW Press, 2007 pp. 179-192 and Canberra Times, 11 July 1932 p.3]
Marks
This negative was stored in a box inscribed in pencil 'PALMERS HIKE / NO2 Sunday 10th July 32'.

such a great idea!