{"id":135747,"date":"2024-10-02T15:49:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T05:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=135747"},"modified":"2024-10-02T15:49:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T05:49:19","slug":"its-been-pretty-good-60-years-with-the-railways-and-mervs-still-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=135747","title":{"rendered":"‘It\u2019s been pretty good’: 60 years with the railways and Merv’s still counting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Queensland Rail\u2019s longest-serving employee says he still loves the job after 60 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mervyn Suares, of Cooroy, started working for Queensland Rail on August 10, 1964, at the Roma Street goods yards in Brisbane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now assistant station master at Gympie North, Mr Suares, 76, says he has no plans to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach day, I drive 45 minutes each way from Cooroy to Gympie North station. I still love my job after all these years. It\u2019s the people I work with that make my work so enjoyable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Suares has worked his way around the state with Queensland Rail, including at Charters Towers, Winton, Longreach, Hervey Bay, Nambour and Cooroy, as well as in Brisbane at Brunswick Street, Toowong, Darra and Caboolture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Railway is in Mr Suares\u2019 blood \u2013 his father and three brothers also worked for Queensland and they have clocked up a combined 200 years of service between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the past 20 years here at Gympie North station, which I still call home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Suares has witnessed the transitions from steam to diesel to electric trains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest change I have seen in my time is the move from steam to electric trains.  I still remember the incredible steam trains coming through regularly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe job has changed a lot, too \u2013 back then we used to have a lot of freight passing the stations and today my work involves more customer service in the form of ticket sales.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Merv Suares and his daughter, Kirbey Suares.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A plaque on a bench seat at North Gympie station honours Mr Suares\u2019 60 years of service to Queensland Rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a platform ceremony, Mr Suares said the people were what had made the job special for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFriendships and all that. The people. You can see these fellows here, I\u2019ve known them nearly all my years, so it\u2019s been pretty good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Suares\u2019 daughter, Kirbey Suares, said he was a \u201cpretty special\u201d man to have as a dad and the family was \u201csuper-proud\u201d of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the family would like him to relax a bit but he showed no signs of easing off work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked him to retire for years but no, he\u2019s stlll going and I think he\u2019ll be going for many more years, probably,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he likes getting out here with the guys and having those chats with them. It\u2019s the mateship that he\u2019s got here that he likes to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queensland Rail CEO Kat Stapleton said the organisation had 49 people who had worked there for more than 50 years but Mr Suares was the first to reach 60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said connections counted and pointed out that Mr Suares had spoken about those connections through the friendships he enjoyed through work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland Rail\u2019s longest-serving employee says he still loves the job after 60 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":135748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,47],"tags":[987,13676,13675,7465],"class_list":["post-135747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-queensland-rail","category-rail-news","tag-brisbane","tag-cooroy","tag-gympie-north","tag-queensland"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135749,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135747\/revisions\/135749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}