Former neighbours Helen and Warwick Worrall made this tribute to Kyabram’s train man, Neil Gillon.
Neil Gillon will be remembered for two things — his passion for trains, preferably steam trains, and his will to live.
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Add ‘‘a thorough gentleman’’ and it sums up the the 81-year-old Kyabramite who lost his long and brave fight for life on December 7 after being stuck down by a stroke.
Neil had been hospitalised countless times over the years with health issues but this time there was no coming back.
Neil earned the title of “train man” from many Kyabram locals.
His brother Roger said Neil’s passion for trains was fuelled in his schoolboy days when he travelled by train to attend school in Melbourne.
He came to Lancaster with his family in 1956 and initially found farm work with dairy farmer Maurie Parsons and orchadist Ron Goode.
I had a lot to do with Neil over the years after he moved into Kyabram to live in Lancaster Rd near the showgrounds
In my time at the Free Press, you could put your last dollar on him naming the last train that had travelled the Echuca-Toolamba rail route and the exact date.
Whenever a vintage train from the steam era was going to make a visit, Neil was in his element. He was like a kid with a new toy.
He would make it his business to come to the Free Press office armed with all the facts whenever a vintage train was going to pass through the town. It always came with an accurate assumption of what time and the make of train and the year it was built, and usually a photo as well.
He also made plenty of trips on those trains.
He was just an encyclopedia on trains, particularly those from bygone years, when they were the main mode of travel and transportation.
When Neil decided to move from his Lancaster Rd home some years ago to downsize, no-one was surprised by the location of his new home — overlooking the former Kyabram railway station.
Neil also found another interest in recent years, assisting with the Kyabram art silo project.
While all this was going on, Neil was fighting an inner war. Ravaged with a variety of health issues including stomach cancer, stints in hospital were frequent. But he never complained and somehow he had the will to persevere, fight back and keep going. Until two weeks ago.
If trains travel through Kyabram again, I, like a lot of Kyabramites, will think of Neil Gillon.
• A memorial service for Neil will be held at the Kyabram Uniting Church on Thursday, January 19, at 11am.
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