In its time, the cafeteria at Central railway station was probably in possession of a certain level of elegance. Inlaid floors contain mosaics of the routes of the Australian Railways. Or it least, as they used to be. In the 1800s and 1900s governments spend large amounts of money connecting parts of the country by rail. From the 1980s onwards these services were abandoned in the name of economic rationalism, often to the considerable cost of local communities and the transfer of vast amounts of freight haulage from rail to road.

The walls also contain murals depicting earlier transport modes as well as the ones which were current at the time. This one would date from the early 1920s when steam trains were still plentiful. The thing that sets the date is the electric suburban car near the right of the image; the venerable "red rattlers" which served Sydney for up to 70 years from their introduction in the 1920s to their final retirement in 1992. The oldest trains in the current fleet are just over half that age, having been introduced in the 1970s. (And there are plans to dispose of them sooner rather than later as 70-year-old trains are no longer regarded as being viable. Understandable, as the 1970s trains would have been cheaper to build than the original rattlers but also less robust due to lower quality of workmanship. Sometimes you get what you pay for.)

Unfortunately the cafeteria has seen better days. The mosaic floor is usually far from pristine, the chairs and tables probably also hark back to the 70s and the presence of a Hungry Jack's hardly sets the tone for elegance.

However what I was thinking when I took this was more along the lines of how my role at my current employer has diminished in the last 12 months and whereas I might once have been one of the steam engines, now I'm more of a cog. Still, they're still paying me.