Bob the Railway Dog rides late 19th Century South Australian train system widely for years and into its folklore
South Australia's Bob the Railway Dog sitting on top of a locomotive in 1887 at Port Augusta railway yard (with staff identified including C.E. Dench, G. Graham, T. Nicholls, G. Denham, Harrison or Spooner, T. Stack, Fred Lyons, J.W. Roberts). Inset: Bob's statue in Peterborough's main street and his collar on display at the National Railways Museum, Port Adelaide.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia, Peterborough township and National Railways Museum, Port Adelaide
Bob the Railway Dog (or Terowie Bob) became part of South Australian Railways folklore as he travelled widely with trains on its system in the later 19th Century.
Young Bob first experienced railway life when he befriended navvies building the track near Strathalbyn, south of Adelaide. He was brought back to owner James Mott, the Macclesfield Hotel publican, several times before disappearing at about nine months old.
Believed to have been picked up as a stray in Adelaide, Bob was consigned with 50 other dogs to Quorn in the north to hunt down rabbits near Carrieton. Bob seemingly broke from the pack and was swapped for another stray dog, obtained from Port Augusta police, by William Seth Ferry, a special train guard at railways town Petersburg (later renamed Peterborough).
The nephew of noted horse trainer Seth Ferry, William Ferry registered Bob on September 24,1884, and was promoted to Petersburg assistant station master in the next year. Bob became accustomed to travelling thousands of miles on trains to and from Petersburg, often in the front of the coal space in the locomotive tender. The Petersburg Times reported that his favourite place was “on a Yankee engine; the big whistle and belching smokestack seem(ed) to have an irresistible attraction for him ... he lived on the fat of the land, and was not particular from whom he accepted his dinner." Bob was befriended by train engineers and train men, and permitted to "ride for free, like a politician”.
The Bob legend grew to having him seen as far afield as Oodnadatta, Queensland and, most unlikely, in Western Australia that had no rail link at the time. He also was noted as having "several river trips up the Murray and around the coast". He was said to be at the opening of the railway between Petersburg and Broken Hill and possibly at the 1888 Melbourne centennial exhibition.
Stories grew around Bob’s several falls from trains and heroic recoveries. In Adelaide, he is said to have tripped down the Goodwood Cabin’s stairs and rolled under and out the other side of a passing train. During a visit to Port Augusta, Bob reportedly caught a steamship to Port Pirie after confusing the ship's whistle with a locomotive’s. Bob’s breed was disputed but most likely was the claim Henry Hollamby of Macclesfield in the Southern Argus that he was the breeder from a German collie dog.
Bob was given a collar bought by a commercial traveller who had rescued him after he was dognapped by a farmer. Two brass plates rivetted to the collar were inscribed: “Stop me not, but let me jog, For I am Bob, the drivers dog. Presented by McLean Bros & Ricc.” The verse was possibly borrowed from another legendary dog of an 18th Century London fire brigade, with other famous namesakes being Greyfriars Bobby of Scotland and Bobby the Wonder Dog in the United States of America. Terowie railway workers kept up Bob’s registration after William Ferry left to be as assistant stationmaster at Mount Barker, Western Australia, in 1889.
The Advertiser reported Bob’s death in July 1895 after he retired to Adelaide city where he was known to dine regularly at Evans butcher's shop, in Hindley Street. Others recorded that Bob lived out his last days on the Silverton tramway linking Broken Hill to the South Australian Railways and Petersburg.
When he died at age 17, Bob was eulogised as far away aa Britain and was lauded as "the king of outcasts". His body was preserved and later displayed at the Exchange Hotel, Adelaide city. His collar was given to the Adelaide city mayor and passed on to the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen and displayed in the National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide, with photographs and other artifacts.
In 2009, Peterborough people raised funds for a statue of Bob unveiled in its main street. Terowie installed information boards along a Bob the Railway Dog Trail.
