Turret Clock Movement - Victorian Railways, 1882 Reg. No: ST 026256

Hi
i am trying to find any information relating to the Victorian railway watchmakers. They were located at Spencer St station in Melbourne until my father John Albert Potter, the last remaining watchmaker retired. He started i think as an apprentice in 1939 and retired at age 65 in about 1991.
thanks for any leads
yours sincerely
Helen potter

I worked as an apprentice in the VR from 1980-1986. as part of the roster, we spent i think 2 months in the spencer steet workshops. mainly to work on signal relay refurbishment. however, the watchmaker was part of this workshop and as a treat during our stay, we were taken by the watchmaker to rewind the clock spring on the elizabeth st clock tower. I think that would have been John Potter, although cant be sure. My main memory of the visit was Johns ability to wind the clock spring with one hand, whilst it took me both hand and a considerable amount of effort to match his strength. I also remember being told that whilst John took holidays, he continued to return to work once a fortnight to wind the elizabeth st clock. the other interesting feature of this clock was that each hour, a comb of wire fingers were dropped into a mecury bath, this used to send out a signal to each and every clock in every suburban railway station, that operated a set of fingers in a tweezer motion, that pulled the minute hand accurately to the 12 or on the hour. This system was known as the clock clips