A gentleman and “just a really good bloke”.
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That’s how Peter ‘Poppy Pete’ Douglas has been remembered, after the former City Park train driver died last week.
The father, grandfather and great-grandfather spent more than 20 years driving children and their families around the park.
An outpouring of tributes followed his death, with people from across Tasmania, the country and the world sharing photos and memories of the beloved train driver.
Memories of Pete continued to be shared on Wednesday as his family and friends farewelled him during a funeral service.
His son Gray Douglas kept his tribute short, just as his father would have wanted.
Mr Douglas said before his time at City Park, Pete wore many hats, had his own motorbike shop and loved to go duck shooting.
“He had a lot of friends,” he said.
He was a father of three, grandfather to two and great-grandfather to five.
The day before his funeral, another great-grandchild was born.
Pete’s two other children, Yvette and Scott, died before him.
“I’m going to miss him tremendously, the only saving grace is that he didn’t see me go,” Gray Douglas said.
“I’ve got a lot more to say, but he didn't like long services.”
Pete’s friend and City Park Train co-owner Quin Partis shared how the 79-year-old became a train driver at the park.
“We were short of a train driver and a friend of ours said ‘look I know just the sort of person’ and we were introduced to Pete,” he said.
“I think the following day he started driving the train and he wouldn’t let me near it. He wouldn’t even let Mark Webber drive it when he came down because he said ‘no you’ve crashed too many times’.
“He knew every tree in the park by name, they bowed down to him as he drove around.”
Despite Pete retiring two years ago, Mr Partis said visitors still asked about him.
“We all get the comment ‘you’re not driving it like Pete used to’,” he said.
During his career, he drove hundreds of thousands of children around the park.
Some of those children lived across the road from City Park and their mother paid tribute to Pete during the service.
“We used to walk through the park a lot and he would always say ‘come on old girl’,” she laughed.
“He was always happy, he was always the same to everyone that got on the train, all the kids loved him.”
When he was behind the wheel, Pete would wave and ring his bell.
During Wednesday’s farewell his bell was rung, one last time.