Boarding the Indian Pacific in Sydney, Australia!

[Ziv]

Well, we are getting a bustitution to Goulburn, THEN boarding the Indian Pacific.
I will try to download photos but not sure if I will have a connection.

 

[Ziv]

Not sure if this is a remnant of the steam engine age or what...

 

[mcropod]

Not sure if this is a remnant of the steam engine age or what...

You'll see a few of those along the way, including across the Nullabor where they had to rail-in the water for the locos which were used to rail-in the water

Have fun on the ride. Highest chance of seeing the Coat-of-Arms* in real life will be the daytime stretch from Broken Hill into South Australia.

*Kangaroo and Emu

 

[mcropod]

BTW - the India-Pacific has less daytime running than my preference, but that's because off-train activities are during the day, leaving a large portion of the route done in the dark.

The Ghan (Darwin-Adelaide) is the same at least for the longer southbound Excusion timetable which occurs outside the Top End's wet season - it maybe has even less daytime running as a proportion of the journey than the IP, which is a pity IMHO.

 

[BlackDiamond]

For those of us that can only dream about such a trip, there are a number of videos of it.
Paul Lucas did a decent one a couple of years ago

Paul Lucas Indian Pacific Video

 

[George Harris]

If you are doing this just now, you are least doing it during the time of maximum daylight hours for the day.

 

[john_f]

The Indian Pacific and shortened Ghan may have been more fun some years ago when it was publicly owned, especially if you were a student. I flew from Christ Church, NZ to Sydney, on my birthday, and thoroughly enjoyed myself even though I had a bad February flu. Everyone was so nice to me. A New Zealand dental student, who had just returned from Oz, gave me his railways concessions card, which let me book first class sleepers at half price. When I got to Sydney, a fellow said I had to get a bushman's hat if I was going to the outback (he was wearing one), and took me to his favorite hat store. The hat still fits. Disaster almost struck, at the start on the IP, when a trainee was taking tickets. Not knowing what to look for, I thought he was bound to notice the name on the ticket did not match the name on the concessions card. Fortunately, his trainer stepped in and told him to compare the card numbers on the two – and confirm that they matched. That was a fun day of a fun trip.

 

[Ziv]

Just leaving ...
Whoops, that one did not post...

 

[Ziv]

Taking the Southern route due to flooding on the regular line so no Broken Hills. Rats.
Good food, great company and nice vista's. Man, these single compartments are tight! Nice but the bed takes up 95% of the compartment.
Arriving Adelaide now, off to Hahndorf for Herman food.

On edit: That should have been German food, but my strange sense of humor finds my typo amusing so it stays as it is.

 

[Ziv]

Skyscape enroute.

 

[SwedeC]

Here's a 30-second video of the Nullarbor Plain from the IP, for those who haven't seen it.

http://o1c.net/2010-OZ/20100906-08-Video-IndianPacific-NullarborPlain.MOV

 

[MARC Rider]

Man, these single compartments are tight! Nice but the bed takes up 95% of the compartment.

That sounds about the same as a Superliner roomette.

 

[mcropod]

If you are doing this just now, you are least doing it during the time of maximum daylight hours for the day.

Indeed! But, to be fair, as even the south bit of Oz isn't that far south (around 32 degrees south on the mainland) there's not a great deal of difference between summer daylight length and winter - certainly not like where I lived years ago in the north bits of the northern hemisphere's Sconnie Botland.

 

[Ziv]

First time I saw the Loco we were at our walking stop in Cook.
We took a route that did not go through Broken Hills on the way to Adelaide.
The regular route has been damaged by flooding so we went down through Albury, if memory serves.
No emu, but I have seen a couple really aggressive red bodied birds attack a flock of white pigeon type birds and then I saw a bunch of "Pink Gorsah" if my neighbor got the name right AND I am putting it down correctly.

 

[Ziv]

Dining trackside in Rawlinna was a lot of fun!

 

[railiner]

Dining trackside in Rawlinna was a lot of fun!

Hmmm...maybe Amtrak can try that in some scenic spot like Glacier Park or Glenwood Springs...

 

[jis]

Hmmm...maybe Amtrak can try that in some scenic spot like Glacier Park or Glenwood Springs...

Back in the really early days of trans continental service, as I understand it trains stopped for an extended period at designated food stops where passengers disembarked and had a good meal (or not so good meal depending on ones wherewithal) in restaurants specially operated for them. The SantaFe Harvey Houses started to serve this functions. So if were to do this it would just be harking back to the early days

 

[railiner]

Back in the really early days of trans continental service, as I understand it trains stopped for an extended period at designated food stops where passengers disembarked and had a good meal (or not so good meal depending on ones wherewithal) in restaurants specially operated for them. The SantaFe Harvey Houses started to serve this functions. So if were to do this it would just be harking back to the early days

I think if they did, it might be very popular with the thru passengers on the train for the scenery, but maybe not so much for ordinary point to point travelers. They all might like a break from the diner menu, if a good outside vendor catered it, rather than the dining car crew....

 

[mcropod]

First time I saw the Loco we were at our walking stop in Cook.
We took a route that did not go through Broken Hills on the way to Adelaide.
The regular route has been damaged by flooding so we went down through Albury, if memory serves.
No emu, but I have seen a couple really aggressive red bodied birds attack a flock of white pigeon type birds and then I saw a bunch of "Pink Gorsah" if my neighbor got the name right AND I am putting it down correctly.

Maybe the pink bird was the galah - the clown member of the vast number of parrots and cockatoos here. Fab creatures over lots of the country and are always fun to see as they gather on the ground to feed. It's led to 'Galah' being used as an Oz (inoffensive) insult for a person who's a bit silly.

 

[Ziv]

Thank you, mcropod! That is the Pink Galah that my neighbor identified, tho I bungled the name. They were flying in a flock of 15 or 20 making a colorful sight!

I do not know what the Red bodied aggressive bird i saw first was. It was similar in size to the Galah and the body was only a bit more shaded red. The head seemed a bit more raptor-like than parrot-like, but perhaps again I was mis-remembering how the first two birds appeared.

 

[mcropod]

Thank you, mcropod! That is the Pink Galah that my neighbor identified, tho I bungled the name. They were flying in a flock of 15 or 20 making a colorful sight!

I do not know what the Red bodied aggressive bird i saw first was. It was similar in size to the Galah and the body was only a bit more shaded red. The head seemed a bit more raptor-like than parrot-like, but perhaps again I was mis-remembering how the first two birds appeared.

I can't think of any red raptor here in Oz - ours are brown mostly, and the widespread ones are wedgetailed eagles - wedgies to us locals, but they are huge birds as are the kites which I'd expect you to see circling grassfires waiting for prey to dash out of the flames.

I wonder if your white pigeon-type birds were cockatoos (cockies) either sulphur-crested, or a cousin: the corella, which is the bane of wheatgrowers across the country (you went through a bit of wheat country in your last day before Perth). The corella is about galah-sized, but cockies are quite large birds. Both gather in numbers and seeing them in flight is a great thing. There are black cockies as well, some with yellow underwings and tails and others with red. Because we like to keep things simple down here, they are called yellow-tailed cockies and red-tailed cockies - lovely creatures - and like all cockies in flight, you'll hear them well before you see them!

I'm not especially a birder, but I do appreciate them - we have some fab birds all over the joint, and seeing them from the IP and the Ghan is a good way to do it!

 

[Ziv]

I arrived in Perth the other day and have been walking all over the Central Business District from the Eastern Train Station to Elizabeth Quay to Kings Road and down through the Kings Park amd Botanic Garden. Another great city.
The Indian Pacific was a bucket list trip for me and the experience was even better than I thought it would be. The staff on the train (the off train tours were well meaning but less professional) were outstanding! Friendly and fun and skilled. I would not want to be a dining car server on a train! The cars felt older but well cared for. The freight rail tracks we took from Goulburn to Adelaide was pretty rough but the passenger rail tracks were much smoother. First nights sleep was tough w all the jerking about. Our substitute route did not go through Broken Hills due to flooding and damaged track but from Adelaide on the trip was the same.
Nullarbor kind of reminded me of the worst Montana has to offer. I remember seeing a dozen red Scottish short horn cattle in the middle of the waste, some tough ranchers on that station...
I spotted a "narrow gauge train" at Elizabeth Quay, the kids seemed to love it.
I was sorry to see this journey end. I am off to Gili Trawangan tomorrow. I have not been there for 20 years. Not sure what to expect.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

What a wonderful trip! So glad you got to do this bucket list adventure!

And I’m impressed by how coordinated you are—did you plan to tell us about your incredible trip and post those lovely pictures in your message number 1,000?

 

[Ziv]

What a wonderful trip! So glad you got to do this bucket list adventure!

And I’m impressed by how coordinated you are—did you plan to tell us about your incredible trip and post those lovely pictures in your message number 1,000?

Serendipity played a role in that!
I guess I subconsciously wanted to hit the 1,000 mark with a fun post!

 

[mcropod]

I'm glad you liked the on-board IP crew - I agree that they do really well in the Oz style of easily relating to customers without being servile or snooty. The off-train guides are a bit more hit and miss, and I found some a bit underdone as far as subject expertise is concerned - but, to be fair - that's a bit Oz style as well. We're not Germany or Switzerland in that respect.

The on-boarders are Adelaide-based, which is quite a small city, and I think the operating company for the IP and the Ghan manage this aspect really well. High end hospitality isn't an Oz strength other than in our relaxed style, so it's a fine line they have to walk given the international crowd those trains attract and the expectations of service standard they might expect.