General Chat

As a 6 year old, I travelled down from Scotland on one of the last journeys of the Flying Scotsman. We had our 2 cats (on harnesses) in the carriage with us, and occasionally, my sister and I got out of the carriage with the cats to let them relieve themselves :-D

The Watercress Line is just down the road from me.

Allan and Sylvia This is all too much for me. :-D :-D Wonderful pictures you are both creating though. Really enjoyed your posts :-D :-D :-D

Am catching the train to Cardiff tomorrow (15 miles south). Every 30 minutes - trains, not me. And there has been a weather warning issued for tomorrow - it could be dry all day. Shock, horror!!! :-0 :-0

Allan


The same thing applies here ................ the Via passenger train runs on the freight track.

We used to have 2 cross-country passenger trains. One run by CP (Canadian Pacific) and one by CNR (Canadian National Railways). They competed to build the cross country tracks in the late 1800s.

The government got fed up of providing subsidies to the passenger trains so they set up VIA as a crown corporation in 1978.

Thye decided that Via would use the northern route ..... which means the trains mainly run on tracks operated by CN Rail.

Via took over the carriages etc of the CN ..... which means they got the dome cars which formed a huge part of the attraction. Via has its own crew and engineers.


and, yes, freight has priority!


Our first cross country trip was back in 1972 ..... and we went on the southern, or CP operated, passenger train.


The Rocky Mountaineer, mentioned in an earlier post, is a privately run, for-profit, organization, which uses the CP tracks ................ their trains have to be operated by CP engineers, and so they stop at weird times and places to change crew.


We enjoyed the Indian Pacific, and also The Ghan .......... but did find The Ghan compartments a little cramped!

Sylvia, the Margaret River Area has very Elastic Boundaries as saying something, particularly wine, is produced there means you can add about $10.00 to the normal prive.

having said that, Margaret River is a great little town which is now recovering from a catastrophic Bush Fire a couple of years ago which at one stage threatened to destroy the town

John


enjoy your trip!!


I love the camaraderie that develops on the long distance trains ............... the dining car staff make sure that people share tables whenever possible. So you always have different table companions at lunch and dinner, and everyone has a story to tell.



The first time we took the trains to Halifax in 2004, I took 5 books and lots of knitting with me.

I read about 1/3rd of one book, but did much knitting, as we sat in the dome car or the lounge and chatted to people



I don't think I made it clear that our trips across Canada need 3 trains .................


1. Vancouver to Toronto, 3 days 4 nights
2. Toronto to Montreal, 5 hours
3. Montreal to Halifax, 22 hours (overnight)


The part of the trip I like least is the stretch from Montreal to Halifax ...... they use what are called Renaissance carriages.


These were bought from the UK some years ago. Built for use on either the LOndon-Edinburhg overnight run, or through the Chunnel overnight run.

They're useless!!

It was supposed to be a good deal .................... but I think the UK government got the best part of it. Just as they did when they sold the nuclear submarines to us :-D


The cars and compartments might be comfortable for the short overnight runs they were built for ......... but not for longer than an hour or so sitting up.


I am about 5'7", and I cannot sit on the seat in the compartment and stretch my legs out

The corridors are so narrow that anyone wearing a heavy winter jacket completely fills the width. Two people literally cannot pass each other


They do run one train a week with the stainless steel equipment ........... and I try to book on that one when I can. I'm unlucky going to Halifax before Christmas, Renaissance only. BUT got the stainless when leaving Halifax.

Allan


I heard about that fire!




We had the most horrible red wine from WA back in 1975

We drove the Nullarbor, then still unpaved, in a 1966 VW Beetle to visit with friends in Perth.

He was a wildlife biologist, and one evening brought out this cardboard 4 litre container of a red wine for us to try at dinner


It was disgusting!


Turned out he had been on a 6 week field trip to the Kimberleys, and this container had been there and back ...................... in 30+ temperatures :-D :-D :-D






off out for afternoon coffee

My Dad was a steam train fanatic and as a child our family picnics often used to be within spotting distance of a viaduct, level crossing or bridge which just happened to give a wonderful view of the mainline railway trains.
He would have loved this corner of Kent where we have a railway ( Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway) with trains one third size which travel daily across Romney Marsh to the bleakness of Dungeness. I travelled on it this summer as volunteer helper with a class of primary school children. Their excitement was a joy to see and recaptured the feeling I had as a youngster when we used to make the journey to Wales from our home in Hampshire.
I used to love the long journey and was fascinated by the telegraph wires which seemed to rise and fall between the poles alongside the track as we built up steam and chugged on our way. Dad would give us a little red notebook at the start of the journey and my sister and I would collect train numbers for him throughout the day.At the end of our trip we would walk along the platform to the engine and thank the driver for a safe journey.
Sometimes from home we took the train for a daytrip to Hayling Island. This was on the Hayling Billy as the steam train there was called. This was a quicker journey than by road, which apart from changing buses also necessitated getting off the bus as we reached the road bridge to the island. We had to walk over the bridge and climb back on the bus when it had travelled across to the island as the combined weight of bus plus passengers would have been too much for the old bridge.
When in New Zealand we took the train across South Island from Greymouth to Christchurch. Enroute the journey takes one over high ground and another engine is brought in to help with the climb. Some of the carriages have an outer railed area so that photographers can stand outside throughout the trip and capture the wonderful and varied views over plains, mountains and river courses as we made our way across.

Yes.... I like trains.


Gwyn

ooooh, Gwyn


I'd forgotten that Christchurch to Greymouth train ............ that's a pretty spectacular trip!


We took a day trip over to Greymouth............. so rode the train both ways.

Gwyn, here in WA we also have our own private railway, the Hotham Valley Railway.

Here is a link to it;

http://www.hothamvalleyrailway.com.au/

I have never been on it, but would love to give it a go. The problem is that I live over 100 kms from Dwellingup.

I did do some work at Boddington (a small town in the Hotham Valley) a few years ago and had to go through Dwelling up to get there. Even by road the scenery is magnificent and follows the railway track in some parts