A journey of a thousand kilometers begins with a single .....suburban train ride from Pymble to Hornsby (well two train rides actually, but that's another story.)
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| Big Nanny looks down as the Pymble Indicator promises a train to Hornsby. |
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| A set of "cars" bound for HORNSBY |
At Hornsby, as the evening chill descended on the Platform, the XPT arrived exactly on time and left with the same promptness. These trains are 1960's English best practice . The contrast with to-day's Freccia Rossa , TGV and ICE is quite marked, not only as regards speed, but also ride and appointments.The train consists of seven cars and it is topped and tailed with diesel locomotives of the same styling as the
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| No Big Nanny cameras , but the Indicator Board on Hornsby's Platform 3 announces the imminent arrival of the Brisbane bound XPT. |
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| THE XPT BOUND FOR BRISBANE, ROLLS SMOOTHLY INTO HORNSBY STATION |
The purpose of the trip is to finish off some business in Brisbane, and friends have very kindly invited me to stay with them on Wednesday evening. So you will see that the XPT takes quite some time to reach Brisbane. Leaving Hornsby at precisely 4.46 pm on Tuesday it is due to complete it's 1,000 Kms journey at 6.30 am(ugh!) on Wednesday.13 3/4hours to cover 1,000 Kms. The sort of journey the Freccia Rossa would toss off in about 4hours! But we don't have the population density or,as yet, the national debt that makes such things possible. So, having just crossed the beautiful Hawkesbury River as the evening light of this Winter's day starts to fade ,we begin the climb northward.
I have not travelled these tracks since my adventure as a teenager, riding the Footplate of a C38 class Steam Locomotive as far as Hamillton in the suburbs of Newcastle.It is a great opportunity to see something of the countryside without the preoccupations of driving, or from thousands of feet up in a jet. Now we enter one of the tunnels my Grandfather wrote about, when describing his honeymoon trip in 1904, noting theirRomantic possibilities! Speed is increasing markedly but still primitive by European standards.
It is often forgotten that in the 1890's ,in England, the railways running to the South of London were achieving average speeds of 75mph hauled by steam locomotives. Nothing was allowed to impede the trains speedy progress, water was picked up by a scoop attached to the tender, from a trough laid between the tracks (this became common in England and later in the United States. But wait, there's more as they say - Passengers had booked seats, and for certain destinations, the rear car was detached "on the fly", and brought to a stop at the appropriate Station by the careful judgement of a guard in the car applying the manual brakes!! Those were the days!
Darkness is settling in as we climb out of Gosford,after a brief stop. Time for a pause and some reflection.And a little night music courtesy of the I Pod.Not much sleep in my seated position, even though the Seniors Discount has made First Class possible!
Five minutes to Four am. We arrive in Casino. The night has been spent in fitful "sleep". The track beyond Hamilton in the Newcastle suburbs increasingly deteriorates as the XPT heads further north. Occasional very heavy shocks and sharp noises penetrate the carriage's interior and at one spot the unevenness of the track sets up a gyration in the carriage that caused it to creak unpleasantly. The reflection of the other side of the carriage on the very large windows which cover the space of two seats, creates for long periods, the effect of a ghostly other train pacing beside us. Unfortunately I could not capyure it properly with the camera - the light was far too weak.
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| A RATHER UNSUCCESSFUL EFFORT TO CAPTURE THE REFLECTED IMAGE CREATING THE "GHOST TRAIN" - BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE YOU MAY BEGIN TO GET SOME IDEA OF THE IMPRESSION CREATED. |
This is pathetic! North ofCasino the track is so poor it is setting up regular vibrations through the carriage causing alternately regular squeaking from all the seating and fittings and then a heavy irritating vibration noise. Oh well only 1 hour and fifty seven minutes to go!( My son, still resident in Brisbane, was later to remind me of how badly flooding rains had affected these tracks in the last few months!)
Five forty five a.m, I was enjoying the gradually lightening sky, when suddenly the carriage lights were all turned on, the outside world was at once invisible. Ah well, so much for the reflections on the problems of a man I know with his beloved and grown up son - how shockingly some sad turns of events affect some folk! The day is dawning with heavy cloud cover it seems - maybe the clouds will clear away - let's hope so, for it is Ekka Holiday in Brisbane.
As the XPT enters the outskirts of my dearly loved- Brisbane - "Urbs Beata" - I have clearly in mind that it was necessity that led us to move back to Sydney - and nothing else could have done it.
There is a lot to be said for rail travel, but above all, it seems conducive to clearer thinking, and provides a sense of order that is not obtained in air travel - or is this merely the musing of a sleep deprived brain!
We just passed through one of the new Rail/Bus interchange Stations called PARK ROAD - very impressive .Now rolling through SouthBank and mere minutes from Roma Street Station and the end of our journey -about ten minutes early!
After an abortive attempt to hire a car from ABEL ( office closed ¬ answering phones) , Iater a good breakfast at Jimmy's on the Mall and then went to HERTZ and picked up a car and drove out to our former home and threw myself into the work of preparing a vast quantity of books for transport. By Lunch time (BTW , when I was a boy, present day "Lunch" was called "Dinner" and present day "Dinner" was called"Tea" - interesting) I had gone as far as I could for the day. I received a most welcome phone call from my son, inviting me to dinner at their home in Flagstone in the outer South West. Unfortunately I could not make it due to commitments with my hosts who had gone to a lot of trouble. But I suggested that I come to him and his wife and children at Browns Plains Shopping Mall - a half way point. We had a good get together , though the two youngest children were still in day care.It was so good to see them again , and all looking well.
What a busy day and a bit I spent in Brisbane! Our dear friends in Toowong - we have known them for over 20 years - gave me a right Royal welcome and treated me to a truly grand Dinner. Sadly I cannot have been a great guest : firstly I was exhausted due to lack of sleep on the train, and busy work at our previous home all morning and thirdly due to the worst Sinus problems I have had in many years.
I slept like a rock and was up at 5.30 a.m. and on my way shortly after 7.00a.m. in the neat little Hyundai Getz 5 Door Hatch. First call was to make a delivery to the Good Jesuit and then I began the first of a planned 5 trips to Bellbowrie and back, ferrying books to their temporary home. I had forgotten to factor in the peak hour traffic and so had to fit everything into 3 round trips only! The Getz did a great job - quite surprising really. I arrived back at Roma Street Station with 15 minutes to spare.
THE WAY BACK
I don't understand why! The overnight XPT Sydney to Brisbane returns the morning of its arrival in Brisbane as the Daytime Brisbane to Sydney service. However, to travel overnight from Brisbane to Sydney, it is necessary to travel from Brisbane Roma Street Station to Casino in Northern NSW to catch the Southbound nightime XPT to Sydney!! This includes a 1 to 1 1/2 hour wait in Casino for the daytime XPT to arrive from Sydney!! It is a bizarre and primitive situation. Why can't the daytime XPT to Brisbane go back from Brisbane as the overnight service?? The mysteries of Religion have nothing on the Railway timetablers in N.S.W.
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Casino N.S.W. Red signal blocks the line to Brisbane - as XPT has just arrived late from Sydney.
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As it happened the XPT from Sydney was running late so the several hundred passengers waiting at Casino in the cold and dark of night were unimpressed. Fortunately, the Railway staff managed to speed up the turn around and we left Casino only a little late - most of the 1/2 hour delay having been made up. Having despatched the gourmet Mrs Mac's Sausage Roll and an Arnott's Wagon Wheel I settled in to read and doze. About 1.30 a.m. (I think) , I awoke to find the train STOPPED and silent, and noticed a couple of men walking to and fro with Torches. Something was amiss. after about 20 minutes the XPT slowly REVERSED onto another track before resuming its Southbound journey. It turned out that we had pulled into a loop to let another train pass on the mainline. But, when the time came for us to rejoin the main line, the set of points ( switch in US parlance) would not work. Our Driver had to walk back to the reverse end of the train and back us onto the mainline. This delay made us 28 minutes late in all. There were I found out, 40 passengers with major connections to make in Sydney. Our driver had the XPT going at a spanking pace for the rest of the journey, finally reaching Sydney ( well Hornsby anyway) only 5 minutes late! We flashed through some Newcastle area stations at almost alarming speeds.
I arrived at Hornsby thoroughly exhausted by the exertions of the three day adventure, which proved surprisingly successful thank God and my Guardian Angel!
My dear wife was waiting with the car to whisk me off tour new home. She is a real star, up at the crack of dawn - earlier actually- to meet our 6.15 a.m. arrival - love makes us do crazy things!
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