The Train from SYD to PER

Saturday, May 31, 2008
This is the day our vacation really begins! All the rest has been fun but the train journey is what I’ve been looking forward to—as well of course as the other journeys we have planned!
We puttered around all morning at Melinda & Ian’s house, got some liquor and some books for the 65 hours we will be on board and arrived at Central Station an hour too early at about 1315. Nevermind that our tickets said we must—MUST—check-in no later than 1355, the train did not start boarding until 1420.It’s a beautiful engine, blue with an eagle spread on it, the symbol of the Indian Pacific.
Our cabin is definitely the best on the train; it’s twice the size of the other sleeper cabins and has a full bathroom, albeit the bathroom measures approximately 2 feet by 3 feet! The toilet pulls down from the wall, the sink pulls down from the wall, and the whole room is a shower. Quite efficient. The cabin has a double bunk bed (as opposed to the regular sleeper cabins that have very narrow single bunk beds. We also have a table with two comfy chairs, a built-in instant hot water heater for tea or coffee, a fridge stocked with complimentary unlimited (!) champagne (Eat your heart out, James!), soft drinks, beer, and milk. They even asked what brand of beer we wanted stocked—VB, of course. That’s Victoria Bitter for the non-Aussies, also known as Vitamin B. Our cabin steward says, we drink it, they replace it. Pretty cool.
The Indian Pacific pulled out right on the dot of 1455 and we got to the Blue Mountains at about sunset. Doing this trip in the summer would be much better because of the longer days, but this is very nice even if it does get dark early (5-ish).
Australia has 3 time zones; Perth is 2 hours ahead of Sydney and Adelaide is 30 minutes ahead of Sydney. Why the 30 minute time change? Who knows. So we changed our clocks at dinner. Tomorrow will start at 0600, otherwise known as O-dark-thirty. As far as I’m concerned, there is only one 6 o’clock and it isn’t in the morning!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
The day did indeed start at 0600 with an announcement in our cabin that coffee and muffins and fruit were available to the Gold Kangaroo class and breakfast later; the Red Kangaroo class only gets breakfast at 0600. Red Kangaroo class has some sleepers but most sit in seats similar airplane coach seats. I cannot imagine sitting in those seats for the 65 hours it takes the train to get to Perth, but apparently many do. The train will be full in all classes after Adelaide. So far as we can determine, we are the only Americans on board. That may change in ADL.
The train holds either 244 or 348 passengers, depending on whether the train is a single or double and most operate as doubles. The 348 includes 192 in Gold Service, 32 in Red Sleeper Cabin, and 124 in Red Daynighter Seats. The train is 687 metres at its longest and weighs 1326 tonnes excluding the loco (as they call it). It averages 85kph (max is 115kph, although we clocked it at 118kph on our handy dandy GPS). The trip, as I said, takes 65 hours including stops in Broken Hill, Adelaide, Cook /Nullarbor Plain, and Kalgoorlie and tours are offered in each town. The IP will pass through 86 towns on its transcontinental journey.
We walked around Broken Hill, a quite delightful town and quite interesting to us because of the many union related sights. This is definitely a town that unions made—not surprising for a mining town. There are beautiful old buildings and some wonderful outdoor art—including a gigantic ant; all in all a delightful stop, even if it is 6 in the morning!
From Broken Hill we head to ADL, arriving about 3 this afternoon and we’ve signed up for a tour of the city. After which we hope to find an internet café as we do not have internet access on the train.