Great Australian Railway Journeys

[melmerby]

Hi all

Michael Portillo's Great Australian Railway Journeys, Series 1, Episode 1 is on this Saturday 26th October at 2000 on BBC2

First episode The Ghan

Edited October 23, 2019 by melmerby

[melmerby]

Nobody else watch this?

Rather a lot of non-railway content but as I like travel programmes generally I don't mind.

 

The Ghan has expanded somewhat these days with a very long train with two locos on front and some more locos pushing.

[railroadbill]

Been away, so only just come across this, thanks for info!  Now for i-player....

[Gwiwer]

Haven't seen it and not being a big fan of Portillo's presentation I probably won't bother finding it.  

 

The Ghan consist varies.  It's a good deal bigger than the old Ghan which was steam-hauled up to Marree and ultimately diesel-hauled through to the Alice on the narrow-gauge route.  It is usually an NR-class loco out of Adelaide leading 20-24 passenger cars and a motorail wagon or two.  An AN class is attached at Alice Springs for the extremely remote and demanding run to Darwin.  The train runs twice a week in the dry season, once in the wet.  On rare occasions the train has been much bigger.  The first Adelaide - Darwin train was 44 cars with (iirc) a trio of NR class locos up front. 

 

The train makes a striking sight when travelling the remote route to Darwin and its arrival for the scheduled stop of several hours in Alice Springs usually brings out a few photographers.  

 

Unlike the Old Ghan the present day version is purely a land-cruise train.  Basic seating was done away with some years ago meaning now one is obliged to part with several thousand Dollars to enjoy the trip.  Backalong it was pioneers, explorers, mining prospectors and itinerant shearers who often endured the slow trip and the uncertainty of crossing the desert and ephemeral waterways.

[railroadbill]

Excellent  program, I'll be watching this again.  The opening on the Pichi Richi railway was very well filmed I thought, with NM25 which was restored by the railway and was built for the original Ghan line. 

The current Ghan stuff was ok as well.

Good photography and some interesting interviews, worth watching  imho.

Series is  being shown in Australia as well, so must be considered as authentic!

[railroadbill]

 

NM34, 3' 6" gauge, sister engine to the Pichie Richie railway one, in the South Australia Railway museum in Adelaide in 2010.  This spent it's working life on the original Ghan line as well.

[Steamysandy]

I personally felt it wasn't as good as the Chris Tarrant programme which showed the derelict locos etc left behind when the original Ghan line closed

Edited October 31, 2019 by Steamysandy
Amendment

[railroadbill]

6 hours ago, Steamysandy said:

I personally felt it wasn't as good as the Chris Tarrant programme which showed the derelict locos etc left behind when the original Ghan line closed

Australia's outback railway - extreme railway journeys? A few years ago, think he traveled in a freight train cab along the Ghan line?

There is a preservation site to the south of Alice Springs on the old 3' 6" gauge  route which has a variety of stock, can be seen from the Ghan  to the left when leaving Alice Springs.

 

There's also been a Tony Robinson program recently where he visited Australia by train.

[railroadbill]

Just caught up on the last 3 programs via i-player.  The Indian Pacific one was particularly good imho.  One of my friends who watched it tells me that a local travel agent sold a tour that was part cruise along  the Australian coast and part return by the train and that it had sold out after  Portillo's program on the Indian Pacific had aired...

 

Trip on the XPT to Brisbane was also interesting, having been seeing the ending of the use of HSTs on the ECML this year.  :-)

This series did cover a lot of Australia  and did seem very well planned out, with some good interviews, so I thought  one of his best series.