Monday 15 December 2014

Train Tripping Eastern Australia


The trip from Brisbane to Sydney by train is one that I had made many times in the past. Having concentrated my writing endeavours on penning four novels between 2005 to 2013, the idea to write on the subject of train travel was an idea that just wouldn't go away. So after taking a break from writing fiction in 2014 to release a travel guide titled Train Tripping Coastal Queensland, I decided to follow-up by writing a second guide to riding trains Down Under. Train Tripping Eastern Australia.


It seems ironic that what was intended as a side project of mine should result in two Bestselling eBooks within the space of two months. Alright, I know I'm only talking about Railroad and Travel Reference genres here and not the New York Times Bestseller lists. But for someone who has had a lifelong interest in trains the satisfaction of overseeing the entire project myself and briefly outselling all the Lonely Planet guides left me more than a little chuffed, (pardon the pun).

The XPT has long been one of my favourite trains. Based on British Rail's High Speed Train, the XPT still operates out of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, to places such as Melbourne, Dubbo, the NSW North Coast and Brisbane. The focus on my Train Tripping Series of books however aren't the trains but rather the journey itself. My window seat guide is designed to be downloaded onto your tablet, iPad or smartphone and provide the reader with a humorous yet informative guide to what they might see from the window of a train. Even if you are only dreaming of one day making the trip by train along Australia's east coast, the books still read like any great story.

So what happens when you cross a Purple Wiggle, a Hollywood Gladiator, a dolphin named Zippy and Her Majesty The Queen of England? You get this 1,850 km self-guided railway adventure that is the perfect travelling companion for appreciating Australia's east coast from the window of a train. While making a stopover in Coffs Harbour on one of Australia's most overlooked train journeys, the Brisbane to Sydney XPT, I'm about to turn your train trip into a real railway adventure of your own. So welcome aboard my second Train Tripping adventure. Train Tripping Eastern Australia. I'm sure you're going to enjoy the ride.


 

Available now through my Books page

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Kempsey: trains and Akubra hats


Kempsey Railway Station is about as country as they come, despite only being located 15 minutes inland from the Pacific Ocean. Located 503 km north of Sydney by train, Kempsey is Akubra hat country and was also the birthplace of Australian Country Music Legend Slim Dusty. Melody Ranch, the boyhood homestead of Slim Dusty, still attracts visitors from around the world who come to see where the singer songwriter of more than 100 country & western albums grew up, while more than 160,000 Akubra hats per year are manufactured right here in Kempsey.


Kempsey Railway Station yard as seen from the platform in 2007.

The town of Kempsey was first settled by timber cutters on the banks of the Macleay River in 1836. Plentiful stands of Australian red cedar timber meant that the town of Kempsey was already well established by the time the railway line was laid in 1917. The large red brick station building has stood in West Kempsey, marking time and watching over the passing parade of interstate container trains, XPT's and the occasional train that stops to drop some goods wagons in the small railway yard. Finding Kempsey's railway station when traveling on the Pacific Highway involves turning off the highway onto Macleay Valley Way and following Belgrave Street through the heart of town until you reach the railway line. The station is on Kemp Street, and there is a large sealed car park built around some giant date palms that may give your car enough shade to keep cool while you step out with your camera. If you're traveling on a family holiday like I was back in 2007 when I left the highway to photograph some trains, you best be quick if you don't want to return to a car full of cranky kids.

Kempsey Railway Station, mid North Coast New South Wales, Australia. Photo taken 2007

Oops, too late. There is an XPT due to pass through in less than 10 minutes. That's just enough time to head to the Macleay River Railway Bridge and shoot some more photos. While I've passed through Kempsey by train plenty of times in the past on both the Brisbane XPT and Murwillumbah XPT, this was the first time I had pulled off the highway to try photographing one. So I thought that a shot of the train crossing the Macleay River might make for a change from photographing the train at a station.

The southbound Brisbane XPT crossing the 1917 built Macleay River Railway Bridge at Kempsey. 2007.

The bridge over the Macleay River is typical of the steel through truss railway bridge design that was adopted for the North Coast Line following the construction of the original Hawkesbury River Bridge north of Sydney. With my wife reminding me that my 15 minute detour to Kempsey was now officially over, it was time to hit the road once more. Which is a pity really, I would have like to have checked out if there were some cheap Akubra hats to buy in town. I might have looked the part on my next Train Tripping adventure. But you can get a full appreciation of traveling this line by train, download by window seat guide Train Tripping Eastern Australia. The self-guided railway adventure will give you a run-down of each station and major point of interest between Brisbane and Sydney, and turn your train trip into a real adventure of your own.


Monday 1 December 2014

Macksville: I'll drink to that


A couple of blokes opened a pub back in 1885 and inadvertently established a village called Macksville. Angus Mackay and Hugh McNally's Star Hotel quickly had a town spring up around it that took on the name Macks Village. In keeping true to our Aussie habit of giving everything a nickname, (and perhaps even shortening our nicknames even further), the town's name was changed to Macksville in 1889, well before the arrival of the first train in town. By 1919, the railway line had arrived in Macksville from Kempsey to the south, and almost 100 years later trains still call at this town of 2,658 on the North Coast Line. As for the pub? The Star Hotel is still there, restored and ready to keep serving up views of the Nambucca River for another hundred years. Trains and a pub, I'll drink to that!


Macksville Railway Station on the North Coast Line, looking south 2007.

Macksville's railway station is a type 12 Ac4 station building that was once a common funcionalist design used during the 1st World War. More than 140 of these pre-fabricated concrete station buildings were built across New South Wales, and Macksville Railway Station is one of only a few of these buildings still remaining today.

Macksville Railway Station looking to the north. Photo taken 2007.

Today, Macksville has 3 return XPT's to Sydney stop at its 1919 station building. There is still a small yard and an attached goods shed standing opposite the platform, and a passing parade of interstate container trains between Sydney and Brisbane that rumble throughout the night. Macksville Station looks as though it would make a fine candidate for a model railway. I covered the North Coast Line from Brisbane to Sydney and back in my book Train Tripping Eastern Australia, but passed through Macksville in both directions in the wee hours of the morning. So the photos you see were taken by myself back in 2007, during one of my whistle stop photo shoots while driving to Port Macquarie for a family holiday.


Available now through my Books page

See also: Nambucca Heads: great looking railway station!