Crossing Australia by Train in 1965

[Music] this video is an upgraded and revised version of my Richmond of Perth by train in 1965 it is one of my first YouTube videos and is a bit rough I got some good feedback but also received some quite negative reactions especially in regard to the music I used this version hopefully corrects these problems and now's actual specific train sounds taken from our archives as well as more appropriate music once again it is a record of my first trip home from Sydney on annual Eve by train to Perth the standard gauge line has not yet been built so it actually took eight trains to travel from the Richmond Air Force Base to my home at oat Street in Western Australia note that not all the footage was taken in 1965 quite a bit of the other raway action was filmed up till about [Music] 1970 I spent most of my time at the Richmond Royal Australian Air Force Base in New Wales about 65 km west of Sydney located at the foot of the Blue Mountains I joined the Air Force in April 1965 at the age of 17 and after receiving initial training at Edinburgh Air Force Base in South Australia and in Lon in Victoria was posted here to Richmond we have now moved outside of the base to the May winter to Richmond Road which runs between the runway of the base and the railway line today from an defense line a United States Air Force c141 style left the lands then we turn around and immedately observe a new well government Railways rail M set going past this picture is dated by the car a 1969 xw model Ford Falcon to the west of the base lies the Richmond station and Township this is at the end of the single track Branch line from Richmond to Blacktown connecting with Sydney bound trains Sydney lies 65 km to the east these rail Motors and trailers they classified cph and cth more commonly they called the 10 hairs because of the roof met radiators which look like rabbit's ears the wavy black lines on each side of the picture is caused by my video editor stabilization function as an attempts to keep the central picture steady this is especially important as the original film stroke is now over 50 years old and is deteriorated and [Music] [Music] stretched [Music] from the Richmond station yards we relocate now to a point just west of the claran station a little bit over 3 km to the east alongside of the Air Force [Music] Runway [Music] [Music] the Richmond Railway is a branch Line running off the main Western Line originating at Blacktown in the peak hours the 10 hairs were supplemented by the more modern 620 720 class Ro cars here at Clarin opposite direction trains approach each other on the Seagal track line there's no passing Loop just a stub ended siding the black Town bound train pulls into the claron and then reverses into the siding to wait for the Richmond bound train to pass and runs forward again to resume its journey to Winter and the black [Music] town [Music] [Music] our journey to Perth in Christmas 1965 commenced with boarding our first train at Windsor station a 10 here for the journey to Blacktown at Blacktown we changed to our second train a red Rattler coming from penth on route to Sydney on the main Western line here we take a break from our Perth bound journey to have a look at trains on the main Western [Music] Line w [Music] we now take a trip out to baist a town 240 km West while rail from Sydney the year is about 1970 and the Main St C gauge line through South Australia and Western Australia has now been opened our train they just passed over the mcari river bridge it is Heritage listed but is no longer used by trains we go out now on the main North Line at Gosford we see some steam still in service somewhere in use our wells we also found a South Australian Railways 830 class locomotive a version of the New South Wales 48 class shunting this seems to be on loan from the south Australia r [Applause] we return to Sydney Central Station to join our third train the standard gauge line here to South Australia has not yet been commissioned so we'll be catching the spirit of progress a standard gauge Victorian train down to Melbourne after an overnight run south on the spirit of progress Dawn finds a stretch air legs at the Aubry station on the border of of [Music] Victoria shortly after departing from auy station we cross over the Murray River passing into Victoria in Melbourne in the break before our next connection we go and have a look at an l-class electric Locomo inide to the train and then a tight red Rattler Suburban then we finish up with a blue and gold Paris Suburban oh [Music] sh our next train the fourth out our journey is the Overland running on the 5' 3 in Broad gauge line between Melbourne and Adelaide in South Australia on another day at another time we find this Overland train at Ballarat traveling towards [Music] Melbourne [Music] [Music] for the second time in 2 days we cross over the Murray River passing into South Australia our Locus have just been changed the Victorian Railway units have been taken off and the South Australia ones have taken over this little town is called Murray Bridge we paused at the station for a few minutes for a [Music] break in Adelaide the Suburban rail cars are called red hens the country services are operated by rail cars they call the bluebirds we spot some of these in the yards at the Ado station awaiting their next call to service I had originally thought that our next train was unnamed it travels to 230 km from Adelaide to Port Peri but thanks to Leo 1933 I now know that is called the East West Express this will be the fifth train on our journey [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] at Port Perry the broad gauge trains pull in onto the Southside platform the north side is used by the standard gauge trains heading across alore and to other points on the [Music] network here we see a bit of Railway action a com Railways standard gase train has arrived on the platform while on the opposite platform the South Australian roadways broad gase train is being prepared for a return trip [Applause] the standard gauge common with R train is shunted back into the yards for servicing clearing the track for a bud rail diesel car to arrive to unload before it two is moved off to allow our own train to be put onto the platform this venerable old brittle rail car in the yard has now been preserved by the steam Ranger Heritage Railway here we Bo our six train the Comm Railways trans train crossing nbor to reach culli in Western Australia [Music] the following day sees us 822 km west of Port austa we've arrived at cook a settlement on the trans line built to service [Music] trains [Music] ah the imagined joys of air conditioning comfort as we cross the hot nullable plane alas it was not to be so for me and my fellow soldiers sales and Amon we were relegated to traveling in antique non-air conditioned carriages at the time I was was less than impressed today however my story would be very different how many people alive can say that they have crossed another war in antique first class tet sleepers built in 1916 people would flocked to the Trackside fest with cameras to photograph things like [Music] this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] at kgly we bought our 7th train the narrow GA at Westland for the run into Perth before we bought our eighth train a per Suburban service for the run [Music] home [Music]

Channel: Terry Mercer

Views: 2,998

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Id: 2f6kiXvyg1g

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023