This is just delightful: a 15 minute film from 1964 made by the Australian government, to explain all about Australia's railways. It's fascinating recent history:
Australia has been on my list of places to visit for a looong time. That's just made me want to go. Right now.
Meanwhile, here's one from 15 years earlier -- 1947, when the memory of Japanese invasion was still fresh, and the railways were struggling to cope with numerous different gauges:
I loved the animation in the middle of that. Utterly delightful.
3 comments:
You simply must come to Australia. We have the very latest in intercapital rail travel: the XPT whose timetable is accurate to the nearest hour and whose position in space is determined by a bloke standing on the railway bridge now equipped with the latest in hi-tek equipment, the binoculars. We have the RailComedy channel, aka Australian Rail Track Corporation, whose technicians located the level of the broad gauge line upgrade from the level of the adjacent Standard gauge line using new digital equipment: a bit of 3 x 2 held by the fingers. The latter project (200 miles of track) has taken two years. It is being pulled up because ARTC buggered Attempt One that left mud puddles under the sleepers. The puddles caused adjoining trucks to de-couple. NB. The best comedy can always be found in govrnment and corporate ineptitude. Australia has lots of comedy.
My, my Spike, we're long overdue for a lunch!
You forgot the comedy of closing the City Loop down for 40 minutes so they can 'reverse directions', and a ticketing system, original priced at $250 million that is now out to billions, and still doesn't work (I'm on my third card in 8 months).
And in light (!) on the article on boom gates above, there is also the rather amusing situation of Sydney having very few level crossings, and Melbourne very few that are not...
Yes, yes, I think it is high time for our dear friend to come out to Australia. There is also nice places apart from trains to take him-a couple of nice warm beaches spring to mind, but alas, given our fair skin, both of us are more than likely to be shrivelled by sunlight, not cool water.
You'll want to try The Ghan towards Darwin. Not that it actually gets to Darwin, nor that it will continue to do so (or not) for much longer, as it seems to be losing money hand-over-fist and may well be for the chop only a few years after having been opened!!
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