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Visit to Australia in 2024 (page 2) (by Shane Conway)

Page last updated on 27 October 2024

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3rd and 4th OCTOBER 2024

A temporary relocation to accomodation in Box Hill was made on October 3rd, and on October 4th I made a few solo trips by Metro Trains. My destination was South Yarra, where I made my way to 308 Toorak Road, nowadays an Indian restaurant. Back in the 1960s the previous building on the same site was the Treble Clef coffee lounge, where towards the end of 1962, The Seekers first sang together. In effect it was Melbourne's equivalent of Liverpool's Cavern Club.

308 Toorak Road, South Yarra, once the site of the Treble Clef Coffee Lounge.

5th OCTOBER 2024

New South Wales Trainlink XPT powercar 2009 seen at Southern Cross station on October 5th, just before the day time departure to Sydney, a journey of eleven hours.

An early start saw us making our way to Southern Cross station in the city centre, with the train formed of a pair of three car sets (221M,1411T,222M and 882M,1641T,881M) built by X'Trapolis. Metro Trains have 460 electric train sets in use, of which 208 were built by X'Trapolis. The sixteen platforms at Southern Cross mostly handle local electric and diesel train services. However, a twice daily service to Sydney also starts from here, one during daylight hours and the other overnight, two trains each way with a journey time of around 11 hours. This service, operated by an NSW Train Link's XPT set, left Melbourne at 08.40 (ten minutes late), and was due in Sydney around 19.45, but as mentioned earlier the final 33 miles were by a coach transfer at Campbelltown due to track maintenance. The power cars aree based on the very successful British Rail HST concept, although there are several detail differences between both versions. Australia's more generous loading gauge allowed the locally built trains to be wider, and have 2+2 seating in the first class coaches. Our train on the day had loco 2005 at the Sydney end with 2009 at the back, and coaches 2183, 2234, 2154, 2202 and 2104 in between. On one of my trips to the catering vehicle, I encountered a somewhat grumpy employee who took umbrage at having to redo my transaction after I mistakenly tried to pay with my Myki travel card, instead of Revolut!! They are quite similar in appearance and colour, it has to be said. After treading its way out of Melbourne, the train served Broadmeadows, Seymour, Benalla, Wangaratta, Albury, Culcairn, Wagga Wagga, Junee, Cootamundra, Harden, Yass Junction, Goulbern and Moss Vale before arriving in Campbelltown at 19.28. Although the route is double tracked all the way, I only noticed one train pass us during the entire day, after darkness had fallen.

On arrival at Campbelltown, our coach was waiting and departed at 19.36 on a 46 minute journey to Sydney Central. Our vehicle (one of four) was 6155 MO of Transborder Express, a Coach Design bodied Mercedes 0500RF tri-axle machine. The day's travelling was completed by a short trip on 3029 ST on route 311, a Custom CB80 B47D bodied Scania K310 from the Transdev John Holland fleet. In the TJH fleet since since March 2022, 3029 was new in September 2019. As it was a bank holiday weekend, the annual Sydney Transport Heritage Expo was being held.

6th OCTOBER 2024

Our travels on October 6th started with TJH bus 3032 (3032 ST) taking us to Sydney Central station, from where we caught a local train to Blacktown, a 45 minute journey. All of Sydney's local trains are double decker electric sets, this one being set number A30 with eight coaches dating from 2012. Outside Blacktown station a rather special vehicle was waiting for our next part of the journey.....

Paul O'Bryan's superb 1965 Wolseley 24/80 mark 2. Little did I know I would be driving this car a short time later. A lovely car to drive all round, in beautiful New South Wales scenery.

Locally based Cambridge-Oxford Owners Club member Paul O'Bryan owns a very well kept 1965 Wolseley 24/80, which was our transport to the Blue Mountains. Most 24/80s (an Aussie six cylinder version of the 16/60) were originally made with a three speed column change, however this particular one was altered to a floor mounted five speed unit from a Nissan Sentra. After a short drive Paul suggested I take the wheel, which gave me the chance to drive a Farina again after several years. Interestingly part of my drive was along the M4 (in New South Wales), which reminded me that 25 years earlier I had driven my first ever Farina along another M4 in South Wales, UK!!! Anyway, despite the engine being derived from the UK B series 1622cc engine, the larger version certainly sounds different (perhaps because of the Nissan bits?). The larger engine and five speed box provides a vehicle that was well able to keep up with the fast moving heavy traffic on the M4. A short stretch on the A32 brought us to the Blue Mountains national park, from where Paul regained the driving seat for the rest of the day. After a coffee break and an impromptu tour of Katoomba, we saw a very nerve-wracking cable car operation across a deep valley -- the sag in the cables when the car is half way across would put me off using it!! A very nice late lunch was had in the Katoomba RSL club, before the Wolseley brought us to Katoomba station for a train back to Sydney. Having bade our farewells at Katoomba station, we waited for a Sydney bound train, which was formed of sets V19 and V47. These sets, dating from 1980 are the oldest in the fleet, and the carriages in each set seemed to be in random number order (V19 = 8047,9175,9107,8074 and V47 = 8100,9179,9122,8131). Transdev bus 1918 (1918 ST), a Custom CB60 B44D bodied Volvo B12BLE, dating from 2009 provided the last trip of the day on route 311 back to our hotel.

The Blue Mountains, as seen from the viewing area at Katoomba. The blue colouring comes from an abundance of eucalyptus plants on the slopes.

Our transport back to Sydney from Katoomba was on board electric train V47, seen here with V18 at Sydney Central station after we disembarked.

7th OCTOBER 2024

On October 7th, we made our way to Central Station on board bus 2768 (2768 ST) on route 311, this being a Bustech B45D bodied Scania K280. It was the last day of the Transport Heritage Expo, and the schedule for the morning was to cover pre-booked trips on a 1970s train across Sydney Harbour Bridge and then a 1902 steam powered boat under the bridge. The train was S28 (3765,4050,4013,3986) which took us through the City Underground, across the bridge into Lavender Bay Sidings, and then returning to Central. Here we transferred to a Mercedes 0305 (1923) with a Pressed Metal Corporation body, new in 1978, provided by Sydney Bus Museum for the shuttle to the harbour. The 45 minute cruise on the Waratah gave magnificent views of Sydney's waterfront buildings. Our return to Central was on a Smithfield bodied Leyland Leopard, 1765 which was new in March 1976. Its withdrawal from service in 1989 marked the end of both Sydney's Leopards and Leylands. After lunch I took a few trips on museum double deckers, on a 20 minute trip around the city centre. Buses sampled were two OPD2 Titans (2186 and 2761) and ex London AEC Routemaster RM1708, the latter being a real novelty as it drove around. The final journey of the day was on Transdev's 2768, the same bus as we had used that morning.

Some of the Leyland vehicles from Sydney Bus Museum which were seen over the weekend, including Titan, Atlantean and Leopard models, as well as a rare single deck AEC Regent III.

8th OCTOBER 2024

October 8th was our last day in Sydney. The return journey to Melbourne was made by a Virgin Australia Airbus A320 (VH-VFH) operating to Avalon. Prior to that, Transdev bus 2776 (identical to 2768) took us to Central, and from there Sydney Trains M4 (1007,1507,1508,1008) and M13 (1025,1525,1526,1026) did the airport service. The flight was just 90 minutes, instead of the very lengthy train journey of three days earlier. Avalon is mainly used for air freight, and sees just seven domestic passenger flights per day. The red painted Skybus coaches (Melbourne's only double deckers) link both airports with Southern Cross. Here we boarded number 151, which along with 150 are used on the Avalon route, both having 78 seats. The remaining fifteen (101 to 115) are 63 seaters used on the route to and from Tullamarine. Our last journey of the day was on another pair of X'Trapolis sets to Box Hill, these being 268M,1434T,M267 and 971M,1686T,972M. All these have the pantograph on the centre coach, and most of the ones I saw in pairs had the pantographs facing in opposite directions. In fact I think I only saw a three car set on its own just once.

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