Re: Auzzie.rail catching up.

[Anita Lukaszyk <neety@iprimus.com.au>]

maikha_l@hotmail.com wrote:

> I wanted Otford so I can be just 'outside' the Surburban Network for my
> train spotting.

Why not go to Lapstone? Its just out of the SSA, and is a hell of a lot
closer.

> It is to my discovery that the next service arrivng at Otford going
> back to Central (5:17pm arr.) will get to Central at 6:17pm which I'm
> sure for some of us seems fairly late)

No. Late is when you get the 00:48 train (OGTT) after a 12 hour shift.
Or is that early? :-)
 
> The services are the following:
> Penrith: 7:20am or 7:42am Service to Katoomba
> Katoomba: some service I can't seem to recall getting to Central at
> 10:24am.

I was up at Valley Heights the other week. If you go to the down end of
the platform, you can get
some good shots from there. The platform is quite narrow up there and
has no white fence.

> It is there that arrangements to go down south is too complicated so
> I'll unfortunately have to sacrafise the South Coast Line for my day.
 
I'd rather go down South than to the Mental Coast :-)

> At Central I'll do a fair bit of 'peak-hour' spotting before getting on
> the 4:45pm service back to my home in Penrith.

That wouldn't be the Mt Victoria service that is a u stop at Penrith is
it? :-)

You can get the Brisbane XPT that leaves (IIRC) at 16:24

> P.P.S. Anyone here know anything good I can do at Hawksburry River,
> other than stand around for 2hrs? Gosford or Wyong?

Go for a swim?

Read Eric's post re: filling time in between trains.

> P.P.P.S. Any rail pass on Cityrail that can get me further west and
> north? A pass suggested by someone previously might be too short.

A Purple TravelPass will let you go anywhere between Cowan, Richmond,
Emu Plains, Macarthur and Otford (CREMO). Its the largest travel area a
TravelPass can get you. I can't really tell you much more (although I'm
supposed to know...) 

I would strongly suggest that you don't cram everything into one day:

1) You are on holidays
2) Some train is going to be running late (or another problem) and that
will stuff up your connections for the rest of the day.

-- 
Anita Lukaszyk
neety@iprimus.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~neety