Re: Favourite train/tram [Aus wide]

[bscaro@hotmail.com]

> Just something I would like to know:
>
> What's your all time favourite rolling stock?

BEST:

Any old style compartment coach where you can open the windows.

WORST:

Tangara coach.  Not really that bad, they are just too plain to grab me.

> What's your favourite suburban train?

BEST:

NSW 620/720 railcars (before they put bars over the windows).

WORST:

Endeavours.  No grunt, when they get hot the alarms go off and they
shut down, and you can't turn the seats.

> what's your favourite interurban train?

BEST:

V set with an open guard's compartment and no railway police so I can
stick my head out and enjoy the 120km/h.

WORST:

Outer Suburban Tangaras.  Nothing really wrong with them- they just
aren't V sets.

> Favourite Intercity train?(v/line or XPT/tilt train or day trains)

BEST:

Haven't been on it, but the QR tilt sounds fun. An old Australind with
an XA up front would have been great too.

WORST:

Any Xplorer.  Look good, but no grunt.  Trundle through the Southern
Highlands about as fast as the Tasman Limited. Very disappointing.  Why
they bothered to build them I don't know.


> Favourite long distance train? (Land crusing style such as Indian
Pacific
> and Queenslander or mail train)

BEST:

An NSU/NT headed Ghan or Darwin-Larrimah mixed would have taken the
cake in past years. Currently, 42220/42203 with three shabby cars looks
the most interesting.

WORST:

North Coast XPTs.  Never fail to disappoint speed-wise.  I realise that
is the track, not the train, but the experience comes over as
disappointing.  And they only serve light beer, and XPT loos are not a
fit place to get a decent mull going.

> Favourite route?
> (can be suburban/intercity country branch, closed branch)

BEST:

Tasmania's Western Line (particularly Devonport-Wynyard). Surely the
prettiest line in the country.

WORST:

The Sydney Airport line.  So much wasted potential here, a better route
could have served a far wider area, Botany, Pagewood, Randwick etc.
Poorly designed stations.  Surcharge on fares.

>
> Favourite tram?

BEST:

SA Glenelg variety.

WORST:

The Star City Slug.  Worst case of interstate oneupmanship I've ever
seen.  Goes nowhere you'd want to go, and goes there slower than
walking.

> Favourite station?

BEST:

Derwent Park [Tas]. Hours spent watching cement, container, fertiliser
and acid shunts when I was a kid.  Sadly, closed up then burnt down by
vandals.

WORST:

Toss up of any Adelaide suburban station.  No information ,vandalized,
generally unwelcoming.  The trains, conversely, aren't bad at all.

At a pick ,the worst of them would have to be Port Adelaide -otherwise
known as Pigeonshit Heights.  An acre or so of baking ashphalt atop a
viaduct, with two dishevelled sheds.

FAVOURITE TRAIN OVERALL:

Eyre Peninsula grain trains in SA. Three different types of loco, 8
different types of hopper on the one train, wobbling all over the place
as they run through some starkly beautiful and desolate country to
grain silos in the middle of nowhere, and earning money while doing it.


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.