Re: Southern Arurora

["Rod" <berlina@bigpond.com>]

David Proctor wrote in message <7btpib$m2c$1@news.mel.aone.net.au>...
>Les Brown wrote in message <36e26590.43919876@news.ocean.com.au>...
>
>>The money side is not the problem for most business people, if it were
>>then they would travel up stand-by the night before.
>
>Stand-by is no longer available - and that is also not what my corporate
>clients told me - they were operating to very tight budgets, and were most
>p***ed off that they could not take advantage of cheap airfares.
>

sorry mate, but I ran the SA and Spirit [as a F'man and a few times as a
Driver] and I socialised with the catering staff and Connies [well I was
younger then] and the Sleeping cars of both trains were well patronised by
the Corporate sector! and right up to the end. A few whiskies and pleasant
company [Yes they were on board too] would smooth out the roughest of
tracks.
Some Rail Crews forget that the cars travel much more smoothly than the
Engines!
The SG in Victoria was a much better track in the 70's and 80's.
S class and X Class Locos with Secondary Suspension [since replaced with
solid rubber blocks!] had a far better ride and did far less damage than the
22 tonne axles that are running now [Yes I know what the books say...but how
much did a B or for that matter a C really weigh??]
Anyway went to Gold Coast in Dec, and had no trouble sleeping at all...in
the XPT
Rod