MATT TAYLOR shows us what he saw on a recent trip to Australia.
This summer my partner and I decided to take a trip to not so sunny Australia. We took off from Heathrow and thirty hours later we arrived in Sydney. I have visited Australia before, but the flight is just a killer even though I'd done it before. We spent three weeks in Sydney and Melbourne and along the way I couldn't not stop to take in some of the local railway sights on the way!
In the first week we visited the Blue Mountains, which is home to an attraction called Scenic World. Scenic World is one of the best ways to see the Blue Mountains from either the Scenic Skyway, Scenic Cableway and the Scenic Railway. The Scenic Railway is in the Guinness Book of Records as the steepest railway in the world, with an angle of 52 degrees of incline. The original railway was built in the 19th Century to serve the Katoomba coal mine, but in 1945 it was opened for tourists. For over 70 years now it has thrilled around 25 million passengers.
The original car that use to take people up the mountain.
The unit arriving at the bottom station.
Once we arrived in Melbourne we decided to visit the Yara Valley, which is a famous area for Australian wines. I agreed, as more of a beer drinker, to be the driver for the day. But on our travels around the area I came across a preserved railway in a town called Healesville. The Yarra Valley Railway runs between Healesville to Tarrawarra Estate, running on Wednesdays during school holidays and every weekend. Although I arrived on a day that it was closed, I had to have a look around.
The railway was originally opened on 1st March 1889. The track was mostly built over flood plains and it had around 3km of trestle bridge to traverse. We saw the trestle bridges close to the roadside but unfortunately, I did not have a chance to take a picture. Today they continue to restore units and they do plan to try and restore and operate the railway with more locomotives and increate the track length.
As you can see, even a form of Wickham Trolley has made it to the Yara Valley!
For people who are interested in cars we also visited the Trafalgar Holden Museum. This collection of classic cars made by General Motors was a interesting stopping point on our way back to Sydney.
Outside the museum is a Holden tram, built around 1925 before they were bought by General Motors.
Finally, back in Sydney, I had to get a picture of one of the local commuter trains that we used throughout our holiday. Sydney's rail network is a combination of underground and overground services and it works quite well. The main city is setup in a loop style, with lines going off in different directions. The Opal card is a similar system to the Oyster card used in London. Prices are capped at around $50 per week, which makes rail travel an attractive option when visiting Sydney. I do admit the number of cars on the road does look a lot less compared to a city in the UK.
Hopefully, you enjoyed what I found in Australia and you are always welcome to Contact Us with any comments into RIGHT LINES.