60 Years of Australia's Southern Aurora! | St James Rail's Southern Aurora 60th Anniversary Tour

[@simonmitchell4800]

This popped up in my feed. Great footage, well put together! Nice to go back and revisit this. Danielle and I provided most of the carriages in this consistent (Vintage Rail Journeys). Now owned by Journey Beyond, so our objective of saving the carriages was achieved.

[@davidfmelbourne3473]

In the 70s I was living in Sydney, but had a business meeting monthly in Melbourne. I could have flown, but it made for a much longer day than necessary. The Aurora was the go to answer. Loved that I could make a booking and have a last business meeting over dinner before guests left the train and we pulled out of Central. A drink or two, perhaps a game of cards in the lounge car before a comfortable night, a shower and breakfast before pulling into Melbourne Spencer St (Southern Cross). I looked forward to those trips much more than the flying visits to other cities in Australia, The Southern Aurora was always the 'cut above' the Spirit of Progress and everyone on board felt special. The greatest mistake ever was to replace the two trains with a single Sydney-Melbourne express.

[@silvanacassanelli5339]

Excelente mis más sinceras felicitaciones Saludos cordiales desde buenos Aires Argentina

[@JB-ie9hj]

Wonderful to see these preserved The VR logo and colour much better that the purple they have today .

[@PaulinesPastimes]

Wonderful sights and sounds. I miss this train so much. I travelled on it quite a few times. Wasn't it wonderful to have an actual dining car and a single sleeper if you were travelling alone. Fab looking S class too.

[@robertcameron3455]

Thanks for the memories I worked the aurora many times and the spirit with the daylight and the riv

[@patrickbryant5224]

Superb. Great presentation by SEHC of the consist and a video that did it justice.

[@DaveNelson-t8s]

Very fond memories of this train seeing uncle off to Sydney from platform 1 Spencer Street usually hauled by X class loco in the 70s

[@Schony747]

The angle at Violet Town was a ripper and well thought out.

[@paulgriffiths8359]

Well I would of liked to have gone for a ride on this, never saw the tickets or mention of a trip anywhere, must not be looking ion the right spots LOL Great video and doesnt it all look splendid Thank you

[@edmundcarew7235]

Professionally videod, so thank you so much. Your videos are invariably very high quality and informative. The P class was attached at Goulburn at about 2345 on Saturday night 23 April 2022, but failed within a few minutes, so the S and T had to haul (further) dead weight. Thus the speed of the 'Aurora' was less than it ought have been, resulting in a 35 minute late arrival at Southern Cross. The train departs on Tuesday 26 April from Southern Cross at 1236 hours. Timetable is on ARTC site under 'notices'.

[@brucewilliams8714]

Magnificent. Great filming, lots of driving and setting up and moving on. But how on earth did you beat the train from Airport West to Southern Cross and not get booked? Clever! On my SA trips to Sydney I always chose 3rd sitting for breakfast as there was no need to rush, then move to the lounge car for the crawl into Central. Those were the days. Thanks for this.

[@Falkirion]

Judging from where he setup for the long shot at the Airport West viaduct I'd assume he was somewhere in Gowanbrae or Gladdy Park. Easy enough to make the run to Southern Cross in about 25 minutes

[@brucewilliams8714]

@@Falkirion Thanks for that. As you could guess, I only had a sketchy idea. His prep is so particular that it takes time. Cheers.

[@rjl110919581]

thank you for video

[@jeffarmstrong1308]

I was lucky enough to be on the train in Car A - the one behind the locos on the run to Melbourne. Acquisition of the tickets was pure fluke when I saw it mentioned in an email newsletter by the NSW Rail Museum. To say it was an experience would be a major understatement. The P was attached at Goulburn at about 2345. We were told that the P apparently has not been certified for use north of Goulburn.

[@AndrewCastlemaine]

The locos look magnificent - especially S303

[@camerond169]

Great video!

[@Melbournelost66]

As a kid in the 70s we went up to Sydney on the Aurora several times

[@WayneKline]

Hello Adam, another great professional Video as you always publish. Quick question if I may and if you know. When the train left Sydney it only had the S & T loco’s. By the time it arrived at Albury the P was added. You happen to know why and when? Thank you.

[@DaleDix]

Good video, we used to go on the SOP because it was free for employees and you only had to pay for the beds so I'd watch it go off first. Can't see how they could do a blues and gold N though.

[@kennethball9042]

Built by Comeng and Air conditioned by Dane Trane / Sigma. Built in Australia!!

[@sammy_dog]

man is there a better lookin diesel engine loco in the world than a S class in VR blue and gold if there is ill like to know

[@mikevale3620]

Very professionally presented video. It's a great pity that in today's environmentally conscious world and bearing in mind the heavy passenger loadings, post COVID on its replacement, the XPT that there is definitely a niche sleeping car market looking to be catered for on a re-instated nightly Southern Aurora service.

[@johnd8892]

The southern aurora was such a big deal in 1962 that it inspired a record that made it into the top ten. Complete with diesel horn. Not too many music recordings had that : kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYm2noZ7h7aUobs Pity the Joy Boys did not choose the more photogenic S class for the record cover instead of the plainer 44 class. Traveled on the Aurora to Sydney and back on the early eighties for work. Took some convincing of work to save money sending me by train instead of a more expensive plane back then.

[@peterburke5894]

File under the category Stuff We Used To Make