Vintage Australian railway film - All manner of trains - 1962

[@theoztreecrasher2647]

Intriguing look at history. Also interesting to see how the auto-generated Captions have a serious problem interpreting English as she was spoken by folks not named Thethil Gupta Louise Gilligumbari. The times they are a' changin'! 😵‍💫

[@NL-001]

In 1961 and 1962 I have traveled with the nighttrain from Sydney to Adelaide and back. It made such a big impression on my, being about 11 years old, I still remembered the view from the window and details of the interior. Would really love to see a train like that again.

[@tobys_transport_videos]

Sorry to tell you this, but in 1961/62 there was no "through service" from Sydney to Adelaide. In that era you would have travelled either on the South Mail overnight to Albury, then the _Spirit of Progress_ to Melbourne, *then* _The Overland_ to Adelaide overnight. In April 1962 the _Southern Aurora_ started running overnight all the way through from Sydney to Melbourne, along with the _Spirit of Progress._ "Direct" Sydney to Adelaide means via Broken Hill, which is only done on the _Indian Pacific,_ which started running sometime in 1970. Until then it meant getting the Western Mail to Parkes, then the _Silver City Comet_ to Broken Hill, *_then_* a Silverton Tramway's Narrow Gauge train to Peterborough, and a South Australian Railways Broad Gauge train down to Adelaide via Burra and Gawler.

[@mickcarson8504]

1962, sigh! My beautiful Australia. How I miss those days. Best times of my life.

[@captaincool3329]

Thanks for uploading this video. I may have been born after the turn of the millennium, but I'm nostalgic for these good times- Australia's greatest era- one which my ancestors witnessed. Things were simpler, speech more eloquent, and hard work was all one needed to be employed in a good paying job for life.

[@ThePaulv12]

What a load of crap. It was horrible then. This cheesy vid paints a picture of complete fantasy. Still it is an interesting vid but as for the other stuff the reality of life now compared to then, is far in favour of now, but perhaps less so for the gunzel I admit.

[@scotttimpson7269]

@ThePaulv12 Other than better medical services, safer work practices and a bit less racism (maybe), international cuisine and good coffee. What is is that is better now ? Loss of more native vegetation and native animals, poor quality expensive and energy hungry houses creating ugly urban sprawl, bitumen roads crisscrossing the landscape, or is it the convenient access to fast unhealthy food, bottle water, takeaway coffee and other crap easily accessible in a modern society ? I was born in 1967 and wish I was born 10 - 20 years earlier.

[@jamesgovett2501]

Great shot of Antill Rangers Commer knocker semi at 27.09 and TNT’s R190 petrol powered or R200 diesel powered inter coming off the train and love the shot of the Wig Wag level crossing warning signals when the SA’s red hen goes thru

[@johngrae2946]

What a great vid, brought back many wonderful memories.

[@gregbowen617]

I traveled from Cairns to Melbourne and back by train many, many times when I was young… on the Sunlander, Brisbane Limited, IntercapitalDaylight, Southern Aurora and Spirit of Progress

[@simonf8902]

This guy makes a marvellous trip. Not possible today.

[@australiantrains8988]

Brilliant video, those were the days when we actually had a railway when pride and public service mattered and a job for life and not dollar profits. Thanks for resurrecting this classic. Gauges across the country have yet to be standardised (mentioned in the intro) as QLD and Tasmania still out of the sphere of progress. Then again, as Sir Joh would say..."Don't you worry about that!".

[@Parlophonic]

What a splendid film. Thank you so much for posting.

[@nathansmith2062]

Thanks for that. I used to have that footage on VCR which i wore out by watching it over and over again as a child. Was great to watch it again

[@tobys_transport_videos]

It's amazing to think that film is dated 1962 - 62 years ago in 2024! I must have been watching it since I was 10 or younger! It's so sad yet amazing to see that *_EVERYTHING_* has changed so dramatically since then, and not for the better!

[@johnhermann8121]

I have watched this film a number of times; and I never get sick of it!

[@TheDaf95xf]

Absolutely fantastic video 👍🏻 Hopefully the railways will have its day again 😀😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@ianomeara3963]

We have lost most of those trains. And a way of life.

[@tobys_transport_videos]

With the exception of _The Overland_ and _The Australand,_ none of these trains still exist. The _Sunlander_ is totally gone, the _Trans Australian_ is long gone, the _Brisbane Limited_ is gone and is an XPTrash, as are the Sydney - Melbourne services. We have seen the best of Australian trains, sadly... 😔

[@darylcheshire1618]

Sad to note the Far West Express to Bourke became a bus in 1974 twelve years later.

[@pixelwash9707]

Interesting to see the automation of laying the tracks, but the big problem in my experience of long haul Aussie railways was how bumpy they were when I travelled on them in the eighties. The roads improved a lot with time, so I found the buses actually more comfortable than the trains for overnight trips.

[@tobys_transport_videos]

Todays' rail tracks are no better than back in the 80s! I was only a young railfan back then, but I remember once every two years of so getting to ride the Mail Trains in NSW. Great memories!!! 😍😍

[@antoniocareddu4094]

bellissimo video.

[@ulrikezachmann7596]

This is a great piece of history and it is a shame many railway lines have been shut and left to rot with little vision of a rail future. It will cost twice as much to open them again. If we want a greener planet we need railways more than ever. Very sad we don’t have the older style trains anymore either. Now we have these commuter coffins where you cannot open a single window and suffocate when the air con isn’t working in summer and made in Korea.

[@jimstrainsandstuff9539]

Love the footage! Brings back memories from my early childhood. ( I think I came out of the womb loving trains! )

[@studebaker4217]

Fascinating in so many ways, thank you.

[@ianomeara3963]

Just about all those trains have disappeared how 😞

[@Tom-Lahaye]

What a different time, lots of the work was still very physical despite some level of mechanisation, those sacks with copper ore must have weighed a lot. Some of the locomotive classes shown have still examples soldiering on almost 60 years later, the standardisation of track gauges has not yet been completed, and in the end long distance trains have lost against the plane. Many promises in this film have not been turned to reality, however freight traffic has seen a lot of improvements in much larger train loads, modern rolling stock with mechanical methods of loading and unloading, and using containerised transport which has eliminated a lot of that back breaking transshipment work.

[@Sam_Green____4114]

Which promises weren't turned to reality ?

[@chieffirefigherplays]

Ah, trains, I love how you guys post these Archive footage! Just astounding how you guys get your hands onto this.

[@michaelwatson5976]

At approximately 33:00 there’s a Ballast Regulator similar to one you might recognise.

[@christianvaz-od2cq]

Very interesting!.

[@johnclayden1670]

Fascinating! My rail experience is thus far limited to Canberra to Sydney vv.

[@zanelindsay1267]

At 23:27 "... Latrobe Valley Victoria is the site of Australia's largest known brown coal deposit" with "enough coal here to supply the State Electricity Commission ... with fuel for the next 4,000 years." Isn't that reassuring.

[@simonf8902]

It took till 1970 till you get from one side to the other.

[@HenryOrsm]

2:14 is that electrified?

[@BennettBrookRailway]

It is.

[@Sam_Green____4114]

Did George get his travel free ? l bet he did, working for the railways himself !! l got free travel in the UK and Europe as l worked for British Railways for 25 years. l Travelled all round Europe for free three times in 25 years and got a 50% discount crossing the USA coast to coast !!

[@FoelyZ89]

A nice job by the railways for Australian notorious mad tennisser Kyrigos and a therapy to act normal in life and learn to behave himself. 😌

[@Sam_Green____4114]

Not the case now l'll bet !! Trucks took over !! l bet a lot of these lines are closed !!!