The Savannahlander

The last run of the Savannahlander for 2008 has happened, and the old girls are resting quietly in their shed, enjoying a well deserved rest after clocking up over 30,000 km during the year. The track and the terrain is not kind to these railcars, so the rest and recuperation is well earned. The end of the last trip signalled somewhat of a rest for one of the Savannahlander crew, with Gary heading into retirement - or a semi retirement at least. Sometimes you just can’t keep some people away from here.

Gary with the model

Gary came to us from QR when we first started running the Savnnahlander service in 2004. Gary (with Pat, our other original, and now retired driver) has been the backbone of the operation, and has set the benchmark for competence and customer service that has become the goal for our those that will follow him.

After the Savannahlander was ‘put to bed’ last Saturday evening, Gary was presented with a mounted model of a Savannahlander Railmotor in front of a gathering of the CKS staff and families.

Although retired, we haven’t seen the last of  ‘Gaz’ yet as he will be used on some of next years charter trips, and he will be dropping in from time to time to make sure that his high standards are being maintained.

Tags: Savannahlander

Our little friend, highlighted in the foreground

We’re always on the lookout for track obstructions while driving the Savannahlander. We get all sorts of things in our way - railway sleepers, rocks, police cars.  Kangaroos, wallabies, wallaroos, emus and cattle are common obstructions but a few weeks ago we had an unusual encounter. We were between Fossilbrook Creek and Saltwater Creek (on the Mount Surprise to Almaden section of the Savannahlander’s route) when we spotted what looked to be a log over the line. As we got closer it started to look less like a log and more like a lizard. As we got even closer it ran clear of the line and we quickly identified it as a Freshwater Crocodile!

A bit closer up.

He (or she) was a bit under 2 metres long and about a kilometre from the nearest water. This is the furthest I’ve ever seen a crocodile from water and the first time I’ve seen a croc draped across the line. We took a few photos and left it to continue its overland trek.

Tags: Obstructions, Savannahlander

As this is being written the Savannahlander is on its last trip for the year, returning home to its shed on Saturday 20th. Until our first trip on 4 March next year, the railmotors will have their annual maintenance done, while the staff here will try to get rid of some annual leave. This means that the blog will probably deal with dreary maintenance matters rather than the exciting adventures from out in the bush.

With staff taking leave, it means there will be a slight reduction in the excellent service that is provided by the booking and administration staff. From close of business today, and through until the end of January, there is a better than average chance that you will be greeted by our friendly answering machine.  Basically we will be fully closed over the Chistmas New Years break, but from  January 5, the messages will be checked regularly, and we will follow up any queries you have as quickly as possible.

Now before the blog recedes into its own seasonal maintenance mode, I am hoping that we might get a story about a crocodile to finish of the interesting part of the year.

Merry Christmas and Happy new year everybody!

Tags: Maintenance, Savannahlander

It would appear that there is some unsolicited agreement with the comments made by Matt in this post in regards to the brewing scandal that the Savannahlander did not appear on the Queensland 150 ‘must do’ list.  Below we have quoted Mr Harold Best who offered this comment to another rail attraction that does appear on the list.

I travelled on both the Gulflander and Savannahlander earlier this year. I must say that I’m very surprised that the Gulflander appears on the “must do” list and the Savannahlander doesn’t. The Gulflander is interesting from a historical perspective but the terrain it travels through is hardly untouched - it follows the highway most of the way! The Savannahlander travels along far more interesting - through gorges and across ranges. While the crew on the Gulflander were quite competent the Savannahlander crew were far superior. I’d give both trains a go but feel the Savannahlander is a better experience and I’m disappointed I can’t vote for it.

We too are disappointed we can’t vote for it - we think the old Sav can give any attraction in Queensland a run for its money. Also, please note that we do not detract in anyway the service and experience offered by the Gulflander. This is in its own right a great trip and a worth entry into the Must Do list, and it is an important part of the region it runs in. Many thanks to Harold for those words.

Tags: Savannahlander

As promised a few posts ago, we have got around to updating the main website , with next years prices now published. Not too many surprises as there is an overall rise across the board, but one of the packages did actually come down. That is the pub crawl package, which thanks to a change of provider, is $4.00 cheaper in 2009. Not much, sure, but it’s better than a rise. The reduction came about because we have changed to the Almaden Railway Hotel for the first night, instead of sending participants over to Chillagoe on the bus.

Beer Garden - Almaden Railway Hotel

There is now an ‘online’ shop on the website. Although online, it is not ‘live’ as such because we haven’t set up a secure payment method for it yet - we’ll do that during the seasonal shut down (are you reading this Matt? ). However, if you see something there you want, let us know via the online booking contact form and we’ll arrange delivery and payment. Who knows, there just might be that ideal Christmas gift hiding in the shop!

Tags: Savannahlander

Graham4405 requested (or should I say hinted) that he would like to see another video of the Delaney Gorge. See folks.. we do read your comments!

Tags: Savannahlander

It’s getting hot out west at the moment. Hot and humid. Yesterday, we had a passenger who we thought was suffering a little too much from the weather out here. Luckily, Thursday is Flying Doctor clinic day in Mount Surprise and luckily they were running late. The clinic usually winds up at 11am and the Sav is due into Mount Surprise half an hour after that. The RFDS staff came down to the railway station and picked up our passenger, took him back to the clinic and checked him out. The medical staff decided that it would be best to fly our passenger back to Cairns and send him to the hospital. I headed over to the RFDS clinic at Einasleigh today and (after cries of “What - you’ve got another one for us?”) they told me our passenger was doing well when they put him in the ambulance at Cairns airport.

Our sincere thanks to the great staff from the RFDS for helping us out.

Be sure to support the RFDS by heading over to the Cairns visitors centre while you’re in Cairns for your Savannahlander trip.

The Savannahlander - Not a must do!

Those of you who have had the Sav on your must do list for a while can rest easy now. The Savannahlander is officially not a “must do” trip. The RACQ (with help from some other sponsors) is suggesting a list of 150 “must dos” in Queensland. Interestingly, there are many rail experiences included on the “must dos” including the Gulflander, Sunlander and Spirit of the Outback. We were a little surprised to find that the Savannahlander wasn’t included amongst these “must do” rail journeys. Then it was noticed that the other major sponsor of the promotion is the operator of a number of passenger rail services in Queensland. We now wonder if the addition of these services to the “must do” list was a “must do” for the RACQ to get dollars from a sponsor. What a sham shame!

You can see the entire “must do” list here.

Or suggest  something they missed here.

Tags: The Savannahlander

It is written somewhere in our safety management system that Safety is our number one priority. If it wasn’t, the regulator wouldn’t allow us to run the train. So rather than pay simple lip service to this statement, throughout the year safety auditors descend on our operation and work furiously to ensure we are in complaince with our safety system. In the end, this benefits the crew and our passengers because being a safe operator greatly lessens our chances of damaging the people or the rollingstock.

The Savannahlander team seemed to pull through the first two audits okay - they happened about a month from each other. Really, the are handy things, because the people we appoint as auditors come in with fresh sets of eyes and can see things that we over look or take for granted. Sometimes they might suggest things based on their experiences of being a part of a larger rail operator, which might be impracticable for a small group like ours, however, often they come up with gems of suggestions which can positively enhance our service. Sure, the resulting reports can often mean loads of extra irritating work, but we learn to live with that.

One of our auditors has a bit of an eye for photography, so this post will feature some examples of her work. This also proved a great distraction for the crew, because while she was busy with the camera (nearly 700 photos in four days I hear) she was not breathing down their necks!

Photos by R. Edwards:

From top to bottom, left to right -

So you think you have to get up early for the Savannahlander? Here we see the lads doing preps early on Wednesday Morning

At Mareeba, with the clunky QR gate lock taking up much of the foreground action

At Lappa, with the thirsty old dry ex pub, the Espanole, in the background

The Boys, Having a blow at Cafe Bloodwood

The Full moon, setting over the Cross Buck level crossing sign, early morning at Forsayth

The railmotor in deep shadow, Kuranda Station

At Mareeba

At Lappa

The Boys

Full moon and cross buck

The Railmotor

Tags: Audit, Photo

Today the train rattled proudly into Forsayth, after 5 weeks of having to pull up short due to the track condition. Reports from the crew indicate that the completed work is first class.

Tags: Forsayth, Savannahlander