Mar 10 2010
You too will be able to take photos at this location real soon now
Word from the Infrastructure people is that kind weather, and less than expected damage means that the Savannahlander should get right through to Forsayth next week (Trip Departing 17 March). Fingers crossed than any rain that comes through from now on, is only moderate, and only enough to keep the country green and the rivers flowing.
Mar 05 2010
As mentioned in the previous post, we only had track as far as Almaden this week, and Mike and Matt crewed the first train for the truncated journey. The trip was shortened to a two day journey, with an overnight stop at Almaden for the train, and Chillagoe for the crew. The first part of the trip was purely a staff run, where our ‘occasional’ drivers came along to re-familiarise themselves with operations and procedures. At Mareeba, we got rid of the surplus staff, and picked up our first passengers for the year, a local couple taking advantage of the short trip for a quick overnighter to Almaden. There was also a group of senior citizens out for a day excursion and luncheon at Almaden. For this, they took advantage of our DDA Facilities in car 2053. Matt was interviewed by a local reporter, as this was being done as a low cost community service for the old people. We’ve not seen the article yet, but it must have been published, because we received a query from an Atherton based aged care centre for a similar trip for their residents, on the morning of publication.
Continue reading “2010 First Trip – We’re Back Early!”
Feb 26 2010
The Savannahlander season is due to start next week but we have this news from the main web site:
The wet season in the Savannah regions has caused some track damage that will cause a delay to the start of the Savannahlander’s operating season. Repair completion dates are a week by week proposition, and shorter trips will be offered in the early part of the year. At this stage the Savannahlander will only be operating as far as Almaden.
This year there has been some damage to the Almaden to Bullock Creek section of the line. The full extent of the damage is unknown as track gangs have been unable to access the 30 km section between the Sandy Tate River and Bullock Creek. The damage that has been found so far is not as bad as last year so we’re hoping that the repairs will be much quicker. We should have a better idea of when the line will be open all the way to Forsayth some time next week.
Feb 09 2010
Each year, the Savannahlander runs over the four days of the Easter long weekend (2nd – 5th April 2010). This year we’re offering some extra-special deals over the weekend. You can read about them on the Savannahlander web site.
Feb 05 2010
You may think being a Savannahlander driver is the greatest job ever, sitting up the front, driving through some of the best country in Australia, staying above old Queensland pubs and sharing a beer with people from all over the world. Well its not all sunshine an lollipops you know, we work tirelessly to make your experience unforgettable, and if that means we have to drink coffee, eat cake and sample chocolate, then fine, whatever it takes!!
Continue reading “We’re Working Hard for You”
Feb 03 2010
With the growing popularity of both the Savannahlander and Chillagoe, it was getting very difficult to get accommodation in the town during our Wednesday overnight visit there. This problem has been compounded by various factors, including:
Fortunately this year sees the refurbished Chillagoe Post Office Guest House come on line and pretty well save the day for us.
Continue reading “Accommodation Feature – Chillagoe Guest House”
Jan 15 2010
As many of you will know the Savannahlander only runs for 42 weeks a year. One question that we get asked a lot is “What do you do for the 10 weeks that the train isn’t running?” . Well now that we’re back at work after the festive break and feeling refreshed after a couple of weeks off it’s probably a good time to let you all know what happens around here during the off-season. The 10 weeks that we aren’t running out to Forsayth go very quickly. Most of us have a couple of weeks off over Christmas/New Year and then we have 8 weeks left to do the jobs that get left until this time of year.
Continue reading “Back to Busy-ness”
Dec 04 2009
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Today, in my email inbox, there was an interesting piece of correspondence amongst all the spam. It was a press release sent by the Department of Transport with information about regional air contracts. Reliable air connections out to the Gulf Country are an important link in combining our Savannahlander with the Gulflander. Since the demise of the previous air operator, the service has been operating under an emergency contract. Refer to this post about our earlier concerns. Some extracts from the press release:
Continue reading “News Snippets No. 5.”
Dec 01 2009
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When a special gang is sent out along the line to tidy up a few missing signs, like say, whistle boards, then you as an operator on the line has to be happy that there must be buckets of money, especially when they place boards like this:
To protect a ‘level crossing’ like this:
or this:
Multiply that by a couple of dozen, and that is about what has happened recently.
Continue reading “Maintenance Priorities”
Nov 17 2009
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When there has not been a post here for a couple of weeks, and then the drought is broken by a trusty ‘news snippets’ post, you know that things are slowing down. Not entirely accurate, there is rarely nothing happening, it’s just that the issue might be shrouded in confidential secrecy, or plain old malicious gossip – and we leave that sort of stuff to the mainstream media.
Continue reading “News Snippets No. 4″
If you can't join us on the Savannahlander right now, some aspects of this unique journey are waiting for you in these pages.
