Amazing Railway Journeys
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What do remember, to this day?
Have you been on an amazing railway, that totally took your breath away, with lovingly restored steam locomotives, carriages which took you back in time, towering bridges and heritage railway stations?
If you have, has this railway brought back memories of your childhood?
I am not old enough to have actually travelled on a steam train in its heyday, but I do have memories of some legendary railways, some of which unfortunately no longer run.
As my father was a suburban train driver on the Victorian Railways in Melbourne, and my best friend had an epic model railway in his garden shed, I was destined to have an interest in railways.
Heritage railways feature in some of the most interesting movies, including Back to the Future III and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade among others, making them a source of some of the most interesting scenes.
I remember travelling on the iconic Puffing Billy in the mountains near Melbourne. This train was resurrected in the early 1960s, and runs along a narrow-gauge railway, around sharp bends and over many trestle bridges, including one which is known world-wide.
This is a train in which, as a child (or an adventurous adult), you can sit on the window ledges in its open carriages and dangle your legs outside, brushing them on passing ferns, and enjoying (or gasping) at the sheer drop as you go over the bridges.
A similar narrow-gauge railway is the Walhalla Goldfields Railway, which runs in the mountain ranges in Gippsland in eastern Victoria, and features amazing bends and bridges, including a legendary bridge over the Thompson river.
The destination of this railway is the historical mining town of Walhalla, which features the Long Tunnel Gold Mine, among other amazing places to visit.
