All aboard! Exploring the world by train

“Charge!” (with an acute on the e) called the tousled haired young man waving a large red flag as he strode down the concourse followed by his fellow workers. Brussells railway station, 2004.

The rail workers had called a strike and two trains were cancelled. We lugged cases up and down stairs from platform to platform. When a train did arrive and the strike was over in an hour there were three bookings for every reserved seat. It was a matter of getting to the seat first and staying put. I love travelling by train and this is one of my favourite memories.

Travel in Europe by train is as spectacular as the advertisements claim. Mind you, European, including British, train travel is not cheap so it is a good idea to search for deals and investigate Eurail passes, finding one that is right for your trip.

The scenery is so varied. Travelling from Amsterdam, via Brussells to Paris I found myself reflecting on this now peaceful green land had been ravaged by war over the centuries. The narrow, poplared roads recalled visions of fleeing refugees. Today huge highways cross the country and tiny villages with church spire and manor house flash by, by Australian standards so close together. Geneva to Zurich and on to Vienna gives awe inspiring mountain scenery with jagged peaks and tumbling shallow streams. Another favourite memory is passing through Innsbruck where the mountain peaks were covered in last winter’s snow while we ate a delicious veal dish in the dining car.

Innsbruck is the home of two of our granddaughters loved late Oma. She talked to us of skiing to school and walking out along the railway track at the end of the war.

The comfort of these trains adds to the pleasure of these trips: food, beverages, newspapers. Well behaved dogs. You could take a snooze if you wished, but there’s too much to see.

In Britain we passed farms from children’s story books, green fields and woods and turbulent coasts. At the start and end of each journey were the temples to the Industrial Age, Victorian Railway stations.

Through Italy we enjoyed conversation with a couple from Vancouver, kept a wary eye on a young boy hovering near the luggage racks. We were not the only ones scrutinising him, and he eventually got off at Padua scowling, luggage-less. The entrance to Venice as the line skirts the bay is also memorable.

These trips are so different from the steam trains of my childhood up and down the Queensland coast. Of course, I got a cinder in my eye when I poked my head out the window, having been told not to. I was totally outraged when my eighteen month old brother threw my doll out the window. Why couldn’t the train stop to get her?

The scariest experience of train travel was when the Burdekin flooded at Ayr. Trains were stopped in both directions, so passengers were rowed across the flooded river as logs swirled by. I was about five, and that experience remains my definition of chaos. We had relatives at many stops so when the train came in to refuel and passengers had tea and pies from the tearoom, our relatives would come down for a chat – even in the middle of the night! The Railmotor from Bowen to Townsville – a day trip – would stop for fish and chips somewhere. Orders would be taken , sent ahead and collected

In Australia I have enjoyed some classic journeys over the years. The Sunlander, the Southern Aurora, the Indian Pacific. I did the Sunlander and the Southern Aurora on my own while in my teens, visiting relatives. I enjoyed the buffet cars and slept comfortably. There is no way I would have let my schoolgirl daughters travel alone interstate, but times were different.

These days most of my train travel is up and down the South Coast of NSW. A great tourism opportunity has been missed. I’m sure overseas travellers would appreciate a cup of tea as they journeyed through the Royal National Park sometimes seeing deer, skirting the coast and its mining villages where whales can be spotted out to sea very occasionally, down to the industrial plain of Wollongong, then out through new sprawling residential areas, and across the Minnamurra, along Bombo beach. When you change at Kiama from the electric line the train goes through rich pastoral country, isolated beaches and tessellated pavements on one side and the towering escarpment not far distant on the other

Have you been lucky to experience travel by train? What was your experience like?