Hi there,
Assuming you wish to travel on all the main interstate rail journey's then I can tell you the following:
Firstly this
website, the home website for Great Southern Railways which operate The Ghan, Indian-Pacific, the Overland and now the Southern Spirit, so its worth a look at.
Indian-Pacific:
The
Perth, Western Australia to
Sydney, New South Wales, via Adelaide, South Australia route, known as the 'Indian-Pacific', as it runs between the two oceans, is a twice weekly service. Normally the train that runs is hauled by '
NR class' locos which run on standard gauge track. The train can be run with anywhere from 1 to 3 locos, 2 is more likely and usually the lead loco is in 'Indian-Pacific' livery, with following locos in Pacific National livery, as G.S.R lease the locos of them. There are four
NR class locos in navy blue Indian-Pacific livery, NR25, NR26, NR27 and NR 28.
The journey is exceedingly long (4,352 km or 2,704 miles) over 65 hours so take plenty of books as the scenery will be quite nice for the first few hours, but baron and boring after a short time.
Key/major places the Indian-Pacific stops at are Kalgoorlie (W.A), Cook (S.A), Port Augusta (S.A), Adelaide (S.A) and Broken Hill (N.S.W) as well as a few other places as well.
What can you expect to see? Well apart from the countryside of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, which can of course give you some of the best views you will ever see, nothing like the UK countryside that's for sure.
One place you will stop at is a town near the South Australia/Western Australia border called '
Cook', which apparently has a population of less than 5 and is pretty much a Ghost town. The train stops there as its a place to refuel the locos. As I have never done the journey, I cannot tell you much more about it.
G.S.R website page.
Wiki page on the 'Indian-Pacific'.
The Ghan:
The Ghan is the interstate rail line linking Adelaide in South Australia to
Darwin in the Northern Territory twice weekly and weekly in off peak times (November to May). The name comes from the time when Afghan camels ran a similar route before they built the railway, for those that did not know that.
The journey again can be quite numb at 2,979 km or 1850 miles over 48 hours, although The Ghan is said to have the best views of Australia you will ever see in that level comfort, so I highly recommend it.
Again, The Ghan is usually run by NR class locos, although in some cases other types of locos can be used as non-lead locos. Lead locos are usually in
The Ghan livery. There are 3 NR locos in Ghan livery, NR74, NR75 and NR109 with 1 AN class loco also in Ghan livery.
Key/major places The Ghan stops at are Port Augusta (S.A), Alice Springs (N.T), Tennant Creek (NT) and Katherine (N.T) as well as a few tiny places as well.
One point you need to know is that the station in Darwin is quite a way out of Darwin and there is a connecting coach service that takes you into the centre of Darwin. Taxis I think are available if you wish to go elsewhere. The station is staffed for when the train arrives, so there will be someone there to assist you if necessary.
G.S.R website page.
Wiki page on 'The Ghan'.
The Overland:
The Overland is the main rail link between
Melbourne in Victoria and
Adelaide in South Australia. It operate 3 times a week and travels a distance of 828km or 515.5 miles over 9 and a half hours. The Overland leaves from Melbourne's
Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street) which has connections to suburban trains and regional trains and coaches as well as trams and the Sky Bus service to Melbourne Airport.
In Adelaide the train and all other G.S.R operated trains terminate/stop at
Adelaide Parklands Terminal, where connections are available to Adelaide suburban trains via an overpass to Keswick (pronounced with a silent 'W') Station and local buses to the centre of the Adelaide.
While in Adelaide be sure to ride the famous Glenelg tram which runs between Glenelg/Mosley Square and Adelaide City West. It is operated by Bombardier 'Flexity' trams, but if you are lucky enough you may see the old
H class trams, Adelaide's equivalent of Melbourne's famous
W class trams trams.
The journey from Melbourne to Adelaide is quite nice as it follows the main line to just outside Geelong before veering off to the right on its way to Ararat, the first of 7 stops being Ararat, Horsham, Dimboola, Nhill, Bordertown and Murray Bridge.
Recently the service was refurbished so there are nice carriages to ride in. Unfortunately despite the journey being quite short compared to the other services, this one can run exceedingly late and as well as being delayed along the way, mostly in Victoria where the train can sit in passing loops for periods of time due to it being single track. This normally occurs between North Shore Geelong and Ararat.
I have rode on this train, only as far as Ararat becuase Ararat is as far as you can go on the service because you can get a
V/line train back to Melbourne on the Ballarat/Ararat line. The Overland service does not travel through Ballarat because the line is broad gauge.
Again, NR class locos are used on this service, there are no locos in 'Overland' livery so you can expect any
NR loco, and there are over 100 of them, local rumors speculate that an NR loco will be given 'Overland' livery at some stage in the near future.
Note, there are no services on Christmas day.
G.S.R website page.
Wiki page on 'The Overland'.
Southern Spirit:
The Southern Spirit is a new service that runs between
Brisbane and Alice Springs via Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, its so new that even I had no idea about until I looked into this stuff for you. More info about it can be found
here.
Country Link XPT services:
Country Link is a New South Wales Government organisation co owned by the Sydney suburban transport operator City Rail. They operate rail and coach services all over
New South Wales and into Victoria and Queensland.
The '
XPT' services run between Central Station in Sydney to Brisbane Roma Street, Melbourne Southern Cross Station, Dubbo, Grafton and Casino.
There is only one service to Brisbane and it is an overnight service, while services to Melbourne are both during the day and over night.
The XPT service between Sydney and Melbourne is not the best, its a 12 hour journey, it stops more times than you can physically count, plus it rarely arrives or departs on time.
I have ridden on this service from Melbourne to Albury and I found it to be quite nice, the food was alright, although if its any idea, airline food is better and I found the arm rests to be too short for my liking. My advice is if you really want to travel between Melbourne and Sydney by train then so be it, but you won't miss much if you fly.
Country Link website.
Sydney to Melbourne XPT timetable.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If you have anymore questions please ask and I'll try and help you as best as possible.
