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Canberra Today 26°/28° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Gunzel Rodney’s many tales from the rails

RODNEY Avery is happy to be called a “trainspotter”, although he doesn’t spend his days recording the minute details of every locomotive, carriage and caboose that has ever crossed his path.

Instead, he’s capturing the sort of information about trains that’s much more interesting and useful to the rest of us, and put it in his second book, “Great Rail Journeys of Australia”.

Talking trains with Avery on the disused platform at the Canberra Railway Museum in Kingston, it’s not hard to see the beauty in the old steam engine that sits in front of us, waiting patiently to take the next load of day trippers to Bungendore for the markets. Surely, however, it takes a true “gunzel” (train enthusiast) to feel excited by the ordinary, modern kind that take passengers from Canberra to Sydney, for example.

“I don’t know why I like trains,” he says. “I’ve never been able to figure that one out. I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but now I just accept that I enjoy them. They make me happy for some reason – why doesn’t matter to me.”

Regardless of the reason, riding trains, writing about trains and taking photos of trains are the key elements of a serious hobby for the 46-year-old public servant, who chose to ride around the country on the freight-hauling variety for his first book.

In “Great Rail Journeys”, he has aimed to produce something for a wider audience – not just his fellow gunzels – and not just as a travel guide, either. “It is a book to be read from cover to cover for the pleasure of reading it alone,” according to the dust jacket.

“It’s a happy book, it’s enjoyable, it’s highly positive and it talks about journeys that you do, not for the sake of getting somewhere or reaching a destination, but for the act of getting there,” says Avery.

“It combines a travelogue theme, where you get the experience of doing the journeys, with the history behind them, so you can understand the context and how these journeys came to be, who built the railways, why they built them and the obstacles they faced.”

The Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains – Rodney’s number one recommendation to Canberrans – is a good example of what he means. All around Australia are such remnants of the amazing railways that conquered the mountains, deserts and vast distances between Australia’s population centres, before being replaced by newer, but somehow less impressive engineering solutions.

Unfortunately the Zig Zag is currently closed for repairs, but after spending more than a month and several thousand kilometres sitting on trains, the author has plenty more suggestions.

“When it comes to luxury and being spoiled, the Sunlander from Brisbane to Cairns would be the best – the food was just exceptional – but if you want to take young kids on a trip, the Puffing Billy in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne is the best by far,” he says.

“If you want to spend as long as possible on a train, the best one is the Indian Pacific; it all just depends on what you’re looking for.”

Avery is quick to admit that his book lists no great rail journeys starting in the ACT, but he is adamant that this is only because he ran out of time.

“These ones here at Kingston are great!” he says, referring to the steam train rides put on by the local chapter of the Australian Railway Historical Society. “They do regular trips from here out to Bungendore and they do longer, overnight tours as well. And the Xplorer from here to Sydney is an enjoyable trip; it’s far better than taking the bus.”

“Great Rail Journeys” (Acacia Press), $39.95, available from acaciapress.com.au

 

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