As I noted earlier this morning, Countrylink had an open day at the Canberra Railway Station this morning to celebrate their refurbished Travel Centre (which seems to be code for “booking office”) and, albeit not mentioned on their website, refurbished trains and new staff uniforms. As part of the open day, they had free return train trips to Queanbeyan, and 2CC were broadcasting live from the train station.
I went along shortly after 7am, stopping off to pick up a packet of Tim Tams for Mike Frame and the 2CC team. Below you will find photos of the train station, a trip to Queanbeyan and back, some video footage, and a photo of 2CC’s Mike Frame and Garden Gurus. As usual, all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
First up, the front of the railway station, where a sausage sizzle was being set up when I arrived.
[1]
[2]
Inside, 2CC were busy running their gardening show, anchored by Mike Frame and horticulturalised (for lack of a better word) by the Garden Gurus Merylyn Condon and Judy Refshauge (sorry, I’m not sure which one is which in this photo…I have never been able to work it out).
[3]
Inside the railway station, staff seemed almost excited about their refurbished Travel Centre, which spent most of the morning (while I was there anyway) dealing with enquiries.
[4]
They were also giving away balloons (and exploding many of them accidentally as they filled them with helium, producing a decent bit of atmospheric noise for the 2CC broadcast).
[5]
I quite liked the model train.
[6]
The train station has a coffee machine which produces a heated beverage which I wouldn’t call coffee, but I had two cups anyway. The first one was a sensible temperature, but the second one was so hot that I needed to use a padded sleeve of my top to hold the cup, in order to avoid being burnt.
[7]
[8]
The first free return trip to Queanbeyan started at 8am, which is well and truly after the morning Canberra to Sydney train departed at 6:37am, and was followed by other free return services every 45 minutes, except for a window of time around the 11:21am arrival of the Sydney to Canberra service (those passengers would probably have received a surprise when they got off at the busy open day).
[9]
To board the train, naturally you had to be given a ticket. They were using different colours of tickets for each trip, although I don’t think they were actually checking them. Amusingly, the tickets they were using were the Countrylink luggage tags.
[10]
[11]
Countrylink stations have interestingly elaborate identifying signs on the platforms.
[12]
The train to Queanbeyan and back had three cars.
[13]
Once on the 8am train (the first of the day), I noted the view, and the rather oddly worded sign (from a passenger’s perspective).
[14]
[15]
As the train took off, I noticed the collection of carriages at the Canberra Railway Station.
[16]
The 8am train travelling under the Monaro Highway.
[17]
And then under Ipswich Street in Fyshwick.
[18]
A video from the train as it passed Fyshwick and travelled under the Newcastle Street overpass. Apologies for the dodgy frame rate of this video.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here [19])
Video of cows in fog which the train passed on the way to Queanbeyan.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here [20])
A picture of the Queanbeyan Train Station. There was no time to get off the train as it only stayed at the station for a few moments.
[21]
A video of the train departing Queanbeyan.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here [22])
On the way back, the most spottable sight was the Direct Factory Outlet sign.
[23]
The train then arrived back at the Canberra Station, about 25 minutes after departing.
ct width=”425″ height=”344″>(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here [24])
I also filmed the departure of the 8:45 train.
(The original video can be downloaded by clicking here [25])
And before I left the platform, I noticed that the door to the luggage room was open, and lockers could be easily seen. Two of the lockers had old radio station stickers on them, one for 2CC.
[26]
And one for 2CC’s then supplementary FM station, Kix 106 (now Mix 106.3).
[27]
I then stuck around until 9am to see the end of 2CC’s garden show (which managed to get me roped in to doing the prize draw, to select that day’s lucky caller), and say toodles to Mike Frame who, incidentally, once he gets back from holiday in a couple weeks, will be 2CC’s permanent weekend morning host…and it’s fantastic to have him back permanently!
And that was my morning at the Canberra Railway Station open day. There is a similar event at the Goulburn station tomorrow which will be attended by 2CC’s sister station in Goulburn, 2GN. I, however, will not be there.
Samuel