April is Rail Heritage Month!

Is this how you get to work each day?

Perhaps that’s you sitting there – glum, despondent, indecisive about whether to wear a mask or not, half buried in that smartphone, with nothing but a creeping sense of existential doubt for company, and little to look forward to but that same trip… day in… day out…

Well, put away that phone, and turn that frown upside down!

When was the last time you travelled with style and grace, enveloped within authentic ‘olde-worlde’ charm?

Well, with all the hustle and bustle of modern life, we thought it’d be nice to slow everything down just a tad… and take the time to breathe in a little of what’s been missing from rail travel for too long – steam.

Celebrate 'Rail Heritage Month' with us!

To help celebrate Rail Heritage Month this April, you could be one of many lucky train travellers who find themselves comfortably ensconced inside an actual fully-restored historic steam train carriage – instead of being cooped up standing shoulder-to-shoulder inside your regular electric train while all-too-inevitable signal failures doom you to be hours late unless you fork out half a day’s pay for a taxi.

Lovingly restored by rail enthusiasts, steam locomotives are making a comeback – but only for the month of April! And what’s more, it won’t cost you any more than your regular train trip would.

Oh yes, you'll ride in style this month!

What’s more, as befitting such an august occasion (though make no mistake – Rail Heritage Month is definitely April) you’ll be accompanied on your journey by our smartly-attired steam train drivers and engineers, guards and even ticket inspectors, all in authentic period uniforms.

There will even be designated ‘smoking’ and ‘non-smoking’ carriages – remember, just like the good old days? But rest assured that that is all just for show. Well, actually it’s because of heritage listing, as we are not allowed to remove those signs. So – please do not smoke in the carriages.

Okay, so, how do you get to take part?

It couldn’t be easier – simply do your regular thang: turn up to your usual suburban or country platform, wait a while… then choof off in style!

Don’t miss out – this opportunity may never come again!

For all the details, see our FAQs section below.
PS: that picture? It’s almost guaranteed not to happen again.

Nothing! Well, apart from whatever your regular train journey would cost. Think of it as a replacement train, but one which doesn’t just take you to work – it’s one which also takes you back. Way, way back… into time! (See what we did there?)

Nope. And not only do you not need to, but you can’t!

Ha, no, really c’mon, we would need hundreds of them! They will just be replacing a few, each day for the month of April.

Like I just said, they’ll be replacing some of the regular electric trains – but you won’t know which ones! So, the more time you spend on the platform, the greater the chance you’ll have of catching one!

Ugh, there’s always one, isn’t there… Might be best if you carry an epi-pen? But you could also just wait for the next train, which should be your regular electric service.

What the… but who wouldn’t? Okay, well, you can just keep waiting for the next train, which hopefully be your regular, boring old (new) electric service. Oh and thank you very much for your enthusiastic support of this initiative. Not.

Sorry, but as the name suggests, this FAQs section is only for Frequently Asked Questions. We briefly toyed with the idea of including an additional section called IAQs (you can work out what it means) but as yours was the only one, it didn’t get a guernsey. Sorry, but that’s life these days.

Glad you asked, as there are indeed a few significant differences, and you will find the answers here.

Sure can! Did you know that cavemen invented trains? Yep, according to Wikipedia, “The history of rail transport began in the prehistoric times.” Read more about this fascinating discovery here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport

We put it right back where it used to be, because everyone kept complaining that the new web address was way too hard to remember! So 131500.info is back at last. Yay, you did it, Sydney!

Sorry, but that’s all the space we have for the FAQs.

Reckon that’d be April 1st.