They are the people who were killed in October 2002 when The Ghan train he was driving ploughed into a car and a bus queued across the busy Park Tce railway crossing at Salisbury.

Although almost eight years have passed, the trauma the Pacific National train driver suffered has not diminished.

“I still think, `I’m home to my wife every night and my kids and there’s someone sitting at home elsewhere missing a partner, or a wife or a young kid’,” the 49-year-old says. “I’ve had Christmases with my family and they’re missing theirs.

“But (psychologists and colleagues) say to you, it’s not your fault, but you still think of things like that.

“I had three months off work after that, and it still haunts me every day.”

Mr Parslow feels compelled to tell his story – and that of other train drivers – in light of last weekend’s accidental death of a two-year-old boy at Nantawarra.

The toddler had wandered away from his family’s rural property and was playing on the tracks at Nantawarra Crossing, near Port Wakefield, just after 1pm on May 22 when he was hit by a freight train unable to stop in time.

Dark memories of the Salisbury tragedy came rushing back for Mr Parslow.

He said he was immediately filled with dread when he heard about the accident.

“We left Adelaide freight terminal at 12.55pm on Saturday and we were going over the Port Wakefield bridge when the emergency call came over the radio,” he says.

“The drivers said they’d hit a young kid and automatically your heart just goes into your mouth.

“I have a 13-month-old grandchild and as soon as they said that, it just hits you.”

Mr Parslow’s story is not isolated: the trauma and grief of fatal accidents reverberate across the industry.

He estimates 20 per cent of drivers he has worked with have been involved in a serious accident at a railway crossing.

He talks about a colleague who accidentally killed a man crossing tracks two years ago. “He still hasn’t told his kids about the accident,” Mr Parslow says.

“We’ve got 48 train drivers at the Adelaide Freight Terminal, a good bunch of blokes, so when that happened on Saturday, there would have been phone calls going around making sure everyone was OK.”

He describes the feeling of helplessness drivers have just before an unavoidable accident.

“In a car, if you see someone, you can try to swerve . . . but it’s the inevitability of what’s going to happen – you’re looking at them and they’re looking at you.

“And what can we do? There is nothing else we can do except wait for it to happen.

“And then you have to deal with the process after it.”

Over his three decades of driving, Mr Parslow has been involved in eight level crossing accidents. The father of two says he still suffers physically – as well as emotionally – from the 2002 Salisbury accident, which also injured 26 people.

“I sit at home at night and my wife says, `Why are you shaking? You’re sitting there shaking like anything’,” he says.”And I’ll be sitting here eating tea; shaking. I don’t think I’m doing it, but I am.

“My nerves are shot.”

The two drivers involved in last weekend’s fatal accident are yet to return to work and Mr Parslow says the men would be suffering emotionally – with grief, sleeplessness and nightmares.

“It affects your life – it affects your family life; it affects your work life,” he says.

But he commends a Pacific National move to implement a trauma response unit, which would help drivers immediately after an accident.

Mr Parslow says he loves his job, but another serious accident would make him consider giving up his 32-year career.”If I have another big one again, that’s it. I’m finished,” he says.

He says despite Government advertising campaigns calling for the public to stay alert around railway lines, too many people – drivers, cyclists and pedestrians – flirt with danger.

“People are still in too much of a hurry and taking too many risks,” he says.

“Drivers are still going across crossings when it’s dangerous; even when the gates are down – they just go around.”

via AdelaideNow

It was this train that ran Australia’s first east-west rail service on standard gauge, which departed from Sydney’s Central Station on Monday, February 23 1970 and arrived in Perth on Friday, February 27 to 10,000 people.

On the train’s 40th birthday locomotive NR21 pulled the Indian Pacific from Adelaide’s Keswick Station for Sydney.

The train comprised of 24 carriages, including one locomotive and three motorail with 164 guests and 19 crew members on board.

Great Southern Rail’s Marketing and Executive Coordinator Robyn Williamson said the company is proud to be part of the train’s history.

“It’s good to be part of the history of something historic. The Indian Pacific is such an Australian icon,” she said.

Its popularity has seen it attract tens of thousands of passengers per year.

“There are people who go on trips on the Indian Pacific every year because they love it so much,” Ms Williamson said.

The 65-hour, 4,352km trip crosses the Nullarbor, the crossroad of Australia Port Augusta, historic gold-rush town Kalgoorlie and the Blue Mountains.

At 478km, the world’s longest section of railway track in the Nullarbor Plain is part of the Indian Pacific’s journey.

The Indian Pacific today can carry up to 348 passengers with 25 carriages and get up to 686 metres long.

With a two metre wing span, the wedge-tailed eagle, Australia’s largest eagle, was chosen as the Indian Pacific’s symbol to represent the train’s “epic journey,” Great Southern Rail spokesman Russell Westmoreland said to a WA Today reporter.

East-west travel by rail started in 1917 when all track sections between colonies were completed, but non-uniform gauges between the colonies meant passengers had to change several trains along the way.

The uniform standard gauge across the continent was completed in 1969.

By Anthony Caggiano for RailSA

 
 

Featured photographs of the Indian Pacific

The Indian Pacific was due in Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales on Friday but has been diverted through Melbourne for its trip to Sydney.

Passengers have been told the diversion will add just over three hours to their rail journey.

An Indian Pacific official Jessica Playford says intending passengers stranded at Broken Hill will get a refund and the track should be repaired by Saturday.

“The passengers that were hoping to get on in Broken Hill, we’ve contacted all of those passengers and they will either be taking a full refund and making alternative travel arrangements or they’ll have the opportunity to re-book on another service,” she said.

ABC News

NR85, formerly an unnamed locomotive, has been christened ‘Southern Spirit’, its divine right in hauling the first train which is due to pick up guests in Alice Springs on Wednesday for the epic 2 week journey to Brisbane, along the way taking in sights such as South Australia’s unique Kangaroo Island, and Ned Kelly’s own bushranger territory in Victoria.

In a rare move, the transfer consist included a Pacific National FAM crew car, also given the polish treatment, as well as 5 Platinum Service BRG cars and a single Gold Service ARM car – with deluxe cabin and manager’s office on board.

On board, guests will be treated to the finest luxuries on the rails in Australia. The 5 star Platinum Service accommodation will be complimented with fine gourmet foods in the Queen Adelaide Restaurant, a luxurious lounge and bar carriage and round-the-clock room service to patrons paying up to nearly $14k for a ride on Australia’s most exclusive train. The tour is the first of its kind in Australia, boasting inclusions such as Uluru, a Coober Pedy opal experience and even breakfast in bed for passengers wishing to have a more leisurely start to the morning.

The Southern Spirit will next grace Adelaide’s tracks when it returns carrying guests bound for Kangaroo Island early Thursday morning.

The travellers told the Northern Territory News how they were surrounded by “incredible amounts of water” when the train came to a sudden stop about 230km north of Alice Springs early on Thursday.

They said the train driver and personnel had done an excellent job in avoiding a potential catastrophe.

“I think the driver should be commended,” Laurie Kissick, 66, of Mildura in Victoria said. “He saw the water, if he didn’t stop I don’t know what would have happened.”

Up to 177 passengers were aboard The Ghan as it made its 2979km journey from Darwin to Adelaide.

The trip was cut short when about 100m of the track was covered in gushing water.

Great Southern Rail commercial director Russell Westmoreland said the train was travelling at a slow speed and managed to stop about 200m before the flooded section.

He said 95 passengers who returned to Darwin with the train about 9am yesterday were put up in hotels or flown to their original destinations.

The remaining passengers were taken to Alice Springs from Tennant Creek by bus.

“It’s a fairly sizeable bill (for Great Southern Rail) but certainly financially we have the capability to handle it,” Mr Westmoreland said.

Most passengers were in good spirits despite the disruption.

Row Booker, 29, was on her way to start a new life in Melbourne after having worked in Darwin for about 18 months.

The journalist yesterday left Darwin by plane.

“We just thought the Ghan could be a brilliant way to leave Darwin,” she said.

Visitor Peter Junck, 50, of Albury in New South Wales, said many passengers saw the trip as an adventure.

NT News