The Tilt Train

  We arrived at Roma St station around 9am, an hour and a half in advance before our Tilt Train was due to depart. This was to pay for our reservations and also to film a documentary.

The Tilt Train arrived at 9:45am via the Exhibition loop direct from Mayne Depot. It stopped first at the Western end of Platform 10 for catering (By QANTAS), baggage and also for crew such as passenger attendants to be loaded. The set then made its’ way to the passenger end of Platform 10 at around 10:10am.

The set departed on time at 10:30am from Roma St bound for Rockhampton.

Inside the Tilt Train, the passenger interiors and also seats are designed very similar to an airliner. Other than seats, the seat armrests contain an entertainment system with music, radio and news audio channels. Monitors affixed on the top throughout the isle display information, such as train running time, next destination, ETA, and also, on the longer legs of the journey, show New-release movies. There is even a ‘nose camera’ showing the line ahead from the driver’s cab!

One thing that is attentive to the passenger service of the Tilt Train is also safety display. At the beginning of the journey, a safety video was played through the monitors in all carriages detailing safety procedures and also referred to read an attached Safety Procedure card in all seats.

The Tilt Train made its way out of the busy Brisbane City area and after stopping at Caboolture, the journey became pleasurable with the scenery of the Glasshouse Mountains.

For most of the journey on the Tilt Train, I was more occupied in listening to music on the Audio Channel “Velocity” (And two occasions, singing out loud that half the carriage looked back, and dancing to a song in my seat resulting in the attention of 4 women) than checking out the Tilt Train itself!!

Following stops at Landsborough and Nambour our stop was Cooroy station, which was after Nambour.

After arriving and alighting at Cooroy station (Being the only ones to alight!) we changed our plans NOT to stay in Cooroy, but to take the Brisbane bound Tilt Train (Ex. Rockhampton) back to Nambour to spend out day there and then take our booked “Spirit of Capricorn” train from Nambour return to Brisbane.

We were successful; the passenger attendant on the Brisbane bound Tilt Train clearing two seats in Carriage B for us just to Nambour! 

The rest of the day was spent browsing around the sugar town of Nambour, wondering from street to street to find the huge array of shops which were all CLOSED!

We waited at the station for the last 45mins before the “Spirit of Capricorn” was due to arrive, while The Sunlander and a Citytrain service arrived into Nambour bound for Brisbane. Then at 4:15pm the “Spirit of Capricorn” arrived (NOTE: 15mins late!) for our train back to Brisbane. This train was run by an ICE (Intercity Express) set

That evening, we arrived into Brisbane in heavy rain, which fortunately cleared before our arrival into Roma St station.

The day had been one of my best railfanning days ever. The opportunity to experience Australia’s fastest train at its specification speed.

Between Nambour and Cooroy, speeds of 160km/h were clocked up!

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