Riverina XPT Train Sydney to Yass Junction NSW Australia
Recently, thanks to the SBS channel’s TV show ‘The Ghan’ the SlowTV movement (Slow TV) has finally taken off in Australia. The Ghan trip is one of the great rail journeys of the world. But there are plenty of other smaller journeys you can take that can be almost as good! There aren’t enough videos out there of those, so I thought it was time to start uploading some of my attempts at Slow TV which I started recording about 25 years ago!
Great Rail Journeys
In 1992 I began recording a number of ‘out of the window’ videos from various trains around the world with the intention of starting something similar. At the time, slow style VHS travel guides from the USA, featuring long shots from vehicles, were popular in the VHS sections of Woolworths and Coles, and I thought that I could do something similar with trains in Australia.
What I found was that, while my recording equipment was at the lower end of the professional range at the time, attempting to correctly edit with two VHS video recorders meant a very unprofessional production. Also, my footage was originally captured in letterbox format when TV was starting to turn to widescreen.
Train Videos
In the early 90s, the whole idea turned out to be too expensive and I shelved it for about 25 years, almost throwing everything out in 2015 but deciding at the last minute to convert surviving tape remnants to digital, before discarding them.
And so, here is an edited version of my first attempt. The original plan was to record some selected scenery from Sydney Central station to Wagga Wagga (a 6-7 hour journey) but I ran out of battery after 3 hours so I ended up getting just past Yass Junction.
On the way back I recorded the area from the closed station Bomen to just past Junee, so a bit of that leg was added to this video at the end. Unfortunately, a different filter was used.
Slow TV or SlowTV – a bit like ASMR
In any case, you could have this playing on your computer with the sound down, while you go about your daily chores at home, or you could sit and watch the old houses, cars and stations go by. A way to avoid the constant onslaught of noise, notification, conversation, news and more. Take a break from the daily chatter and unwind with a Slow TV show or ASMR video.
If the Riverina XPT video exceeds 10,000 views I’ll begin work on my next one – Los Angeles to Chicago with Amtrak 1993. If you enjoyed the video, please share it on Facebook. Many thanks!
Many thanks for watching
Approximate times:
02.11 Burwood
04.58 Sefton
05.42 Chester hill
06.13 Leightonfield
06.41 Carramar
07.16 Cabramatta
09.58 Warwick Farm
11.17 Old Cars
11.38 A lot of carparks
12.58 Liverpool
15.32 Minto
16.32 Leumeah
19.58 Menangle
21.55 Douglas Park
24.39 Picton
29.59 Tahmoor
32.19 Bargo
36.17 Yerrinbool
36.50 Mittagong
38.22 Moss Vale
101.57 Gouburn
1:22 Gunning
1:38 Yass Junction
Bonus section!
1:57 Bomen
2:12 Junee
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