Thread: Driving vs. Train-ing

Originally Posted by Mulgo

'...Maximum height Sydney - Adelaide 1.57m/ Adelaide - Perth 1.94m. Roof racks, wind deflectors, louvers etc must be removed before loading.'

That would probably be a no go for most of us.

Any thoughts?

How do they rail ISO containers?

What about a transport company that does vehicle transport can be quicker and probably wouldnt have a height restriction like trains do. Not sure on prices.

Originally Posted by blue thunder

What about a transport company that does vehicle transport can be quicker and probably wouldnt have a height restriction like trains do. Not sure on prices.

Called a few of them late last year - they wanted me to get rid of all the camping stuff in it. Apparently 'insurance' issue!

Still I would prefer the train as I could then travel with the train at the same time.

Originally Posted by Mulgo

Just came back from a fabulous trip to the Flinders and had a thought.

While travelling through our beautiful country we cover some amazing distances. Why isn't it possible that I could put my car on a train in Sydney and pick it up a few days later at the destination eg. Port Augusta for the Flinders?

That would safe me and my family some long distance driving through country we already visited a number of times. ...and I would do something good for the environment too.

Now basically there is the possibility of transporting vehicles by train, however this is what I found on their website:

'...Maximum height Sydney - Adelaide 1.57m/ Adelaide - Perth 1.94m. Roof racks, wind deflectors, louvers etc must be removed before loading.'

That would probably be a no go for most of us.

Any thoughts?

Ron Beckett has some experience with this - see his previous post on this a few weeks ago.

Willem

I sent my car down to summernats with tnt many moons ago and they offered insurance car and contents and didnt have to remove anything but times are a changing, havent used that method since as have the D1 for towing now.Totally understandable wanting to travel with your rig.

None of the reputable car carriers will allow anything inside the car, that wasn't delivered with it when new. They are left wide open to cheats claiming to have had a pair of $1,000,000 diamond earings in the glovebox of a 120Y, or similuarly fraudulent claims.

Originally Posted by Mulgo

Just came back from a fabulous trip to the Flinders and had a thought.

While travelling through our beautiful country we cover some amazing distances. Why isn't it possible that I could put my car on a train in Sydney and pick it up a few days later at the destination eg. Port Augusta for the Flinders?

That would safe me and my family some long distance driving through country we already visited a number of times. ...and I would do something good for the environment too.

Now basically there is the possibility of transporting vehicles by train, however this is what I found on their website:

'...Maximum height Sydney - Adelaide 1.57m/ Adelaide - Perth 1.94m. Roof racks, wind deflectors, louvers etc must be removed before loading.'

That would probably be a no go for most of us.

Any thoughts?

Unfortunately, Great Southern Rail haven't got with the times and made motorail cars which will carry 4WDs between Sydney and Adelaide, i.e., single deck. When we went to Perth recently, we had to drive to Adelaide to put the car onto the train as the Forester was 10mm too tall for the Sydney-Adelaide leg. They wouldn't let us deflate the tyres - it was a Forester and that was verboten.

Another aspect of the journey to Pt Augusta is that they no longer load vehicles there. They used to as we travelled from Pt Augusta to Perth by train in 1971.

Oh, and don't forget the majority of the trip from Sydney to Adelaide is at night so you won't see much.

When we had the 4WD's trucked to Cairns we were allowed to have loaded roofracks and interiors etc, but they just weren't covered by insurance. We just gambled it (no option really) and didn't have any problems. We flew up a couple of days later and they delivered the vehicles to the hotel.

BTW, they also use a 2 car trailer and a one of the back of the truck due to height. My Disco sits 7" higher than standard + Roofrack and load on the rack.