Great Western - 1. GW Chap 1

Having enjoyed train journeys while growing up, Australian born Vern Ashburton, was a lot luckier than the average children when growing up, and this is his story. According to my parents, I spent my first four and a half years, growing up on my grandparent’s farm in South Coastal Western Australia, and just before my 5^th birthday our family of four with Oskar having just turned 1 year old, moved to Bussnang, Switzerland, due to my father gaining a top job as a senior design & mechanical engineer, specialising in the construction of railway engines and cars.

For the next ten years, our family spent every third Christmas holidays in Western Australia, and the northern summer holidays were spent in Italy or Greece, with the family travelling on trains for the majority of the time, and I quickly learnt Italian and Greek from those regular summer holiday trips, as well as learning Romansh and German for school.

At home though, the family only spoke in English, since that is the native language of my parents, with my mother - Catherine been born in Scotland, and my father is from Australia. After 11 years of living in Europe, the family decided to return to Australia, after travelling to Edinburgh, to attend the funeral of mum’s Great Uncle, who had passed away quite suddenly.

Catching the train south from Scotland’s capital, my parents, siblings, Oskar now aged 12 and Tomas aged 10 and I, arrived at Heathrow for the long journey back to Australia, with a limited amount of luggage, with the rest of it being shipped to Australia as sea freight, including a special and extra-large piece of cargo, which is what Vern’s father had been designing and building, as part of his job as a design engineer.

As part of a special deal with the company that my dad worked for, the first train built from his design of a diesel electric rail train, which was used as the test model for future trains, was given to my father – Christopher, as a farewell gift, allowing the company to retain his design, for future trains to be built in Europe, but dad kept the design patent.

The six-car high speed train, can reach speeds of 200 km’s per hour, has four standard class train cars, that have two bathrooms at each end, there are a total of 184 standard bronze class seats with 46 seats in each car.

Just past the bathroom towards the front of the 4^th car, is a buffet counter that serves drinks and basic snacks, with two seats either side of a central aisle, all facing front & back with a shared table to four seats. Another car has 36 gold class seats in a two and one seat layout, with the centre aisle being slightly to one side and being a little wider, with more leg room, and all the seats are facing one direction, with individual tables.

The platinum class car situated between the bronze class and the gold class cars, has 24 very comfortable seats that can lean back to 145 degrees angle, with just one seat on each side of the aisle, allowing for extra wide seats and aisle. There is two high grade bathrooms at one end of the car, while at the other end is another kitchen, bar and servery, for meals to the passengers, and a Conference room at the very end.

Apart from having a driver’s cab at each end of the train, there is also a separate crew bathroom, and small lounge area directly behind each driver’s cab, with the train entry foyer, and luggage storage bay. This train is designed to have two drivers and four stewards and although it has a good top speed, for straight stretches of rail, it is not suitable for rail lines that have lots of curves, where the maximum recommended speed is 140 km per hour.

Dad had not informed the state government of the pending arrival of his train, as he intended to do that face to face, having already arranged a meeting with the minster of transport, the day after we arrive in Perth. Mum and Dad informed us, that we would be staying in a hotel in Fremantle for a few days, before we fly south to the small city of Albany on the far south coast, where the train would be delivered to.

With it being mid-December, the end of the school year in Western Australia is just one week after we arrive in Perth, so we have seven weeks of holidays, before we have to return to school, with our parents already having us booked into one of the top private schools in the state.

Arriving at Perth International Airport at 1300 hrs, onboard the 17-hour non-stop flight, I was surprising feeling not tired, as I had managed to sleep for about half of the flight, and I was looking forward to seeing Perth, but Dad insisted that we rest and relax for the remainder of the day.

Mum and my younger brothers ended up going to bed, while Dad and I went for a short trip up to Kings Park to check out the views of the city and the Swan River, which were amazing. “Where will be living dad?” I asked as we gazed towards a large sports complex in the distance.

“Not here, we will be moving to the city of Albany, a small city on the south coast, which has a lot more-milder weather, like we are use to in the summer time in Europe, we don’t have seasonal snow here, so we will have to fly to the mountains in the East to do any skiing in the winter” my dad replied.

“Is there a good school down there?” I asked after a period of silence, “Yes, there is a Grammar school down there, which is fairly new, it won’t have the languages that you are use to in Europe, because we are in the Asian region, they tend to concentrate on Japanese, Malay and Indonesian, as the main languages they teach.

“Well, I think I have learnt enough languages for now, so if I can, I would like to skip learning a new one” I commented. “Well I understand you having to learn French, but when you told me two years ago that you were starting to learn Gaelic & Portuguese, that caught me by surprise, so that is how many languages that you speak fluently now?” my dad replied.

“Including English, it is eight. German, Romansh, Italian, Greek, French, Gaelic, English and Portuguese” I replied, “I bet you will know it a lot better than any Australian teacher who teaches a European language” Dad said with a big grin, and I nodded my head in agreement.

“Tha fios agad air, Pa” I said in Gaelic, trying to see if my dad remembered the Gaelic that mum had been trying to teach him for the past few years. Dad just laughed, “Smart arse, don’t you get in any trouble because of your excellent knowledge in languages when you go back to school in February” my dad said to me, as we headed back to the hire car.

As we headed back to the hotel in Fremantle, we passed what looked like one big or two good sized private schools, “Can I come with you, when you go to your meeting tomorrow, please dad?” I asked as I didn’t want to be stuck in the hotel with my younger brothers.

“You will have to locate your best suit, as I am meeting the Minister for Transport, and I think it will be a good learning experience for you, you know the train layout, and have travelled in it a number of times, and I have noticed you looking at the layout plans a few times” my dad replied smiling, and I happily smiled, and made a mental note to get my suit and dress shirt pressed as soon as we get back to the hotel.

The meeting was set for 10am in the city, and we planned to leave the hotel at 9 am to allow for city traffic and parking, I had polished my shoes to a bright shine, and I even had a quick haircut before dinner last night, so I was groomed and ready to go, when climbed into the hire car and made our way towards the city.

The highway was moderately busy, but the trip went smoothly, and we managed to park the car in a car park complex just opposite His Majesties Theatre, with twenty minutes to spare, of which half of that would be spent walking to the office building.

Dad had given me the tube that contained the layout plans, to look after, and I was keeping a very firm hold on them, as we entered the office building and after passing through a security screening, we made our way up to the 8^th floor, and lead to a small conference room, that has a magnificent view of the Swan River.

“As much as I love the view dad, I am not too keen on the height” I commented, just as the door opened, and two men and a woman stepped in. “Mr Ashburton, my name is Edward Barrett, Minister for Transport, and my Ministerial Executive Assistant, Veronica Lions, and my Ministerial Policy Advisor – James Markovich” the more senior of the men said, as he and my dad shook hands.

“May I present my Executive Assistant and son, Vern Ashburton” my dad said to the minister, and when my look of surprise and shock showed, my dad roared with laughter. “Sorry Minister, a family joke, pay back from a cheeky comment my son said to me yesterday, while visiting Kings Park” my dad explained, and the minister just smiled and took a seat, and we all followed suit.

“Now Mr Ashburton, your request to see me intrigues me, all I know is that you are a Railway Design Engineer, and that you have an important matter to discuss with me” the minister said, to start the meeting, and I decided to take the lead, and I stood up and pulled out the plans from the tube.

“If I may father… Sir, my father has spent the past eleven years designing and building railway engines and cars, for one of the biggest railway companies in Europe…” I began and glancing at my dad, he smiled and leaned back in the chair. “Maledetto inferno” the Policy advisor swore in Italian.

“Careful Mr Markovich, my son and I both know fluent Italian, and understood that” my father said, “Kluger arsch”, “and German and six more languages” my father added with a big grin, and this time it was the Minister who laughed. “I think you have met your match, James” the Minister said and he indicated for me to continue.

“As I said, my father here has spent a lot of time designing and building trains, and with the result of a special deal, that is fully legit, my father owns a 6-car train, that is yet to become commercially available anywhere in the world. This first train built and used for testing, is only weeks away from arriving here in Western Australia, by ship, and we would like to use it to provide a unique train journey.

Although I have spent 11 years living in Europe, I was born in Fremantle and spent my first four years, living in the South West of this state, where you have some spectacular scenery. What we are proposing to your today, is a request to allow us access to railway lines in the state that are use only for freight and even then, the rail line is not getting much use from it” I said as I rolled out the layout plans of the train.

At 137 metres long in total, the train’s wheel alignment is set for Australian standard gauge rail lines, with each car being 22 metres long and 2.744 metres wide, and can reach speeds of 200 kms per hour on a straight rail line, but 160 kms is the recommended speed. It is diesel electric, so it is economic, and less harmful to the environment than a standard diesel train engine, and it can transport a total of 244 passengers in three class levels, with two engine drivers and 1 porter and 4 stewards as crew.

We know that you have a train called the Prospector, that will travel from East Perth to Kalgoorlie in 7 hours approximately, and the Australind train that travels from Perth to Bunbury in 2 ½ hours, so how would you like to be one of the first to travel on the Great Western Train from Albany to Geraldton, via Northam, in 7 ¼ hours, a further 340 kilometres in distance than the Prospector and in the same amount of time, using all existing rail lines” I stated.

“Well, I would say if you are funding it, and we can get a suitable timetable approved, then I am all for it” the minister replied and I sat down at the point to let my dad to take over. “As you see before you minister, is the layout plan of the train that is on its way here to Western Australia, as mentioned it has three classes of seating.

Bronze class which has 184 standard seating, with two seats on each side of the centre aisle, has an audio-visual entertainment system with an 11-inch touch screen, providing 6 music channels and 12 movie channels, with each passenger seat having access to a USB port to connect up with a mobile phone or pad.

In the Gold class, it has 36 seats with two seats on one side and one seat on the other, and the Platinum class, which has the same seating layout, and those 24 seats can lean back ¾’s of the way down for sleeping if required. Both the Gold and Platinum Class have 12 music channels and 24 movie channels, on a 15-inch touch screen, and each passenger have a USB port and a standard Australian Electrical outlet, so as to plug in a laptop computer if need be, and there is a conference room at the end of the Platinum class car.

The train has a buffet style servery, that can sell snacks and drinks, to the Bronze passengers, and two small aircraft style kitchens provide hot and cold meals for the Gold and Platinum passengers.

Comfort is also important to the train drivers and stewards, with a crew area directly behind each driving cab that includes a crew bathroom and a small lounge area for the crew to take short breaks, and a storage locker for the crew luggage.

With the train driver training that I have done, and the training programme that I developed, the two drivers will spend a maximum of 3 ½ hours in the driver cab, with a 15-minute break half way, so as to ensure that each driver remains alert at all times.