Original subtitles

♪ ♪ ♪

Welcome to the outback!

We've gone down under to take a ride on a massive train that

Travels over forty-three hundred kilometers across australia.

A few shrubs, no trees, completely barren.

It's an epic adventure through some of

The most scenic and remote areas a train has ever gone.

Whoa, it is very steep.

Whoooooo!

The four-day, coast-to-coast journey

Goes across remote farmland

Get over ya big bastard!

(Teddy) and a scorching-hot desert

Known as the nullarbor plain.

There's nobody there.

Anything can happen.

Get ready for the indian pacific!

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) australia is home some of the most desolate,

And harsh landscapes in the world.

This is typical australian bush out here,

It's pretty hot and dry and desolate.

As we call it, the harshness of the bush.

But yeah, it's beautiful.

(Teddy) train passengers flock from all corners of

The globe to experience this sizzling, barren continent,

In total luxury.

(Teddy) it's 6am in east perth station,

A small army of technicians, attendants, and service staff

Has just four hours to get the giant train ready for departure.

The indian pacific is massive.

Is almost a kilometer long

And it gets its name from the route it takes.

Starting at the indian ocean in perth,

Travelling all the way to the pacific ocean in sydney.

Ann marie?

Ann marie receiving ann marie.

He'd prefer k1 because it's in the middle of the train.

(Teddy) running the operation is

Twenty-three-year veteran of the rails,

Train manager, bruce smith.

♪ ♪ ♪

From the back of the loco to the back of the train,

That's my jurisdiction.

I'm in charge of the crew, the guests on board,

And making sure that everybody's having

A really good time!

Hey there bruce.

Teddy.

How are you?

So it's a really long train but how many

Passengers do we have on board?

We've got two hundred and forty

Passengers today, Teddy.

Wow.

Yep.

It's pretty full.

And we're leaving pretty soon

So what's on your plate right now?

A lot of operational issues with the driver

Getting the signals get going, guest issues,

Making sure everybody's in their right place, and ya,

It's like a big jigsaw puzzle.

(Teddy) 'big' is an understatement!

The train is a whopping thirty carriages long.

The motorail, a crew car, and a power van are at the front.

Sixteen accommodation cars are spread throughout

With three restaurant carriages and two lounge cars to relax in.

At the back of the train is the luggage car,

And a second power van so there's no shortage of electricity.

This 775-meter train is longer than seven

Pro american football fields.

There are two different categories or classes

On the indian pacific.

There's gold class and platinum,

And this is one of the platinum rooms and as you can see,

It's really, really nice.

The chairs fold down into a bed.

There's a full bathroom with shower, and a lot of

Attention to detail goes into this.

This cabin costs up to 4,500 canadian dollars per person.

And for a few hundred more

Passengers can add a unique piece of cargo.

A cool feature the indian pacific offers over other

Trains is this special wagon.

It's called the 'motorail' and as you can see it's

Designed to haul cars.

We've got eight so it's a full load on today's train.

David barnett makes sure every car wheel is properly clamped.

Always make sure the pins are secure,

'cuz if the pin's not secure, and the train's moving and jerking

The vehicle could just easily smack into the back of the next car.

These things could be like y'know a weapon.

Could wipe out a whole train.

(Teddy) in November, 2017,

The motorail did jump the tracks just outside perth station,

While moving at 10 kilometers an hour.

Maintenance crews had the train running

Again 12 hours later.

Lucky that no one got hurt and that the vehicles

Were safely clamped down.

Once they're all clamped down, we close the gates,

The loco will back up, take it, and hook it on

To the front of the train.

With nearly a kilometer's worth of

Carriages being pulled behind, there needs to be some serious

Muscle up here at the front end to make the indian pacific go.

(Teddy) that muscle is a 132-ton beast

Coming from a fleet of pacific national rail locomotives.

It's 4.25 meters tall, 2.94 meters wide,

And 22 meters long.

A turbocharged 16-cylinder engine delivers 4,250 horsepower

Which is needed to pull the 14-hundred ton luxury

Hotel across australia's harshest landscapes.

(Teddy) before any locomotive can depart

Drivers must give their engine a complete spot-check.

Our driver, paul lawrence, will have to take care of

The train if anything goes wrong.

We've gotta make sure the fuel's ready,

All the brakes are done, top up any oil, any other

Provisions that have been used along the way.

It's one of the most remote places there are

Really in the world for train travel.

(Teddy) paul's been driving across

Australia's remote terrain for nearly a decade.

He knows how a journey through the middle of

Nowhere can wreak havoc on his train.

You do get a variety of animals and different things out there.

Bigger animals tend to do a lot of damage to

All break pipes and you get a lot of air leaks.

If you get a big air leak you can't apply the brakes on the train,

You'll have to fix that before you can continue.

(Teddy) in the desert-like outback,

Temperatures can exceed 40 degrees celsius.

That's the condensation that builds up in the air system.

(Teddy) and can drop to ten degrees the same night.

Those wild temperature swings turn air inside

The pneumatic brake pipes into water.

I make sure there's no water in the air system

Otherwise the brakes don't work properly.

Ah, this is a compressor, what gives us the air

For the brakes for the train, the locomotive,

Make sure we can stop.

If we have a compressor fault, we get no more air

Pumping through the train, basically we would be stranded.

We won't be able to go anywhere until it's fixed.

(Teddy) only with paul's sign-off

Can the locomotive report to the station, ready for action.

It looks all good on this loco, we should be all good to go.

(Teddy) at east perth station,

Paul couples his locomotive to the rest of the train.

(over radio) keep the door open or just lock it up, over?

Leave it open until the duty manager

Goes through and secures it mate, over.

(Teddy) at 7:30am the check-in desk is

Open for passengers, who are arriving by the busload.

Good morning!

How are you today?

What name are you booked under?

(Teddy) attendants have just

Ninety minutes to check in all 240 passengers

And their four-tons of luggage.

Oh hello, how are you?

(Teddy) our train manager, bruce,

Has just twenty-five minutes to run his final checks before we depart.

This is my lockdown sheet.

It tells me which hospitality attendant

Is on which door.

So they have to lock and secure it.

Thank you!

Welcome aboard, folks!

(Teddy) bruce's deputy duty manager,

Penny mcnamara, performs that final cross check up

The entire length of the train.

Making sure everything is secure and not going to flap open at track speed.

(jenny over radio) nr29 duty manager calling to receiving, over.

Are we alright up here or what?

Yeah, we should be alright for an on time

Departure today, we're just at final stages of

Our lockdown thanks, over.

And we're off!

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome aboard the indian pacific.

(Teddy) my 4,352 kilometer journey has begun!

(train horn blows)

(Teddy) from perth...

We're rolling east on a single-track line,

Across the state of western australia.

After a stop in kalgoorlie, we'll trek

1000 kilometers across the isolated nullarbor plain.

After rounding the great australian bight coastline,

We'll make a big stop in adelaide

Before heading into the state of new south wales.

To scale the blue mountains.

We'll arrive in our final destination of sydney four days later.

We're just pulling out of

The train station here in perth

So our trip has begun!

I'm so excited, we're going to cross an entire continent.

Multiple time zones,

Sixteen different natural landscapes.

It's gonna be epic!

Unless the wild australian outback gets in our way.

I've been here twenty-three years and ya, this would be the worst one.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) I'm riding across australia on the luxurious indian pacific.

Ah! Thank you, sabina.

You're welcome.

(Teddy) fifty kilometers out of perth

And the landscape is shifting from coastal bushlands to outback farms.

The first onboard meal is lunch.

Keeping the food at five-star quality means

Chefs are masters of cooking on the move.

Every year the indian pacific serves over 715,000 dishes

They're all made in kitchens like this one,

There are three of them on this train

And they're made by chefs like michael.

So I can feel the train moving now, how hard is

It to prepare the food when the kitchen is rocking and rolling?

Yeah, look man, it's pretty hard!

I see right here, these aren't going anywhere?

Yeah, so these are done specifically for safety,

For us, so with the train rocking and rolling so much

We're really gonna have the shields up to protect the plates

From falling onto my head or ro's head at the back.

With the stove top, we're using electricity here

'cuz it's gonna be too dangerous for us to have an active gas line.

(Teddy) the pressure is on chef michael and his crew

Of cooks to produce fine dining meals from these cramped quarters.

We really want to showcase the environment we're passing

Through or the destinations we're riding into or where we're leaving from.

So the importance of those ingredients being good quality is very high.

Cookin' on the indian pacific, right?

Food up, coming out.

(Teddy) our first scheduled stop

Is still over 500 kilometers up the line,

In the gold mining town of kalgoorlie.

(Teddy) western australia's gold

Industry exports 01 billion dollars in gold a year,

And hires 20,000 people.

But in the late 1800's it was just getting started.

One of the big reasons that the railways exist in this

Country in the first place is because of gold.

When it was discovered here it prompted a big push

For more railways to be built so that miners

Could get supplies and the gold could be transported

All across this huge country.

So the gold rush starts in kalgoorlie in 1893.

It's absolutely massive.

(Teddy) tim moore is a kalgoorlie local

And historian who's fascinated by his town's golden past.

They're mining literally walls of gold out of the mines.

So gold seams are like four foot wide and eight foot thick.

In 1903 was the largest production of one and half

Million ounces of gold in just one year.

(Teddy) for twenty years, intense gold fever brought

Thousands of people to western australia from around the world,

In the hopes of striking it rich.

The problem with kalgoorlie, it's out in the middle of nowhere.

So all you've got is really goat tracks leading into this town.

(Teddy) to cope with the growing

Industry and population, the government had to

Build up the infrastructure.

The gold rush funds the rail construction

Because they are so cashed up.

The railway is literally the life-blood.

It shifts goods and services across the country.

(Teddy) 3,000 workers risked

Their lives building the railway through the desert on scorching

Hot days with no shade, and little water.

If the gold rush never happened you wouldn't have the money

To fund the building the railway.

(Teddy) for over a century freight and passenger trains

Have shared the line that was built by gold.

It's 4300-odd kilometers from sydney to perth and there's only one track.

Passing loops left, right and center, about roughly every

Sixty k so two trains can pass but other than that it's just a single track.

(Teddy) that means, that even at

The first sign of trouble on the track.

(over radio) national rail traffic control adeliade,

Australia radio control 3pg1 receiving.

Yeah pg1, we've got train authority w-6-2.

(Teddy) drivers start worrying about delays.

(Teddy) the traffic control centre

In adelaide is monitoring every train on the single-track line,

Including us.

It's single track all the way through to kalgoorlie,

So you have these crossing locations with a main line

Running through and then a crossing loop to facilitate that.

So we're looking to cross the trains as efficiently

As we can from one end to the other.

(Teddy) on board the indian pacific

Traffic control is telling our driver about a cargo train derailment,

Hundreds of kilometers up the line.

Train manager. Two-nine.

Yeah roger, mate.

(Teddy) the disaster ahead forces

Our train to make an unscheduled stop just 100 kilometers outside perth.

We are sitting at avon yard, what I know is that we have

A west-bound freight train, something is amiss with that train.

(Teddy) as bruce checks in with traffic control,

He knows a derailment on the single-track line could

Have serious implications for our journey.

So what's happened bruce?

There has been a massive derailment up ahead of us.

So we're basically here, stopped, waiting.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) the indian pacific train is at a standstill

On my 4,300 kilometer journey across australia.

We've been stopped for quite a while.

We weren't sure exactly what was going on but

We just now got word that a train further up the track has derailed.

(Teddy) just 100 kilometers

East of perth we're stopped at avon yard station.

The derailed freight train is 700 kilometers up

The line, near coonana.

(Teddy) the cause of the incident is unknown,

But the mangled track clearly means trouble.

And the temporary maintenance line is

Off-limits for all non-essential rail traffic

Including our indian pacific train.

With a damaged track blocking the path

Our only option is to head back to perth.

No one hurt, but I mean, this kind of threw us

Off track in terms of our trip, right?

Ya, it's just put us completely off the track

And we've just had to turn around and come back where

We started from, that's perth.

This is not a common occurrence right?

No, it's not a common occurrence!

I've been here twenty-three years and ya,

This would be the worst one.

(Teddy) nearly two hours later

And we're back in perth where 240 sydney-bound passengers

Will have to scramble to make new travel plans.

You've got a lot to do. Thanks, bruce.

Thanks Teddy.

Thanks, boys. Right.

(Teddy) while I wait for the line

Between perth and sydney to reopen

I'm getting a closer look at the land

The indian pacific has to battle on every journey.

Ooh! The terrain is very difficult out here

And we're getting a close up look at what it must have been

Like to lay the rail line here over 101 years ago.

Just driving in a 4x4 here is difficult!

Wayne roberts has been off-roading in this

Rugged area for over thirty years.

He's an expert in the treacherous terrain on

The indian pacific's route.

What is the land here like?

What is it comprised of?

Is it hard rock is it mud?

It's hard rock and mud, we get a lot of clay around here

As you can see we're getting a lot of clay right now.

What would have been the difficulties they faced

Laying the track here especially all those years ago?

Seeing this area for example you've got

The mud, some seriously hard rock, and then you've got

The wildlife which y'know would've been amongst

The snakes, kangaroos, and so on.

(Teddy) not only that

The avon river is flood-prone, so the railway

Was built inland and raised to keep the trains dry.

If you had the choice of building a railway line here

When you didn't have to build here I probably wouldn't build here!

It's quite difficult to get around on!

But in saying that the tracks have held up.

(Teddy) it takes a week to clear

The debris from the derailment.

I'm back in perth.

Hello, good morning!

How are you?

(Teddy) where indian pacific train crews

Are prepping the next journey.

We're going to give this another crack,

And hopefully fewer complications this time!

We're ready to go to cross the desert

All the way to sydney!

(over radio) I am receiving john.

Hey damien, I'm just about to lock and secure car

I's door and we should be ready for a ten o'clock departure.

Over.

(Teddy) we're back on our 4300 kilometer journey

From perth to sydney.

Look, they even gave me a glass of champagne to start my journey.

It's a good trip already!

After an hour we're through avon yard

And the train picks up speed from 80 to 110 kilometers per hour.

(train horn blows)

(Teddy) we're on track to reach

The mining town of kalgoorlie, 600 kilometers from perth, at 9pm tonight.

I've got the chicken here for you.

(Teddy) as guests enjoy an elegant supper

Chef michael is struggling to keep up in his kitchen.

I'm just checking the wagyu bresaola because

It had a little bit of an issue with the maintenance

Of these fridges so the temperature wasn't looking

Exactly where we wanted it.

The important thing at this moment in time is

That I don't get any higher rise of temperature.

(Teddy) if the fridge fails we're

Still 2,000 kilometers, and 36 hours from adelaide

Where any spoiled food, broken parts or even

The entire carriage can be replaced.

Colin dow is the indian pacific's onboard train technician.

Still runnin', still got power there.

(Teddy) at 9-pm we arrive in kalgoorlie.

While passengers step out to explore the town's mining past

Enjoy your evening!

Thank you.

(Teddy) colin's top priority is solving

The kitchen's refrigeration problem before we leave in four hours time.

I've come under here to find out where the source was coming from

That was tripping the breaker and I've actually found it,

And I believe it to be

The solenoid is sticking.

The solenoid actually releases the gas to keep

The fridge cool, lets the gas go through.

I don't have a replacement for it.

(Teddy) colin cleans the solenoid

And makes some adjustments.

Keep our fingers crossed that it stays working

Until we get back to adelaide.

It's holding at the moment, so that's the main thing.

(Teddy) we're back on our way.

And after an overnight trip from kalgoorlie

We'll wake up in the desolate nullarbor plain

Where herds of animals can stop trains in their tracks.

Get over ya big bastard!

(train horn blows)

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) 've made it to the second day

Of my transcontinental journey across australia.

After leaving kalgoorlie last night,

We slept through a 412 kilometer ride to wake up

For breakfast in rawlinna.

A tiny town 1,010 kilometers east of perth.

Good morning, just your wake up call!

(Teddy) train driver, lance littlewood,

Is scheduled to pull the indian pacific onto

Rawlinna's passing loop so freight trains can go by.

Duty manager, damien rawlings, prepares for

Passengers to step out.

Train's all yours duty manager.

Nr26. Red light red light.

(Teddy) rawlinna station used to operate

As a mail outpost where trains delivered goods for farming communities.

So we're in rawlinna.

And where we are, about twelve kilometers away,

It's one of the largest sheep stations in australia

And at one time, sixty thousand sheep.

So it's a lot of sheep shorn there.

(Teddy) with so many sheep spread over

A million hectares of land, flocks are often herded using helicopters.

This is one of the first opportunities

Where the guests actually get out for a bit of a leg stretch

There's egg and bacon sliders.

Thanks.

Uh tea and coffee and just a fantastic way to experience

Such a remote place.

And what do you think about seeing the country from this train?

It's been quite exciting, you see a lot!

You get to stay in the same hotel more than one night.

And the fact that everything is done for you

And the train is especially delightful

For that kind of experience.

We departed rawlinna at zero-eight-zero-three.

(Teddy) from rawlinna, lance littlewood,

And his driving partner, cole seaton, will take us

Almost 500 kilometers to the town of cook.

Combined, lance and cole have been driving trains

For more than half a century and have crossed

Australia thousands of times.

One of the challenges of the job is the fatigue angle.

It's not for everybody.

Because it is a twelve hour shift between

Here and cook and kalgoorlie you've got to have a two man crew.

So twelve hours, we'll work roughly a quarter each.

Some blokes, they work out here over

Thirty years on the same trip through here.

It's a great job, I love what I do, yeah.

Probably do it 'till I retire.

(Teddy) they're taking us across the desolate nullarbor plain

A flat, treeless desert,

Eleven-hundred kilometers from west to east

The nullarbor boasts the longest straight stretch

Of railway track on earth, at 478 kilometers long.

Not one curve all the way to cook.

(Teddy) here, the indian pacific

Maintains its top speed of 115 kilometers an hour

And drivers need to stay alert.

The last place you want to have an accident,

Is hundreds of kilometers from help.

That's right, we're stuck.

We're stuck up here for twelve hours.

That's the worst thing, derailments.

(Teddy) one major cause of derailments are the herds

Of wild animals and livestock that cross

The tracks in the middle of nowhere.

(train horn blows)

Get over it ya big bastard!

I was just waiting for that big one to get across.

It didn't look like he wanted to go.

You got cows, kangaroos, emus, camels.

If you hit one of them you know, you can do damage the front.

Camels are heavy, they'll smash your windscreen.

Derail, lift up the carriages.

They're a real problem.

(Teddy) another problem for trains

At top speed are damaged tracks.

Up the line, beyond the nullarbor.

You gotta watch out they can cross in front of ya.

(Teddy) teams of track technicians

Travel across hundreds of kilometers of railway every day.

They're visually inspecting the rails

For cracks, chips and kinks.

If we're driving along a straight like this

Then you can see a, like a snake in the track.

And if it's not safe we'll have to get out,

Get an excavator out here, align it, tamp it and make sure

It's all safe before we let a train pass over it.

As you can see the defect's there.

It has a crack down through the rail.

It needs to be replaced.

(Teddy) the damaged tracks are reported,

Before maintenance crews are dispatched.

Machine you see here is the tamper.

As you can see that it's lifting the track,

It's lining the track side to side and it's pressing

The ballast underneath the sleepers.

(Teddy) technician james croke,

Specializes in track leveling and realignment.

The tamping machine has a sidekick that keeps it in line.

Well what we've got here, this is our laser gun.

It's held in place by the cradle.

It's a simple as shining the laser to the laser

Receiver on the machine.

(Teddy) from 400 meters up the track

The laser is beamed from the trolley to a receiver

At the front of the tamping machine.

The machine locks onto the laser beam

And follows it as a guide for how high to lift the tracks,

Bringing them to proper alignment.

Yeah, the machine is locked into the laser beam

There and it's going to pull four hundred meters

Of track perfectly straight.

This machine is capable

Of about seven hundred meters an hour and this machine does

The work that used to take a hundred men.

After fulfilling train authority, w42, proceed to cook.

By 11 am the temperature outside is already over 40 degrees celsius.

In this heat, a power, or air conditioning failure

Could make life on board the train unbearable

Or even deadly.

(Teddy) the indian pacific's

Onboard technician, colin dow, keeps close tabs on both power vans.

Each van runs three 108 kilowatt generators.

Combined, they produce enough electricity to run twenty-two houses.

This is very vital, that they run 100%,

That supplies power to most of the carriages on this train.

I check the oil every day.

This is good at the moment.

It's at the right level.

Well, up ahead after here

Is forrest, no shops in forrest so we'll have to

Stop in forrest and unload it on the south side.

(Teddy) forrest is just an air strip,

The train station and a bed and breakfast,

All run by the town's two permanent residents.

For ilsa jones and lee gilmour, the closest supermarket is

A one-thousand-one-hundred kilometer round trip.

Heyguys, how are you?

I'm lee.

Good.

Teddy.

Hello.

Ilsa.

Great to meet you.

So this is forrest?

Yes it is.

We're almost halfway across australia now

In the middle of the nullarbor.

And you two are the only residents?

Yep, full time.

Population two.

And what's the delivery they're going to offload today?

Some chemist stuff.

There's the mail bag obviously.

There's beer too, right?

Yeah!

Is the indian pacific the only way you get the type of stuff you're getting today?

Ya, it is.

It's our lifeline basically to all

The supplies that we need at forest.

Ya, if we were cut off from here you know then

We couldn't run the business, you couldn't run the accommodation.

It would be hard to get all the necessary supplies

To repair stuff so the indian pacific is that.

All right.

Well we've got to get back on the train.

Lovely to meet you.

Yes and you too.

It's been a pleasure.

Have a good one.

Not too many flies.

How's it going?

Good!

Yourself?

How ya goin'?

Here's a little light one.

Yep, nice wet one!

Aaaaahhhh!

We'll see ya next time.

Cheers!

(Teddy) from here until our next stop

In cook, it's 300 kilometers with no bend in sight.

For drivers, lance and cole,

It's lunch time.

If we feel the need to cook our own food we have a hotplate,

A fridge to store our food and a fry pan to cook our food on.

(Teddy) for security purposes,

The drivers cab is locked down so there's no access

To the train's master chefs.

How would you like your gammon done, spider?

Medium?

Culinary delight.

(Teddy) before cole can dig in

The train stops for another isolated mail drop.

That's it man, that's everything?

(Teddy) and a shift change for the drivers.

Lance is the unlucky one.

He gets to eat my cooking.

It looks very tasty cole.

You've done a very good job.

No criticism accepted.

There's lunch.

Lovely.

(Teddy) as we race across the nullarbor

Maintenance crews up the line, are battling

Temperatures above forty degrees celsius.

Extreme hot weather can get up to 47-48, which can cause buckle of the line.

(Teddy) buckled tracks derail trains,

So the team fights the heat with fire!

This will stop derailments from happening.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) the indian pacific is nearly

Half way through its' trek across australia.

More than 1500 kilometers from perth, we're approaching

The town of cook, the only scheduled stop

Across the nullarbor plain.

Be enough to get through to port augusta.

(Teddy) cook was established as

An important rest stop for trains and their passengers.

But when the railway changed ownership in 1997,

The new owners cut operating costs

Except vital train services like fuel and water,

Cook was shut down.

Today it's a ghost town with a population of four.

Look at that, it says, "if you're crook come to cook"

And crook is actually australian slang for sick and it says that

Because there used to be a big hospital here when it

Used to be known as the 'queen city of the nullarbor'.

Not today.

(Teddy) after nearly 1,100 kilometers

Through the scorching heat, colin the train tech gives

The indian pacific some serious attention.

I'm looking for the bearing housing temperatures

See what the temperature is.

Forty-seven degrees at the moment it can lead

To possible overheating and it can seize up and cause

Derailments as well.

We're looking pretty good at the moment.

(Teddy) at the same time,

Every water tank is refilled.

Once full, the indian pacific carries 22 tons of water.

So all the wagons will be watered and we've also

Taken water on here on the loco.

(Teddy) every week 120-thousand liters

Of fresh water is shipped into cook by cargo train,

And stored in silos ready for the indian pacific.

(Teddy) finally, the 12,500-liter fuel tank gets topped up.

I'm putting in another 6000 and that will get us all the way

Through to sydney.

Are you receiving, over?

(over radio) yeah.

Done the wheel bearing inspection

And everything's ready to go over.

(Teddy) from cook, we're traveling through the night.

It's over fifteen hours and 1,100 kilometers to adelaide.

Look at this, the landscape outside has

Changed dramatically, as it opens up, you can see

All that green, all those trees.

That's because we've come through the nullarbor plain now.

(Teddy) we're out of the desert,

But temperatures still routinely hit close to 50 degrees celsius.

Up the line maintenance crews are battling the outback heat.

Get ready!

Rattle!

(rattling)

(Teddy) but here temperature swings

Expand and contract the rails

Causing buckling and cracks in the track.

To fill those cracks, the crew uses a technique called

Continuously welded rail, or cwr.

That involves taking joints out of the track

And continuously welding it out.

You have your molten steel which is in your pot.

This is the molten steel which we'll drop into the mold.

So they're preparing that mold, yes, so then

Your pot sits on top, your molten steel drops down

In it and it'll mold onto your steel, your rail,

And that will hold it.

(Teddy) with every joint the maintenance crew

Eliminates the railway becomes stronger

And trains can go faster.

At the moment this track speed is thirty-five k's an hour

And once we finish cwr, and adjust it, the track

Will be up to sixty k's an hour.

So that's a big increase.

Increases efficiency and it's good for everyone.

(Teddy) day 3 on the indian pacific begins

2,700 kilometers east of perth, with an early

Morning arrival in the city of adelaide.

Passengers can step off to grab breakfast in the city

While the indian pacific gets is getting its most dramatic overhaul of the trip.

Wayne, who's out the back?

What are you up to?

(Teddy) adelaide station.

Warehouse manager, tony wall has been getting ready since dawn.

With the indian pacific it is only a three-hour turnaround today.

Totally got the ticking clock going in the back of the head.

(Teddy) tony's stocking the train

With enough food, drinks and supplies to get

The indian pacific to sydney, then back to adelaide.

This will be the whole lot.

This will be all the food, all the linen that will be

Exchanged throughout the journey.

Everything emanates from adelaide.

(Teddy) while tony's team provisions

The train, colin, checks on the refrigeration system.

It's actually working now, two point five degrees.

(Teddy) then the train gets split in half

Are you receiving operations?

(Teddy) and both halves are sent to the adelaide

Maintenance center for a scrub.

We wash it every week.

The appearance on the outside is crucial for our guests.

But just as important, we have a number of components

Underneath the train that it's vitally important also to get clean.

(Teddy) untreated dirt buildup prevents

The components from working at 100 percent and can add

Thousands of kilograms in unnecessary weight.

It's gleaming in the sun now.

It's almost ready for departure.

(Teddy) with the sparkling train

Back at the platform, the final items are loaded

And a familiar face takes control as train manager!

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to board the train folks.

Thank you, folks!

How are you mate?

Good to see you again man!

Good, good.

Listen, I'm going to make sure we get to where we're

Going this time mate.

We've already gotten a lot farther than last time.

I'm glad you're back with us though, man.

Glad to see ya mate!

All aboard folks!

All aboard, thank you.

Let's be having you gentlemen.

(Teddy) before leaving adelaide,

A second locomotive was added to provide extra horsepower.

Will need it for tomorrow's climb up the blue mountains.

After adelaide the indian pacific's headed into the most

Remote part of our journey, where there are no roads,

No maintenance facilities,

And no help if anything goes wrong.

Before we reach our destination we have to pass through

Drought-ravaged bushlands that can become tinder in

Australia's hot, dry summers.

You can get a lot of lightning strikes

Causing brush fire and they can impact on us.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) it's the end of my third day in australia,

Aboard the legendary indian pacific.

From adelaide, we're rolling towards broken

Hill station in the state of new south wales.

Broken hill's our final stop of the day

Where the indian pacific takes on its last load of water.

Seven thirty we'll take it out and head off to sydney mate.

Easy as.

(train horn blows)

(Teddy) from here it's a 1,000 kilometer overnight ride

Until we reach the blue mountains.

(Teddy) the highest peak in the blue mountains is

Nearly 1200 meters above sea level.

Okay, this is probably part of the steepest plate through

The blue mountains can play havoc in the wet with the locos.

(Teddy) 10 kilometers from here, tourists can experience

That steepness up close!

The blue mountains are the sight of numerous cliffs,

Canyons,waterfalls and caves

Spread over a million hectares.

They're also home to the steepest railway in the world.

This 310 meter-long incline railway started as

A trolley for miners to haul coal up the canyon's sharp cliffs.

Now, it's a scenic attraction run by third-generation owner, anthea hammon.

The miners never earned much money so they used to charge

The tourists six pence one way back up in the train.

And initially they actually just used

The coal skips and pull them up.

(Teddy) seventy years later

Three carriages carry eighty-four passengers,

So they don't have to climb a thousand stairs.

All right, here we go.

Ya, ready to go.

Make sure you're holding on.

It is very steep!

Hohoho!

(Teddy) keeping the fifteen-ton train

Steady as it drops 200 vertical meters takes some serious muscle.

So this our winch system.

We have two whole ropes on the winch system itself.

Each one of those whole ropes have a breaking

Strain of fifty-seven tons.

One rope is more than enough but we've got

The two there just in case.

So are we at the steepest part right now?

This is the steepest point on the track at fifty-two degrees.

Whooo!

When tourists take this train are they really surprised at how steep it is?

Ya, they have the face you do.

(chuckling) a little scared.

This is awesome and there's the valley.

What a view.

Ya.

Wow it's amazing, you can get here on a train too.

That incline is really something.

(Teddy) back on the indian pacific,

We're rolling through the eucalyptus forests

That define the blue mountains.

Eucalyptus tree oil vaporizes, becoming the blue haze that

Sits above the canopy.

The oil and fumes are both extremely flammable.

In addition to extreme heat,

Flooding and wildlife on the tracks,

Another hurdle the indian pacific faces is

The constant threat of brushfires.

During hot, dry summers, eucalyptus tree oils

Can turn the forests into a tinderbox.

I've got pretty close to a couple times over the years,

You can smell the smoke in the train.

Once we had to stop to let the bush fire get out of

Our way before we could go forward.

Stand back, let it go and then once it's clear

And it clears pretty quick, we go through.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) by valleyheights station,

We're entering our final fifty kilometer stretch

Towards sydney central station.

Let me know if you're going to be ten minutes early.

If I'm only halfway where I need to be.

(over radio) yep sure are, mate.

We're almost in sydney but the hard work is not done yet.

The train platform in sydney is actually not

Long enough to fit the entire length of the indian pacific.

So train staff have to split the train in half.

(Teddy) the whole train stops fifty meters from the station.

The lead locomotive is decoupled from the train.

While the secondary locomotive pulls the front fourteen

Carriages to the platform.

Then the lead locomotive can back up to pull the rest

Of the train to a platform nearby.

(Teddy) the whole operation takes forty minutes.

All our guests are off, they've gone perth to sydney

But we'll turn it around and in a couple of hours

Time take it back to perth again, mate.

I love trains, I love the journey,

I love the guests, I love the trip.

That was an amazing trip through the outback

And across this massive, vast country!

I'll never forget seein' australia on the indian pacific!

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪