2023 Australia Central NSW Rambler to the Trundle ABBA Festival

Our tour begins as we gather at Platform 3 at Central Station, Sydney, for a short briefing before boarding our private ABBA carriage attached to the scheduled 7:19am Central West Express XPT service to Orange. With access to the Buffet Car, there’s plenty of meals, snacks, and refreshments on board until we arrive in Orange at midday, when we’ll wander across the road to enjoy a hearty lunch at the local pub.

While we’re at lunch, our private train to Parkes has shunted in from its depot just up the line at Orange East Fork Junction, the new home for the Lachlan Valley Railway, a volunteer run heritage organisation devoted to preserving and operating heritage trains around NSW. Your train for the journey beyond Orange to Parkes is a vintage railmotor built for branch line passenger work in the 1960’s. It’s a comfortable two-car diesel which has been refurbished with open space at one end for a bar and lounge seating.

Our journey today will take us past Molong and Manildra on the way to Parkes and because it’s our own train we can pull up at all manner of locations along the way! Upon arrival in Parkes, it’s a short hop to our motel where you’ll have time to freshen up before dinner close by at the popular Parkes Services Club.

Overnight: Parkview Hotel, Parkes (B, L, D)

Today is ABBA day! We get off to a leisurely start with some free time after breakfast to walk up town and grab a coffee before heading to the station to board our private carriage on the special ‘Waterloo Express’, the Abba themed loco-hauled heritage train departing Parkes at 10:20am. Once on board, you’ll be invited to the Dining Car to enjoy high tea as the train rolls on toward Bogan Gate, the junction of the line that will take us onto Trundle. We’ll arrive around noon and the rest of the day is yours to wander at will and take in the atmosphere and music with your “access all areas” ticket, including the main event in the evening at the showground.

To make sure you can get where you want when you want, we’ll have a coach on hand for transport, including an earlier departure back to Parkes if you’d rather not wait around for the train. For those of us who want to, our late train back to Parkes will be very much in keeping with those mad days in the 70’s when we didn’t stop jiving to iconic tunes until we hit the pillow!

Overnight: Parkview Hotel, Parkes (B)

Today we’re back on our own private rail motor train after breakfast for a full day round trip across the Central Slopes and back up the ranges to the Tablelands. Our train takes us west out past the new intermodal loops and junctions of the Inland Rail and then we motor north on the first completed section of the Inland Rail. The junction at Narromine offers a great spot for a break for lunch and a visit to the excellent Aviation Museum centred around the World War Two RAAF training base.

Further down the line we roll on through Dubbo and Wellington and pull up in Stuart Town to have a drink or two, enjoy some live music, and an early dinner at the classic old Ironbark Inn just beside the station. After dinner it’s off across the fertile hills to Orange , where we’ll check into our hotel and have time to gather in the lounge bar to relax, socialise and unwind.

Overnight: Remington Hotel, Orange (B, L, D)

Departing Orange at a respectable hour, our private rail motor will journey east along the Tablelands with our first stop being the quaint heritage village of Millthorpe. Here you’ll have time to graze and browse the excellent array of shops, galleries, cafes, and fascinating museums, all clustered within an easy walk in this charming, compact community before reboarding the train for the short run to Bathurst, the oldest inland settlement in Australia and one of the region’s most prosperous towns .

Our first stop in Bathurst is the newly opened Bathurst Railway Museum, where we’ll learn of the impact of the railway on the culture of the city and marvel at the extraordinary working model of the western line that’s on show, after which there will be some time for you to explore more of Bathurst and its world-class museums before we head off to our special lunch venue.

Lunch is hosted in the lavish surrounds of Abercrombie House, a veritable Baronial Castle in the bush and an Australian heritage treasure. In the afternoon you have the option to return into town and visit the Motor Museum and Fossil and Mineral Museum, tracking the train onto Wallerawang down the Fish River Valley, or take a coach tour out to the spectacular Mayfield Gardens, one of the country’s most extensive, privately owned, high-country gardens in the style of the English stately homes.

We’ll all meet up at the Black Gold resort and motel, our home and dinner venue for the night.

Overnight: Black Gold Resort, Wallerawang (B, L, D)

This morning after a hearty breakfast, we depart by coach for a short visit to the State Mine Museum at Lithgow before heading up the Scenic Hill to Clarence, to meet our specially chartered steam train for a ride on the recently reopened iconic Zig Zag Railway. The Great Lithgow Zig Zag was the original route of the railway over the Blue Mountains. The challenge for engineers in the 1860’s was how to descend the steep ranges with the limited technology and budgets of the day. An ingenious system of switchbacks were built allowing trains to rise and fall on their way from the city to the west. Even though the Zig Zag was bypassed in the early 1900’s the structures remained and today our tourist train brings the history alive as it thunders up the range echoing off the surrounded mountains just as it did back in the day.

Back in Lithgow, there’ll be time for you to grab a quick lunch before we board the 1:18pm scheduled Express train to Sydney, arriving at a bit before 4pm. This is where our short escape to the Abba festival and beyond will come to an end amidst whoops of “Mamma Mia”, “Dancing Queen” and “Gimme, Gimme, Gimee.”!

Breakfast