Great Train Show with Tim Fischer: Recent Episodes
ABC Local
Tim Fischer brings us the latest on all things rail - industry news, history, anecdotes, passions and behind-the-headlines info
Episode 17: Rail in China, a gentleman who started his rail career as a call boy and 5461 steam recording.
Episode 9: Why author Mark Twain was unimpressed with his stop at the Albury Train Station, we continue our tour of Sydney Central Railway Station and Bendigo Tramways.
Episode 12: Rail in Australian folklore, Sir Rod Eddington on his 18 billion dollar transport plan for Melbourne and State of Steam in Adelaide.
Episode 1: The Governor General of Australia, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffrey is Tim's first guest also the Lunatic Express in Kenya and meet two sleeper layers in Central Australia.
Episode 18: A game created by rail workers, Train Traveller's report of the UK and a town literally put on the map by rail.
Episode 36: (Podcast version from January 4th 2009 live radio show) Train stories from around Australia, rail fares going up in the UK and we find out just how Zig Zag railways work.
Episode 38: (Podcast version from January 18th 2009 live radio show). Barack Obama on a train to Washington DC, Mount Rushmore and your stories from around Australia.
Episode 39: (Podcast version from January 26th live radio show). Co-host is Jeff Richardson. Australia and India's National Day, lost passports on trains in Italy, flying gangs, and a recording from inside a train.
Episode 26: The magic of the Zig Zag railway, a railway station that's adapted a new life in Scotland and a preview of an international rail conference for trains and trams to be held in Australia 2009.
Episode 25: Seventy years since the speed record for a steam locomotive was set, your questions answered and more from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.
Episode 24: Lifetime rail perk for India's first individual Olympic gold medallist, confusing work colleagues with train sounds in the Middle East and Tim on board the Spirit of the Outback in Queensland.
Episode 32: Photographer and author the late Jim Powe, retired rail repairer John White and more from UK author Christian Wolmer.
Episode 37. (Podcast version from January 11th 2009 live radio show) Bhutan set to get its first railway, train travel in Iran and China prepares for its peak rail season.
Episode 35: At the Movies David Stratton on trains in film and the Black Hills Central Railroad in the United States.
Episode 34: A stop at the Workshops Rail Museum in Queensland, a million dollar plus refurbishment for Maryborough Station in Central Victoria and author John Evans.
Episode 33: A love story across two continents, life on a freight train and a new lease of life for a non-air hopper wagon.
Episode 31: A rail journey from Vladivostok to Moscow, the lure of Stevenson's Rocket and sound recordist Dennis Rittson critiques one of Tim's recordings.
Episode 30: Farewell to passenger trains travelling on the broad gauge line on Victoria's North East corridor, Jennifer Edmonds back home following her Churchill Fellowship and plans to revisit the pros and cons of high speed rail in Australia.
Episode 29: Rail from Singapore to London a step closer, travelling from Perth to Sydney on a hand trike and have you heard the one about the Kangaroo?
Episode 2: India's oldest mountainous railways, Brunel Box Tunnel myth and pure steam recording.
Episode 28: Who built the world's first "proper" railway? You'll have "train envy" as we catch up with Jennifer Edmonds who is travelling overseas and looking at rail heritage and a rare sound recording from South Australia circa 1960s.
Episode 27: A deal to keep steam trains running in western Poland, we meet an inaugural member of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society and the Wreck of the Old 97.
Episode 23: Talking trains on the Isle of Wight, a stop at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum and a pure steam recording of an Australian favourite.
Episode 22: On board the Coast Starlight on the US West Coast, Train Travellers report from South Africa and meet an 80 year old rail visionary.
Episode 21: Bushranger Ned Kelly's last stand, a tribute to our bridge builders of yesteryear and did great Australian racehorse Phar Lap change trains at Albury/Wodonga?
Episode 3: The passenger train that honours Afghan camel drivers, a rail system built for sheep and Tim travels on Australia's newest eletrical line.
Episode 6: The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (that was nearly named after the Bronte sisters), future railway development options for Australia and Newcastle farewells the last red rattler.
Episode 13: Working rail gauges in the United States, the Battle of Broken Hill and rail in Japan.
Episode 4: Advice for building a steam train, Trans-Siberian Railway, Victoria's Puffing Billy and memories of train travel in Eastern Europe.
Episode 5: The UK's approach to preserving rail, the Chattanooga Choo Choo and memories from a retired shunter.
Episode 7: Using steam to generate electricity with locomotives, the 3642 back on the tracks and the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
Episode 8: The son of a station master who ended up becoming CEO of Queensland Rail, a tour up the clock tower at Sydney's Central Railway Station and a look at rail in Malaysia.
Episode 11: Restoring locomotives in 2008, a sound recording of a 3642 in a storm and childhood train memories.
Episode 10: An Alaskan rail adventure, underground rail tunnels and platforms in Sydney and a gentleman who has a locomotive named in his honour.
Episode 14: The use of rail in World War I and World War II, a tale of true derring-do when a British Admiral commandeered a steam train in Italy and Australian artist Russell Drysdale's paintings of Australian soldiers on the platform at Albury Train Station.
Episode 15: Indian railway renaissance, archival recording of Australian leading rail figure Sir Harold Clapp and Dougie the Kelpie the unofficial icon for South Australia's Pichi Richi railway.
Episode 20: This week the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Railway in the UK, a 1949 recording of Kindergarten of the Air, and a group of railway carriages named after Australian Rivers.
Episode 19: A Canberra church that was once a railway station, one man's passion for model trains and a lady who is about to tour the world studying rail.