Wednesday 24 July 2013

trainspotting

the train project

so i had this awesome idea about trying to visit every train station in the translink network, and having pictorial evidence to back up each adventure.

the network according to wiki has 148 stations and i plan on visiting each one, with the aim of having a photo of each station, its station name and if possible, getting at least one train in each photo; and will post each photo up here for all train lovers to see.

this project is incredibly lame to most people, but i like catching the train, and i think of each journey as an adventure. so far i have only visited the main stations and a few extras with friends, and havent even got a photo of them all yet because this was an idea i came up with on the train yesterday morning on my way to uni for the beginning of term 2.

i normally get on the train at dinmore with karen, and go as far as central before changing trains to uni where i get off at either park road or dutton park. a typical train journey for me is commencing on the ipswich line at dinmore, going as far as central with karen where we have a cup of tea before she goes to work, and then i will catch a train to uni. luckily the university is located in a way that i could theoretically catch any of 3 of the south bound trains when we are at the pharmacy australia center of excellence (pace) campus, and literally any of the 5 trains for when we are at st lucia. for days when we are at pace, the clevelandgold coast or beenleigh trains are the ones to catch - as all 3 go through park road station. from park road, the cleveland continues east, while the beenleigh and gold coast go south. the gold coast is an express service from park road, which i have not yet caught, but will sometime soon. the beenleigh train stops all stations to beenleigh, and is the best option, because pace is located next to the princess alexandra hospital - which is at the dutton park station. dutton park is the next station from park road on the beenleigh line and is in walking distance of that station, so theoretically i could catch a gold coast or cleveland and walk to dutton park. i have done this many times, but if i am feeling lazy or if the beenleigh isnt far away, then it is definitely the best option, especially if it is raining! going back inbound is a pain, as you have to wait for the ferny grove train, which will go back to park road - alternatively you can walk to park road and take the chance that something (ie a doomben or shorncliffe) is coming in from cleveland, or that an airport train will be arriving at park road after running express inbound from the gold coast. on more than one occasion, i have arrived at dutton park and couldnt be bothered waiting for a ferny grove to come through, so have left and walked to park road, only to be greeted with the train arriving on platform 3 is the brisbane city and ferny grove train stopping all stations; meaning i should have just waited at dutton park after all! 
 
when i am at st lucia, any of the trains stopping at park road station are useful because there is a bus from park road directly to the university, or alternatively, you can walk, it isnt that far, but is a pain if it is raining, you are running late, need to urinate, or have an assignment due and need a computer, thats when i take the bus (or if i am feeling lazy...)
alternatively, i can get a springfield or ipswich train and disembark at toowong and catch a bus to uni from there. those buses arrive on the other side of campus, which is sometimes really handy, particularly if biomed is in the physiol building or if i want to go to the biological sciences library (the library open 24 hours a day).

we used to live on the cleveland line and used to get on at norman park, but since moving to emerald hill, we are now on the ipswich line. the closest station to our house geographically is wulkuraka, though we havent caught the train from there yet because you actually have to change trains at ipswich central to the rosewood line, which doesnt run as often. this is why we drive to dinmore each morning and catch the train inbound to brisbane from there each morning. dinmore station is good, it has a lot of car parks and has close access to the highway to get us home quickly. we have worked out that by getting off at dinmore and driving home, we get home at the time it would have taken us to stay on the train all the way to ipswich and walk down to the car and start driving home, so even though dinmore is further away, it actually works out to be faster. 
as i visit new stations, i will keep updating this blog entry, so you can keep a track of where i have been and how many stations i have left to go, so keep checking back on this page often to see how i am going!

stations i have visited on the network include:

norman park
buranda
park road
south bank
south brisbane
roma street
central
fortitude valley
dutton park
exhibition
toowong
indooroopilly
bowen hills
eagle junction
milton
ipswich
dinmore
ebbw vale
darra
oxley
richlands
wulkuraka
cleveland
shorncliffe
ferny grove
caboolture
wacol 
rosewood
cannon hill
corinda
mitchelton
springfield central
coopers plains
clayfield 
glasshouse mountains
beenleigh
doomben
nerang
altandi
manly
morningside
banyo
bundamba
wooloowin
booval
murarrie
redbank
helensvale
yeronga
riverview
karrabin
thagoona
walloon
moorooka
yeerongpilly
banoon
rocklea  
hendra
gailes 
sunnybank 
fairfield
taringa 
coorparoo
bindha
northgate    
petrie 
salisbury
edens landing
auchenflower
ormiston
wellington point
thomas street 
runcorn 
traveston
albion 
ascot 
east ipswich
morayfield
narangba
sherwood
varsity lakes
north boondall 
gympie north
woodridge
holmview
loganlea
newmarket
wilston
windsor
alderley
gaythorne
cooran
ormeau
bethania
enoggera
nundah 
sunshine
zillmere
goodna
graceville
fruitgrove
hemmant
strathpine
oxford park 
elimbah
beerwah
pomona
springfield
lindum
chelmer
keppera
grovely
burpengary
coomera
nudgee
toombul
beerburrum
nambour
palmwoods
cooroy
kingston
trinder park
kuraby
birkdale
thorneside
lota
wynnum central
wynnum
wynnum north 
deagon
sandgate
robina
dakabin
mooloolah
woombye
eudlo
eumundi
lawnton
bray park
bald hills
carseldine
geebung
virginia
landsborough
yandina
airport (airtrain domestic station)
airport (international train station) 

i have colour coded the stations according to the lines they are on, however many stations have several train lines go through them, so as opposed to discriminating between lines, i will code them grey and white for the purposes of this blog, to match the overhead screens you will see at some stations.

i plan to set out here in posts that follow, a few photos of each station, and a bit of a story of why i am there, what ive seen when there, who i have been with there and where i am going; as well as possibly some interesting trivia about the stations if i actually have any. hopefully i can visit all of the stations on the network while i am still a student, so that i can achieve this while using just the one go card (it will also be cheaper!!)

i plan on revisiting all of these stations in coming posts, so that i can gather a collection of photographs of each station for this record. i am also trying to collect the stat for each station on my go card. hopefully i can be one of the first people to visit every station on the network!

let the odyssey begin!

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