For me a train is simply a form of transport that can get me from point A to point B (no pun intended). But climbing aboard and riding the Kuranda Scenic Railway train in northern Queensland took me a lot closer to understanding the train fanatic's delight.
I loved it.
I was charmed by the old-fashioned carriages with those yesterday red-leather seats and wide wood-framed windows.
The clickety-clack sound that storybook trains always make was there, too, even if there was no sight or smell of smoke, for the genuinely old carriages are drawn now by a diesel-powered engine. It had a yesteryear whistle though.
The revamped train certainly held great appeal, but the superior delight for me was the high, winding trail it travelled on.
A train frequently follows the lowest contour yet here I was sitting in a train that meandered instead high up over great hills clothed with tropical rainforest.
How had workmen constructed a rail track in such a place?
They had done it with great difficulty. The adverse terrain was hugely challenging, the heat of the tropical region was sapping, the rain drenching and in 1886 when the project began, simple picks and shovels, plus dynamite, were the most advanced tools of trade available.
It took the men five years to lay the rail track through tangled forest where sometimes fearsome creatures lurked, and where always tiny pestering ones bit exposed flesh.
Ways past massive waterfalls and sheer cliffs had to be negotiated, hence the 98 curves on the track. There were tunnels to be gouged through hillsides, 15 of them.
There were bridges required to span valleys and plunging ravines, 55 of them. All this effort for 37km of rail track. Sometimes as many as 1500 men were working at once and there were no safety rules that may have minimised the loss of life caused often by accidents and illness.
These men were not risking their lives creating a tourist trip.
The line was being driven over the Macalister Range to service the mining industry. Gold had been found beyond the range and servicing the mines and miners was an arduous business. It's a joy to take a wander in the rainforest now, but being an old-time carrier and having to tramp, with laden animals, through miles and miles of it would have been arduous.
A train that cut distance from the coast - shipping brought supplies into the Cairns harbour - and could carry vastly more than packhorses, was obviously a huge improvement.
The workmen slaved on until 1891, five years after work had begun, for the rail track to be completed as far as Kuranda, the village that came into being because of the rail project. It was many many years later, in 1936, that the line carried its first tourists to and from that rainforest village.
These days the train can be caught twice daily on the coastal plain at Cairns Station or at Freshwater Station to go up, or at Kuranda to go down. I chose to travel down from Kuranda, but train buffs might want to travel up and down.
Many choose to go one way on the astounding Skyrail, gliding in gondolas over the forest canopy in an effortless 7.5km ride that lands passengers beside Kuranda Station.
The last is a gem itself, quaintly old-fashioned and surrounded by impeccably tended, tropical-bright gardens. There's also road transport of varying kinds to take you one way (or you can drive yourself) if you so choose.
Some people boarding the train pay for the luxury of seats in the Gold Class carriages, where generous snacks, drinks and an attentive attendant are available for passengers. I travelled in the more plebeian manner.
The commentator's pleasant voice, coming through speakers into each carriage, always informed passengers when good photo opportunities were likely around the next curve, but I appreciated that there wasn't an endless commentary all the way.
There was time to absorb the views of ancient unchanged land, water and vegetation.
There was water but it fell in silver-white ropes rather than in tossing veils, mainly because it was the dry season and partly because there has been diversion of the water above the falls for electricity.
However, the 260m drop, carved by the water over millions of years, still presents a vista that is hugely impressive.
One feels ant-like in comparison.
Elsewhere there were heart-stopping ravines. From atop deep valleys, the glistening Barron River appeared no more than a ribbon of water.
The forest, particularly before we entered tunnels, closed about us mysteriously. Gradually, we were carried down 300m in altitude, finally emerging from a spectacular wilderness into the familiarity of farmland and housing and cane fields.
In the Cairns and Port Douglas region you can chug slowly up rivers spotting crocodiles, or sail out to snorkel on the Barrier Reef, or explore rainforest and swim in a clear glass-green river, or choose some other trip from the literally hundreds that are available. I'd put a trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway very high up the list of must-dos.
Prices & Times
Adult: $45 one way, $68 return
Child: $23, $34
Family: $113, $170
Daily departures:
From Cairns Station: 8.30am & 9.30am
From Freshwater Station: 8.50am & 9.50am
Arrives daily at Kuranda Station: 10.15am & 11.15am
Returns daily from Kuranda Station: 2.00pm & 3.30pm
• Pauline Cartwright lives in Alexandra.
