Railroad Australia
Discover the amazing inner workings of Australia’s railroads and the dedicated train crews who face an every day battle to keep the nation on track.
Railroad Australia discovers just what it takes to transport ever-growing numbers of passengers and crucial resources across one of the most extreme and hostile places on the planet.
In a wild frontier world of blistering heat and vast distances, an army of workers toil day and night to keep the nation’s lifeblood flowing... with a little help from some of the biggest and most powerful trains in the world. Australian rail operators are world leaders in heavy haul rail freight, moving some of the longest and heaviest freight trains in the world.
From two kilometre-long freight monsters to the super sleek long-distance ‘hotels-on-wheels’, outback trains are crucial to Australia’s biggest industries and the very survival of many remote communities.
With unprecedented access, Railroad Australia goes behind the scenes to discover train drivers, locomotive servicing crews and track maintenance teams on some of the toughest, most demanding and spectacular journeys.
Just some of the journeys we follow are:
In the scrub and red dirt of Western Australia’s Pilbara Region, we’ll follow track maintenance workers who are racing to replace a section of rail, holding up train drivers waiting to deliver gargantuan amounts of precious iron ore from mine to port.
Aboard the legendary intercontinental passenger train known as The Ghan, we’ll join a close-knit community working around the clock to keep the train moving and the passengers happy on a once in a lifetime railway adventure through Australia’s stunning Red Centre.
We follow dedicated drivers as they work and live on board a 1.8 kilometre-long freight train packed with fresh food and frozen goods headed across the blistering desert of the Nullarbor plain.
On the other side of the country, sugar train workers must push themselves and their trains to the limit to get freshly harvested sugar cane to the mill within 24 hours.
Throughout the series we follow the men and women who keep this incredibly complex rail network running to schedule. From passenger trains to mining, freight, and the rail and train maintenance crews who support them – we tell the story of the intricate inner workings of a vital Australian industry.
2016 - Broadcaster: Discovery Channel