Goulburn-based company Vintage Rail Journeys is gearing up for their first tour after COVID-19 put a halt to several trips planned earlier this year.
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In November the Golden West Rail Tour will kick off. This tour features the Hawkesbury River, Newcastle coastline and the Blue Mountains.
In March, 2021 the much anticipated Riverina Tour will start. This tour will begin in Sydney and feature: Wollongong, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Griffith, Parkes and Katoomba over four days.
Owners Danielle Smith and Simon Mitchell have been hard at work restoring carriages from a vintage train known as the Aurora Australis or The Southern Aurora. The well-known locomotive was built in 1962.
Ms Smith said the Aurora was originally an overnight Sydney to Melbourne passenger service and was "world class at the time".
She said some of the carriages were "in a pretty bad way".
Now eight carriages have been restored back to their original condition.
The 16 carriages span 400m of shiny eye-catching train consisting of 136 beds, two dining cars and two bars.
Most of the carriages were restored in Goulburn by local people.
Pre-COVID the couple would have morning tea at the Loco Roundhouse with people who had originally driven the locomotives from Sydney to Melbourne. The carriages were purchased from the Australian Railway Historical Society in 2017 after it went into receivership.
The business-woman said for the Riverina Tour the train would arrive in Goulburn mid-afternoon and tourists would check out the War Memorial, the Loco Roundhouse, the Historic Waterworks and the art gallery.
The guests will be ferried around Goulburn in a 1950s flexible clipper bus.
Ms Smith said the tours would concentrate on regional NSW.
"All of our food and wine is regionally based," she said.
"We are strong believers in the 'buy from the bush' concept."
The Riverina Tour is sold out for the 10-14 March, 2021. A later tour is scheduled for March 24-28 and early October, 2021.
Visit vintagerailjourneys.com.au for more information.
