Silver Star trials held

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 14

Silver Star trials held

<By

A. J. PETRE,

"The Press." who travelled in the Silver Star)

Sheathed in gleaming stainless steel, softly-lit, air-conditioned, carpeted and complete with buffet car, New Zealand Railways’ new prestige train, the Silver Star sleeper, is being proven before entering service.

This week the train has been carrying journalists, travel agents and business and railways representatives between Wellington and Auckland. to give them a sample of New Zealand’s latest hr luxury train travel.

The runs are serving another purpose: they are providing a test of the service and equipment and giving a “running in” period for staff before the Silver Star enters full service, on September 5. QUIETER, SMOOTHER

The Silver Star shatters previously-held , conceptions of New Zealand train travel. With double-glazed windows, air-conditioning and special bogies, it is both vastly quieter and much smoother than other New Zealand trains, including the Southerner.

No longer does one need to sleep propped up with pillows in a seat: the seats fold down to reveal proper beds. All berths, single or twin, have built-in, fold-away hand-basins and toilets, and the twin berths, or “twinettes” as the Railways call them, also have a shower cabinet.

At $lB for a single ticket between Wellington and Auckland, the fare is about $4 less than the air fare for the same trip: but this cost includes, of course, a night’s accommodation, a light supper, and a “continental” breakfast. SMALL SERVINGS

Drinks served by attendants in the berths are extra —from 35c for a tin of beer, and from 55c for a miniature bottle of spirits—and so are dinners in the buffet car, and any wine which might be ordered with them. The buffet car menu includes fruit juice, entrees (65c), omelettes (95c), steak ($1.45), roast beef or bam ($1.45), cold platter ($1.25), apple pie and cream (35c), and cheeses, and quarterbottles of New Zealand wines, which range from 55c to 75c.

The food is good, but the servings small: a $1.45 steak meal includes a side-plate of salad, but in quantity is much less than one would expect in the average restaurant.

When scheduled services start, the Silver Stars will leave Auckland and Wellington at 8 p.m., six days a week, arriving at their destinations at 8.30 a.m. the next day. This is 50 minutes faster than the times for the Limited Express, saved not so much by faster running as by the elimination of refreshment stops.

The curves and gradients of the main trunk line make it impossible to run the train much faster than the Limited. The Silver Star will make only six intermediate stops: Frankton, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, Taihape, Marton and Palmerston North.

The $lB single fare on the Silver Star is $2 more than that charged for a sleeping berth on the express, or on the Limited, which the service will replace. The Blue Streak rail-car fare beween Auckland and Wellington is $13.30, and the first -class day-car train fare is $12.15. The rolling stock for the Silver Star was designed mostly by the staff of New Zealand Railways, and was built in Japan by the Mitsubishi Company, at a cost of $3.5m. The design is similar to such trains as Australia’s Southern Aurora, or some Continental sleeping trains. Apart from the buffet cars,

there are two types of carriage: “twinette” units, and "roomette,” or single, units. In both cases the 38-ton carriages each accommodate 16 persons, and if one is prepared to pay three single fares, a suite —twice the size of a “twinette” unit, and with a double bed, one single bed, and a coffee table —is also available. The new carriages are wider, longer and much more luxurious than other New Zealand rolling stock. Normally each train comprises five roomette cars, five twinette cars, a buffet car (which seat 42) and a power and luggage van, which holds two massive diesel generators to provide power for lighting, air-conditioning, heating, and water-heating. At present the trains are pulled by two of the “old” Da diesei-electric locomotives in their usual red livery, but the over-all appearance of the train will soon be improved when new Dx locomotives, painted a special yellow and orange, come into service for the Silver Star. ATTENDANT SERVICE Each train has a crew of 15. Passengers using the service check their baggage on arrival at the station, and 15 minutes after departure “cabin service” from attendants is available, and passengers are shown how to prepare their cabin for the night. ' In the twinettes, a handle above the triple seats is turned, and an upper bunk folds down; carpeted steps for it are stowed beneath the seat.

Another handle, lower down, allows the back of the triple seat to fold down, revealing another made-up berth.

Above the window is a handle which adjusts a Venetian blind between the panes of glass. Beside each berth is a magazine holder, a small fold-out table, an ash-tray, a reading light, a button for calling the steward, a rubbish container, and a cupboard in which shoes can be placed. They can be removed from the outside and cleaned during the night.

Each cabin also has a wardrobe, a luggage compartment, an illuminated mirror and toiletry shelf, a shaver socket, a heater, and foldaway basin and toilet-bowl fittings. TWIN SUITES In the twinettes, another door leads to a small shower cabinet) in which there is a sealed cupboard corttaining towels and soap, as well as the usual folding basin and toilet. A locked door in the shower cubicle connects with the cubicle of the next cabin, so that for families two twinettes can become a four-berth suite.

The twinette cars have normal side-corridors; the roomette cars have central zig-zag corridors designed to make the best use of space in the cabins.

Both types of carriage have stewards’ compartments where suppers and breakfasts are prepared. Breakfasts are brought to cabins an hour or more before the train is due to reach its destination: in the single cabins it is possible to sit up in bed and eat, in the twinettes this is only possible at grave risk to the head. More than one twinette passenger so far has suffered by sitting up in bed too smartly. The breakfast, and a morning newspaper, is included in the fare, and on the same card used to order breakfast, passengers can order a taxi or rental car to meet them at their destination. LITTLE SPILLAGE The ride of the train is sufficiently smooth not to pose too severe a threat to cups of tea, or glasses of more cheering fluid, left standing on the bedside tables, and pouring a drink does not require the concentration that a similar exercise demandsmn the Southerner.

The buffet car is in the middle of the train. Hungry passengers heading for it come upon another novelty: the doors between the carriages slide open automatically at a touch on the handle. They also close automatically, but a treadle on the gangway is intended to prevent them doing this until the passenger is clear. On

this week’s trains, the reflexes of the door mechanisms were considerably more rapid than those of the passengers, several of whom found themselves firmly embraced as a result. Railways staff plan to have more delay put into the mechanism before services start.

Passengers can call stewards to their cabins by the berth-side call buttons, which illuminate a small light outside the cabin door, and light an indicator and ring a buzzer in the steward’s compartment. All stewards’ compartments are connected by telephone to each other, and to the buffet car. The big generators in the luggage and power van behind the engine provide the power at normal times, but there is also an emergency lighting set in each carriage. N.Z. FURNISHINGS New Zealand wool has been used widely in furnishing the train: Wilton carpet is used throughout, the upholstery fabrics are of woollen fabric, and special blankets were made for the train. The upholstery colours are emerald, orange, rust, and a rich purple, all in textured fabric.’The purple upholstery is used with light blue laminated plastic walls, grey walls are used with the orange upholstery, and yellow with the emerald.

Railwaymen expect the carriage carpets and upholstery will have to be replaced after about one year’s service, but this will not be known until some months’ service have passed. The new Silver Star passenger will inevitably spend his first half-hour aboard admiring the practical compactness of the design and the high standard of its execution.

The comparative smoothness and quietness of the ride, except over one or two rough areas of track (which the Railways plan to relay) also makes an early impression. TEETHING TROUBLES The introductory runs have not been without their difficulties and omissions, as was expected. Passengers overwhelmed the buffet car on one run, and some had to wait nearly two hours to get in: it is perhaps unkind but certainly true to say the same difficulty would not arise when those aboard were paying for their own food and wine.

Others ended up with the wrong breakfast, found their shoes had not been cleaned, had to wait 40 minutes for cabin service, missed out on their morning newspaper, and had small fittings play up on them: all problems which supervisory staff noted for attention.

Those in the single-berth roomettes, in particular, found that disrobing for bed was an operation that had to be planned, and was best done before lowering the bed. Some reported that a midnight scurry for the foldaway toilet could be fraught with hazard if the move was not planned in advance, but quickly became used to looking before they leapt. Passengers taking the regular Silver Star services will benefit from the experience of the test runs, and they will also have plenty of guidance: 24-page booklets on the train and its workings will be issued with each ticket.