Yes Joy, I do remember that orange juice - really pulpy & very sweet.
And I guess you saw The Spirit with that wonderful streamlined steam engine up front and the Parlour Car at the rear. Family legend was that an uncle got overbooked on a trip to Sydney & had to spend the Melb-Albury leg in an armchair in the Parlour Car instead of a normal seat. Lucky sod.
I hear your woe re the trip to Tocumwal with VLine. I've moved down to Gippsland and everytime I come up to Melbourne by train I regret the passing of exciting & enjoyable train travel. To paraphrase Art Thieme, the older I get the better it was. Still, the memory of getting up REALLY early to catch a Steam train at 6:30am from Spencer St to go visit my Great Aunt in Bendigo will never really die.
But it seems to run in the family. My elder grandson ( who lives in Zurich) was here for a visit about 18 months ago and is still raving about his ride on Puffing Billy (which is a pretty good attention span for a then 4 year old.
Happy New Year
Dave