All times are in New South Wales time (AEST); note that Broken Hill is 30 minutes behind the rest of New South Wales (CST).

• transportnsw.info
• NSW TrainLink bookings

As per NSW Trainlink's luggage policy, how much you can bring per person depends on the class of ticket you have.

Regardless of the ticket class, large luggage may not exceed 600 mm x 700 mm x 500 mm. It may also not exceed 20 kg (44 lb). If you're in economy, you may bring only one piece of large luggage; you can bring two pieces of luggage in first class, however. In addition, you may also bring one piece of hand luggage weighing no more than 10 kg (22 lb) and no larger than 300 mm x 500 mm x 300 mm.

The service starts at -33.8825151.2066671 Central (0 km), but also makes pick up stops at -33.8718151.0943312 Strathfield (12 km), -33.817708151.0055693 Parramatta (23 km) and -33.750069150.6961924 Penrith (50 km). This section of the trip is perhaps like taking any ordinary train through a suburban area, though one thing you'll probably notice is that the train will go much faster than a suburban train on the same tracks. Enjoy your momentary fast speeds as the next four hours past Penrith will be a struggle up slow and windy tracks – all the way until Parkes.

Once you pass Emu Plains, the last suburban stop on the Sydney Trains network (note that the Broken Hill XPL does not stop there), you reach the foot of the Blue Mountains. This is where the journey starts to get real slow mostly averaging only around 50 km/h. However, the scenery starts to get much nicer onwards from here; the view up the mountains is definitely worth a look.

One hour after leaving the base of the mountains, you'll reach -33.711904150.3113475 Katoomba (110 km) – perhaps the centre of the upper Blue Mountains and one of the few stations in the entire state over 1000 m in elevation. The train speeds up slightly past Katoomba and the scenery tends to be a lot better the further out you go. 40 minutes later, you'll reach -33.480487150.1573886 Lithgow (153 km), the very end of the electrified rail network. The scenery from here gets much drier and a lot less green.

All stations between Central and Lithgow inclusive are pick-up/set-down only – you cannot use the Broken Hill Xplorer to travel between Lithgow and Central.

• -33.4256149.58337 Bathurst (229 km)
• -33.527248149.254248 Blayney (290 km)
• -33.2868149.10369 Orange (323 km)

Once you've passed Orange is where it really starts to show that the train is somewhat also catered for tourists where you get an Indian Pacific-lite experience. The train stops at all stations (except for Darnick) from here onwards for roughly 5–10 minutes and you're encouraged to get out and stretch your legs for a bit. No tours or anything, but you can walk around and explore some of the stations and maybe take some train photos.

• -33.1421148.173310 Parkes (446 km)
• -33.084147.15311 Condobolin (546 km)
• -33.0546146.39312 Euabalong West (619 km)
• -32.9143144.311813 Ivanhoe (816 km)
• -32.8512143.624914 Darnick (881 km)
• -32.3887142.426115 Menindee (1006 km)
• -31.959599141.46621716 Broken Hill (1124 km)