Once were ensconced in Gold Class Car F Berths 7&8 and unpacked we had time to gather our thoughts while the front part of the train (ours) was shunted onto the rear end (the cheap seats).
Along the way, we received briefings about the cabin, its features (bathroom and toilet facilities) and matters like meal times.
For the uninitiated, Gold Class meals on the Indian Pacific and The Ghan operate in two shifts, Red (early) and Blue (late) and meal times aren't consistent over the journey.
They don't serve meals while the train's stopped and don't split eating into before and after options (difficult when you're there for two or three hours).
That means one option has you dining rather late after the Adelaide stop, while the other one has breakfasts earlier than you may prefer.
Day One going west, for example, had the Red Service at 6:00 with Blue two hours later. We'd gone the Blue, but as I wrote this part of the Travelogue heading out of Broken Hill, the Red Service had just been called (8:30 a.m. CST). Subsequent comments from people with a Red ticket suggested that staff tended to hurry you through your meal to make room for the other lot.