International Railroad Discussion > Ghan Museum near Alice Springs, Australia

These pics were all taken in April 2018.
At the time, it was still in the upper 80s (F).

This might have been a maintenance depot before it became I museum; I did not research its history.
The Ghan originally ran between Adelaide (South Australia) and Alice Springs (Northern Territory).
In 2004, a track realignment and extension north to Darwin (Northern Territory) was completed.

1. Roadside advertising for museum
2. Engine named Don Williams, and tourist train
3. Former diner from tourist train?

It has been a while since this train was operated

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4. Railfan cars from the tourist train
5. A remnant of a crossing signal. They look very much like those in the US.
The modern ones have cross-bucks, like in the US, though they are painted on a rectangular metal sign.
6. A steam engine on site, also has not operated in a while

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7. here is an older car in the "private" section of the museum

8. Shop building


There is also several inside displays including maps, photos, news articles, etc.

The shop might have been accessible to visitors at one time but it was off limits when I was there.


I was driven there by a work colleague who is not a railfan but allowed this Yank visitor to indulge in his hobby.


There is a truck-themed museum adjacent to this one.

Thanks for looking.

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I had the pleasure of riding the original Ghan, in March 1980.

We left Adelaide station on Monday 17 March 1980, travelling on the broad gauge (5ft3in/1600mm) to Port Pirie. At the time this was an South Australian Railways service.

The first leg on broad gauge took about 3 hours from memory, to Port Pirie. At Port Pirie, we changed to the "Commonwealth Railways" Ghan service, on the 4ft 8.5in gauge. This headed north to Marree via Port Augusta, in the north of the state of South Australia. We arrived in Marree around 8-9pm from memory. Marree being a very small town in the middle of nowhere. Here EVERYTHING was transhipped across the platform to the narrow gauge Ghan (3ft6in/1037mm gauge) including all the food & drink from the dining car, etc., along with vehicles & other freight, plus all the staff. At the time many roads in outback Australia were not paved, so people chose the travel by train and take their vehicles with them. Both Ghans were "mixed" trains - passenger & freight.

The narrow gauge Ghan of course had sleeping cars. We headed off into the never never at a grand speed of 20 mph/30kph, with a gentle slow rock - perfect for sleeping! The train finally arriving an Alice Springs around 1pm on the Wednesday (19th) - a journey of around 60 hours in total.

Other than a coal mine at Leigh Creek just south of Marree (a reason the southern part of the route was standardised), there was & still is, nothing of any significance, between Port Augusta (about 90 minutes north of Port Pirie & junction of the line from the Trans Australia line to Kalgoorlie & Perth) and Alice Springs.

The Narrow gauge line from Marree to Alice Springs was abandoned on 1980, when a new standard gauge line to Alice Springs (on a totally new route) opened. This line was later extended all the way to Darwin, opening in 2004. The current Ghan, now a "rail cruise" service, extends from Adelaide to Darwin, generally once weekly in each direction.

In the intervening years, the line from Adelaide to Port Pirie has also been standardised, and the line north which continued to operate to the coal mine at Leigh Creek was also mothballed in 2016, when the power station which solely relied on the Leigh Creek coal, closed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/18 02:11 by Stephenloco.

If I could go back in time and ride any one train, the old Ghan would be it. My first visit to Australia wasn't until 1990. Just a few years too late.