The Old Ghan Heritage Railway and Museum is an Australian railway museum in

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

, in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. It was attached to a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

tourist railway line, now closed. The Road Transport Historical Society, which also owns the adjacent

National Road Transport Hall of Fame The National Road Transport Hall of Fame is an Australian transport museum in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, owned by the Road Transport Historical Society

, operates the museum.

History

Following the closure of the

Central Australia Railway The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and closed in 1980, was a 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gauge line duplicated the southern section from Port Aug ...

after a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs opened in 1980, the Ghan Preservation Society was formed in 1981. The society operated from a site at McDonnell Siding, south of Alice Springs. A stimulus in the form of an Australian Bicentennial Authority grant of $800,000 was received in 1987, funding the construction of a replica

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

station building, and a lease arranged with the

Australian National Railways Commission The Australian National Railways Commission was an agency of the Government of Australia that was a railway operator between 1975 and 1998. It traded as Australian National Railways (ANR) in its early years, before being rebranded as Australian ...

made it possible for the society to operate tourist trains from October 1988 on the track southwards to Ewaninga Siding. The society's trains – four a week during the early 1990s – were hauled by a former

WAGR W class The WAGR W class is a class of 4-8-2 steam locomotives operated by the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) between 1951 and 1972. Engineering Background The class was first proposed by Chief Mechanical Engineer Frederick Mills in 1947 ...

steam locomotive and a

Commonwealth Railways NSU class The Commonwealth Railways NSU class was a class of diesel-electric locomotives built in 1954 and 1955 by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, England, for the Commonwealth Railways for use on the narrow-gauge Central Australia Rai ...

diesel locomotive hauling carriages previously used on ''

The Ghan ''The Ghan'' is an experiential tourism oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. O ...

''. In 1995, the society encountered financial difficulties, severed ties with the adjacent Road Transport Hall of Fame (later restored), and lost many volunteers. Train services stopped in 2001 and locomotives and rolling stock were put on static display. By 2005, locomotives and rolling stock had been vandalised and the track was falling into disrepair; press reports described conflict between members who wanted to "

and or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boole ...

over the attraction to paid staff" and those who wanted to "rekindle interest from volunteer workers". The project was described in November 2020 as "all but forgotten for more than a decade but now the subject of an energetic revival effort" involving support from the local community and businesses to restore locomotives, rolling stock and the railway line. Proponents acknowledged many challenges but said that Alice Springs would "have a huge tourist drawcard and a fun transportation park for locals alike" if they succeeded.

References

External links

{{commonscat-inline Heritage railways in Australia Museums in Alice Springs Railway museums in the Northern Territory Museums established in 1981 1981 establishments in Australia