The southern part of the Flinders Range is wine country. We attempted to go to a vineyard, but by the time we got there they were already closed. It was a gorgeous location, though.
The next morning, we went to the town of Quorn. It is one of the first stops along the original Ghan Railroad that ran from Port Augusta on the south coast of Australia to Darwin on the north coast.
Referring to the map below, stolen from wikipedia:
The yellow line is the Old Ghan started in Adelaide in 1878 and reaching Alice Springs in 1929. Its track was narrow gauge.
This first section of track was built in 1879. The following several hundred kilometers of track were laid down in the next couple decades. Alice Springs was connected in 1929. The final segment was not completed until 2004!
In 1980, the Old Ghan line was closed and replaced by the standard gauge line through Tarcoola. A small segment of the Old Ghan line remains starting at Port Augusta and extending to Quorn. It is largely supported by volunteers and runs several steam trains a week for tourists. We caught the train in Quorn and travelled about 16km towards Port Augusta, stopping in Woolshed Flats. After a 45 minute break, the train returned to Quorn.
The Quorn railroad station:
The train was staffed by volunteers (in our case two boys about 13 years old):
The train. We got this shot after our ride. On the drive back to Port Augusta, we stopped at a bridge and watched the train come through on its next trip.
View from the train.
Inside the train.
We got to go up into the engine before the return trip. The engineer said they burned about a ton of coal for our entire trip.
Inside the locomotive.
No comments:
Post a Comment