j. The Flash Ghan

6th March 2007

An Adelaide to Darwin railway was a South Australian objective, as that colony originally included all of what is now the Northern Territory. They were persuaded to give their northern half up to the Commonwealth government at Federation in 1901, on the promise that the railway would be completed. But unlike the Western Australians, they received no date for their trans-continental railway promise, so it took over 100 years!
The Commonwealth did make a start, extending the narrow gauge Central Australia Railway to Alice Springs in 1929. However, the exploitation of low grade coal at Leigh Creek, about 150 miles north of Port Augusta, placed intolerable strains on the 3’6” gauge line, which wound through the Flinders Ranges at its lower end. A new standard gauge line was built in the dry country west of the ranges, extending to Marree, at the base of the Birdsville track. Opened in 1956, it introduced a break of gauge on the Central Australia Railway, and from that year Com Rails began using carriages from the original Trans Australian Express on both the standard and narrow gauge sections of the Ghan. The regauged carriages caused a stir in the Outback, where such luxury was unknown. Colloquially, the train became the “Flash Ghan”.
It never ran with steam; the arrival of the NSU class Sulzer diesels two years earlier made the NM class 4-8-0’s instantly redundant, and few in that desert country could have mourned their passing. The Sulzers had heaps of character anyway.

Disturber of the Peace	Narrow Gauge Originals	Timber Bodies All	Very Flash Carriage
Fit for a Prime Minister	Odds and Sods	War Relic	Civilization
Comfy But Rough	The Split At Stirling North