The Last Ghan, on narrow gauge, an old documentary

cruza driver

Hercules
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Nov 9, 2010
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I remember watching this doco a couple of years ago it was on around 2am and it wasn't long after we returned from the Oodnadatta track, its very interesting looking back and I learnt a more about the area too. Looking at the upload date of the vids, it probably was when I 1st viewed it but on channel 7.
It demonstrates the battles of keeping the line alive too, very interesting and the devastation of inland flooding on the track.
It shows all the sidings, bridges etc too.
This was the last of the narrow gauge.
 

achjimmy

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Jan 24, 2011
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That's great Adam, reckon I might have seen that too but going to watch it again anyway. They reckon your tyres can find plenty of the old spikes if you take the old Ghan line.
 
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Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
Mar 16, 2012
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I did the trip North, twice, on the Old Ghan in the late 70's. I just went through the video's and must show them to my wife as their family travelled it in even earlier times. Even before watching these I still have enough memories of it, and they aren't all fond memories. We were stranded on one trip in Oodnadatta for 7 hours because some ANR staff went on strike across Australia and for some reason they chose that place to stop rather than get to Alice and do it. The only 2 things to do there were go to the pub and go back to the rear of the train to check on your car. Because of the slow speed there were plenty of reports of cars being looted while it was moving and parts being thrown off to awaiting people.
Friendly staff and food were good parts of the journey. Being fed 3x3 course meals a day with no way to work it off saw you arrive in Alice bloated and not wanting to eat for the rest of the drive to Darwin. Another good bit was that nobody tried to use the piano in the Lounge car. I hate sing alongs.
On one very hot trip the train failed to get over a hill (if you could call it that) and it had to back up and try again, successfully. But I was told that if it failed the second time then male passengers would be asked to help out by throwing sand on the line. If that failed they would then split the train and take half North somewhere to a siding and then take the engine back for the rest.
I'm far from the best sleeper in strange beds, let alone one that's moving, but I didn't sleep very well on either trip. Once was in a carriage with bunks across the train and the other a single room but along the length of it. In both cases the train rocking seemed to be trying to toss me out of bed frequently. As well the creaking of the aging wood panelling joints wasn't that conducive to sleep.
If you were taking a car with you, you had to catch it in Pt Augusta and you could drive your own car on and off of it. In Alice though you had only a choice between a forklift being used or slings from a crane. Most were done with the forklift but you had to be certain that they used blocks otherwise bent exhaust systems and tailshafts were known to happen. One passenger after seeing others being done by forklift demanded his new car be done with slings. These were steel tubes that the wheels sat in, 2 to each end. His car was a Porsche 911, and guess where most of the weight is in them. Unbalanced like it was it sat at a horrible angle when lifted and the rest of us stood there waiting for it to roll out of the slings. The owner wasn't looking too pleased with his choice but it survived. Another problem with a car was that you had better wash it quickly after a trip as it would be covered in a metallic dust from the brakes and soot from the engine. Rust would form very soon.
While I haven't used the newer Ghan, its speed isn't exactly something to crow about. The old Stuart Hwy was dirt from the NT border to Pimba in the late 70's and early 80's but beating the new Ghan was easy, especially depending on when the Hwy was last graded. The driving trip used to be an adventure, now it's just a drive.

Phil
 

Xpandafan

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Ditto @PhilD. Saw the Ghan nearly a decade earlier (stuck for a few hours somewhere at one of the old rail sidings somewhere NE of Coober Pedy). We were allowed to go on board and have a look, but never rode it. Looked a bit exotic to me. By sound of it nothing much had changed by the time you travelled (maybe newer carriages) Was just as much an adventure as driving I suspect. I recall here was also a freight car that was detached that was like a travelling general store for the few railway folks that still lived out that way.
Mate and his wife have done the trip recently on the "new" Ghan and loved it all except for the $$$$'s, it was close to $2k each one way I think including some side excursions.
 

Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
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achjimmy & cruza driver, by insight do you mean my grumpy ways? I can assure you my nickname of "Grumpy" was well earnt in the latter part of 38 years of work (the paid variety).

Watched the videos on the big screen with the wife last night and had some discussions about past times with the Ghan. Her family goes back a long way in the Top End, with her Father being the Southerner/import when he came up here with the Army in 1942. He reckoned that if he had known that "Gods own country" existed earlier he would have been here sooner. Anyway, her first trip on the much earlier Ghan was around 1954/5. They used to drive to Alice and load car and van on to the train and get off in Maree. Being so young at the time she doesn't remember too many details at the start but I must look up some of the documents that her Mother typed up to find out some more. Knowing what the Stuart Hwy was like when it was 1 & 1/2 lanes wide most of the way from Alice to Darwin I would imagine that was quite a journey in its own right so much earlier. There's quite a few complaints recently about the current state of the Stuart Hwy (NT side) but most of those people would have no idea what tangling with road-trains was like on the narrow older Hwy.

Phil
 

Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
Mar 16, 2012
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xpandafan,

My wife and her Father did a one way trip on the new Ghan a few years ago and yes it was a bit expensive, but he paid for it and it was the last trip South for him. Both FIL & MIL now gone so now we are more free to travel together so heading off to Adelaide in under 2 weeks to pick up WnP that's been waiting for us for some time and getting enhancements done. It's going to be a change from the last 5 solo yearly trips South to see family to now have a navigator to help me find the way. Downside is that we are taking a dog so we're staying in a tent each night at a time of year that I would prefer to be nice and warm. Here's hoping that the nights are kind to us. The trip back with the van and a diesel heater is something we're looking forward to. No more over priced Motel rooms with possible bed bugs, terrible roadhouse toilets and having our own cooking facilities.

As to travelling the Stuart being an adventure in earlier days, on my last solo trip to Adelaide and back earlier this year, partly organising the WnP, I met up with a older bloke in Aileron who used to live in Alice when the dirt road South started just South of the Gap and ended in Pt Augusta. Sadly it was in the morning and I was just leaving to head home as I would have liked to talk more about those days. Like me he doesn't think too much of the complainers of the current Hwy condition. I'd encourage anyone who wants to imagine what some of the narrow bitumen road conditions were like, to drive through the Devils Marbles, go via the Churchill's Head detour North of Tennant Ck and the so called "Scenic route" from near Hayes Ck to Adelaide River township. These are all the older Stuart Hwy, now minus the road-trains and Buffalo's but more tourists and big vans.

I travelled the section from Alice to Pt Augusta a number of times in the early 80's when it was still dirt from the border to Pimba, sometimes as a night run, and no 2 trips were the same. It was getting more grading done then but varied from freshly graded and deep(ish) sand and rocks, to 2 weeks later when it was a smooth normal car drive and then deteriorated to corrugations most of the way until the next grader job. The only road-trains over that stretch those days were really Bulls Transport 2 trailer jobs that were near impossible to overtake as they were so fast and produced too much dust and flying rocks. The 2 difficult fuel stops were Coober Pedy and Kingoonya as at night they imposed a call out fee unless there were a number of vehicles together. The worst stretch I found was Pimba to Kingoonya as the grader pulled back a lot of rocks on to the road which were difficult to see in the new soft material. That's why I don't like the alloy rims as taking a hammer to reshape a rim isn't advisable.

Phil
 
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Xpandafan

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Tha
xpandafan,
My wife and her Father did a one way trip on the new Ghan a few years ago and yes it was a bit expensive, but he paid for it and it was the last trip South for him. Both FIL & MIL now gone so now we are more free to travel together so heading off to Adelaide in under 2 weeks to pick up WnP that's been waiting for us for some time...
Phil
Thanks for sharing, Phil,
putting things on hold for family reasons is one of the few things I haven't regretted. The bad times and sad times make the good times so much better.

Re the Stuart Hwy...we've all gone a bit soft these days. Good old bar treads and a few corrugations showed up any suspension weaknesses before you ever got as far as Kingoonya (from the South), and no aircon, and just fine dust for sound insulation.
Have a safe and enjoyable trip south to pick up the new van...and have a ball on the trip home.
-Bill