Thursday, Apr 28, 2016 at 22:01
The factual article from the Pichi Richi Railway (PRR) website was relayed to PRR by our first Life Member, Mr. George Williams, who was one of the SAR, railworkers in
Quorn on 30th August 1923 when the first sleeping car train to
Oodnadatta came into
Quorn. George Williams also authored a couple of books about the Central Australian Railway (it's correct title, not the Ghan Line or Ghan Railway) from
Port Augusta to
Alice Springs, in which he relates his first hand account of the events in
Quorn in August 1923.
The reason there was time in
Quorn for evening prayers, was the way in which the train had arrived from
Terowie before venturing onwards to
Oodnadatta. The line from the east from
Terowie into
Quorn and also the line to the north to
Oodnadatta are at the same point in the yard. After arriving from
Terowie, the locomotive detached from the head end, to be replaced by another locomotive. The Guards Van was removed from the rear end and then placed onto what was the head end, which now became the rear end for the trip north to
Oodnadatta.
The sleeping car Alberga, is one of three identical sleepeing cars that were built for the
Broken Hill express (
Terowie to
Broken Hill). The other two cars are Coonatto and Nilpena. All three sleeping cars are now in
Quorn at PRR, Nilpena in original condition and Alberga and Coonatto bastardised into workers
camp cars by the SAR for use on the Eyre Peninsula division.
The SAR ran the Afghan Express for a further 2.5 years until the Commonwealth Railways (CR) took over operation of the CAR. The CR then built there own carriages at
Port Augusta for the Ghan. Out of 11 carriages built in the late 1920's for the Ghan, PRR has 10 in it's collection. Five of which are used on it's Afghan Express, the other five are used for members accommodation when at
Quorn. PRR is still utilising a 1920's built steam loco (NM25), which was built for the CR to operate on the CAR to haul these carriages, on the last remaining operational section of the former CAR.
AnswerID:
599286