The LNER Encyclopedia

Around six or seven (maybe even eight) years ago, a documentary was aired on TV about an old Australian railway that no longer exists. It ran from North to South and presided on the Western side of Australia, possibly ending at Alice Springs.

I remember that a large derilict station dotted with rusty diesels was shown and a famous bridge also had a small chapter in the documentary. As far as I am aware, the railway was narrow gauge and closed a few decades ago.

Could anyone help with information about the railway itself and/or the documentary as I am hitting a dead end with both.

Many thanks in advance, JJD

All that I have been able to find is that it may be the Old Ghan route, but any help, especially with the documentary will be very helpful

This rings a bell with me. I recall one of series of programs about Australian railways on one of the satellite channels a few years ago. They mentioned a disused railway that ran to Alice Springs which I think was the original narrow guage Ghan route that was rebuilt (and rerouted) as standard gauge in the early 1980's.

It could have been part of this TV series - see link http://www.otr.com.au/?p=tv_trains

found this sad film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gRGOCNC2w0

It was definitely a one off special, I don't remember there being a series at all.

I've found the bridge though

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q= ... 66&bih=648

It sounds to me that the line you are talking about is the Old Ghan or Central Austrailan Railway it ran from Pt Augusta to Alice Springs via Quorn, Hawker, Maree and Oodnadatta. It is at Maree that the old NSU class diesels were abandoned.
http://www.comrails.com/cr_locos/r_nsu.html#51
I have seen a photo of one of this class on a test run in the UK when built I'm guessing on standard gauge however. Another class on this line at the end was the NT class.
http://www.comrails.com/cr_locos/r_nt.html#65
A portion of the line is preserved south of Alice Springs and the Pt. Augusta - Quorn section is now the famous Pichi-Richi Railway (not too far from where manna from this forum lives).
http://www.prr.org.au/cms/index.php
This railway is the home of the coffee pot that Ixion recently made a RTR model of.
Comrails has a route description in the Central Australian Railway section
http://www.comrails.com/routes/index.html
Wikipeidia has a breif description of the lines history and that of the Northern Australian Railway that it was built to link to but never made it (Darwin was finally linked to Adelaide by rail in 2004). Also if you have any specific questions I would recomend the Railpage Australia forum or the Railsa forum.

Hi Ocean Swell. Don't know if you were on this forum then, but almost a couple of years ago there was some talk of Aussie railways, plus a photo of a Goodwin Alco that Manna put up. So, just out of interest, here's the link: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4705&p=41095&hilit=atco#p41095

G'Day Gents

Just found this thread, I did post some pics a couple of years ago, but I took them off, but if there's something that I can help with....

manna

I seem to recall that one of the larger, more prominent bridges on the line had been taken apart and moved to another railway.