As the Footplate Padre one of my long term goals was to be a guest on The Ghan and as sure as night follows day, a few years ago, this occurred.
It happened as part of my ministry of the Footplate Padre, visiting railway people such as locomotive crews, train personnel, station staff or office people. So it was with some pleasure when planning the Northern Territory Country Town Tour that it incorporated one travel component on The Ghan.
The history of The Ghan is as follows: Sunday 29 August 1929 the first Ghan train was farewelled at the Adelaide Railway Station. The train carried supplies and 100 passengers bound for a remote town of Stuart (later renamed Alice Springs).
This was a steam hauled train that took two days travel. This was a narrow gauge subject to flooding and intense heat and therefore an irregular service. One such memorable occasion The Ghan was stranded for 2 weeks and the driver shot wild goats to feed the passengers.
This old Chan railway track north to Oodnadatta and when the great floods came huge sections of track were torn away from the embankments. This was the same track that General Douglas MacArthur travelled in 1942 when he was commended by President FDR to get away from the Philippines down to Australia to conduct the Pacific land based war.
New line
In 1980 this line through Oodnadatta and Marree was replaced with a line west of Port Augusta running directly north. This track had termite proof sleepers and it avoided flooding and was a high speed track.
Then on 3 February 2004 the first Ghan to travel all the way through to Darwin was celebrated. It covers 2,979 km running from Adelaide to Alice Springs, then onto Tennant Creek, Katherine and all the way through to Darwin.
But this was not a train designed for speed, rather passengers were offered two 5 hour stop overs in both Alice Springs and Katherine where specific tours are advertised in the Ghan passenger service book.
Passengers book their selected tour, they are collected by coaches at the railway station, taken on their tour and then returned to the Ghan.
The passenger carriages consist of four types. Platinum cars have large cabins with double beds. Gold cars have the Indian Pacific style cabins with fold down beds and both have cabin enclosed toilet and showers. The Red cars are economy sleepers with communal showers and toilets while the sitter carriage is just that.
There are generally 38 carriages plus the power van, 1-2 baggage vans and a vehicle wagon. The Platinum and Gold carriages are set in groups of six, four sleeper cars along with a lounge and diner carriage. The Red and sitter cars has a stool diner car. Therefore the Ghan train crew includes an attendant for each sleeper carriages, a train manager and the diner cars staff - chefs and the like.
Darwin to The Alice
As the Footplate Padre we travelled from Darwin to Alice Springs and took one of the Katherine Gorge boat tours. A Brazil film crew was on board our section and filmed Delma my wife reading and me on the lap top in our cabin, and other passengers while viewing the country side, eating in the dining car, the lounge, outside and to the locomotive.
We departed Darwin 9.00am, arrived at Katherine 12.40pm, departed 5.10pm, arriving at Alice Springs 11.15am the next day.
The trip provided the Footplate Padre time with train crew members, fellow passengers and catching up with all things locomotive. He even wrote out a detailed suggestion.
The locomotive crews sign on in Darwin and work through to a break point where another crew takes over before arriving in Alice Springs. The spare locomotive crew is housed within a special air conditioned car where they can take their rest and sleep. The same thing happens on the Transcontinental track from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie.
This is one of the joys of being the Footplate Padre.