The National Railway Museum!

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I actually went there yesterday and now I'm in Port Pirie - that all doesn't matter because we have trains!! Any train enthusiastic should check out this museum. It's got some iconic trains in and there is a mini railway that goes around the whole property. It even has fully functional level crossings! Bells and all.The shop has many cool things in and you can easily stay the whole day here just looking around and immersing yourself in the railway history.

Some of the main attractions include the Tea and Sugar train which used to service all the small communities on the Trans Australia Railway. They stopped the service in 1996. The steam age was when it was really needed because workers were needed out there but not as many people are required now. Cook - where I went in 2009 and have included in one of my previous posts - was one of those places and now only has about 5 workers out there. You can still see where all the railway sheds were and the tracks are still on the ground.

Another star attraction is the Overlander. This is a service that still runs today. It runs beteen Adelaide and Melbourne and has regular passengers. The old steam loco is here and is certainly my favourite.

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Photos

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The Overlander steam loco. I love this monster. It's awesome.

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The list of locations on this board was incredible. Trains don't go to most of them these days.

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I can't remember what this one did.

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The Garrat!

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Inside the Garrat. Oh sure - I know what this lever does ........

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This is the tea and sugar train. Obviously this isn't all of it - it also carried water tankers and left them and each community. I think.

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I believe this is the mail car that was part of the Tea and Sugar.

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Dining in style. You had to - a train journey in the steam age took a very long time!

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I don't know what this one did either.