The BH Train Museum

I can't resist going to train museums so off we toddled to take a look.

The Silverton Railway station. BH is very close to the South Australia border and a special narrow gauge railway was constructed to carry the mined ore to Port Pirie in SA for smelting.

Gruesome story. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Entrance to the platform.

This rock contains beryllium which is half the weight of aluminium and also has a higher melting point. It was used in the Apollo space capsules.

Mica 

Tess owned numerous mines including the mine where the beryllium came from which was used in the space program.

More minerals.

Like most train museums, there are numerous relics.

I liked the colour.

A copy of the carriage used in the Queen's Coronation.

Narrow gauge engine used on the Silverton Railway.

The Silverton City Comet ran from Broken Hill to Parkes from 1937 until 1989. Passengers would transfer at Parkes to another train that would continue to Sydney.

Inside the power car. The diesel motors were also used to provide air conditioning, a first in Australia. It gets very hot in summer out in the middle of Australia.

First class passengers.

I thought the seats were more comfortable than those on our train from Sydney.

Kitchen.

Dining car.

Second class. Definitely not as comfortable as first class.

Commemorating the last train.

She pops up everywhere. Totally out of control.

You need a food photo. This is a lamb and beetroot pizza! Yes, beetroot. Tinned beetroot was cut into small pieces and they added a refreshing zing to the topping. I enjoyed it, but M is an old stick in the mud who was never going to let Aussie beetroot spoil her meal.

Her Florintine look good however.

Broken Hill

We both enjoyed a very good sleep after the long train trip.

The train station where we arrived.

The East bound version of the Indian Pacific train had arrived. The passengers had joined various tours around the a Broken Hill district.

BH has some impressive buildings. Huge amounts of silver, lead and zinc were mined here.

Some of the local minerals.

A huge mullock heap at the back of the town. There is a fancy restaurant on top.

Main street.

The Palace Hotel, made famous in the film, Precilla, Queen of the Desert. If you have never seen it, make sure to see it sometime.

In a mining town, the Trade Unions were and still are very important.

A former local paper.

Details of the owners of BHP which ran the mines.

The train to Broken Hill

The train leaves Sydney at 6:19 am so we stayed in a hotel close to the station.

The Concourse at Sydney Central.

Our train leaving at 6:19 am. 

Our train which is an XPT, similar to the English model. There is talk of eventually replacing them with new models.

Inside before quite a few passengers boarded.

It was still dark when the train left and I think the sun rises an hour later than it does at home in Urangan.

Crossing the Nepean River in Western Sydney at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Signal box at Katoomba. The train windows were too dirty to allow decent photos.

Almost at the western side of the Blue Mountains and finally a bit of sunshine.

Decent looking countryside with a touch of green.

Much further west with rain clouds brewing.

Grain storage.

Eventually, it started to rain, at times quite heavily. The farmers would have been thrilled.

It's flat.

We stopped at Ivanhoe, way out west.

There was a 10 minute stop so most passengers took the opportunity to walk around.

Note the red dirt which goes on and on for hundreds of miles. It soon became dark and it was impossible to see anything.

We had dinner on the train. The wine arrived in these glasses.

The train arrived about 30 minutes late. Our motel is across the street from the station. A fourteen hour ride is very tiring so we were soon asleep.