Tea & Sugar Train
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tea & Sugar Train (also known as Slow Mixed Goods Train No. 5205) was a specific train that provided service to isolated Australian towns between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta. This train was significant because it provided almost all the supplies used by remote towns in southern Australia, and without it settlement probably could not exist in these remote outback areas.
[edit] History
The Tea & Sugar Train began in 1917 as a supply train for workers constructing the Trans-Australian Railway. Railway workers depended on the train for every necessity because there was no other settlement in the desert area.
After the line was completed, settlements began to grow along the line route, and their became a growing need to transport city luxuries to these isolated areas. Livestock were brought on this train as food for the settlements, and the train had its own butchering facilities. There was even a movie car that allowed towns people to view the latest movies inside the train car when the train pulled into town.
[edit] Recent Times
Each time the train crossed the Nullabor Plain, it brought along different cars to suit the different needs of outback residents through out the year. On some trains there was a bank car, which allows residents to make financial transactions, and in December there was a Christmas car, with a Santa that traveled from town to town.
In the late 1970's, the Flinders Medical Center traveled occasionally on the train to provide care for those in the outback.
The train traveled along the world's longest stretch of straight track, which is straight for 310 miles (498 kilometers).
The Tea & Sugar train went out of service in 1996.
[edit] References
Zwingle, Erla. "The Tea & Sugar Train: Lifeline in Australia's Outback." National Geographic, June 1986, pp. 737 - 757
http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/resources/collection/special/teasugar.html
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/common/tea_sugar_cars.html
