Tea and Sugar Train

Residents of trackside camps along the Trans-Australian Railway enter the Provision Store wagon on the Tea and Sugar train.

The Tea and Sugar Train (also known as Slow Mixed Goods Train No. 5205) was a specific train that provided service to isolated Australian towns on the Nullarbor Plain between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta along the Trans-Australian Railway. This train was significant because in its early years of service provided all the supplies used by remote towns in South and Western Australia.

History

The Tea and 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 as the rail link was the main form of regular transport into the region. The train travelled along the world's longest stretch of straight track, which is straight for 478 kilometres (297 mi).

After the line was completed, settlements began to grow along the line route, and there 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.

Each time the train crossed the Nullarbor 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 allowed residents to make financial transactions, and in December there was a Christmas car, with a Santa that travelled from town to town.

In the late 1970s, the Flinders Medical Centre travelled occasionally on the train to provide care for those in the outback. The Tea and Sugar train was taken out of service in 1996.

References

• Zwingle, Erla. "The Tea & Sugar Train: Lifeline in Australia's Outback." National Geographic, June 1986, pp. 737 - 757
• The Tea and Sugar Chambers, T.F. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, October, 1962

External links

• Flinders University - Tea and Sugar Train Archive
• Comrails: A short history of the Tea and Sugar cars