The Tableland

The water pump had packed up in the van. We rang Sydney, within 10 minutes they had arranged for us to take the van round to a local garage. We had to wait another half hour, [complementary coffee and somewhere to sit] and it was fixed. Amazing.
So we set off with Priscilla Queen of the Desert [the GPS] who tried to take us under a 2.5 metre bridge [we are 3 metres high] which was totally unsigned save from a stencilled height on the bridge which luckily I saw. So we detoured around and saw a lot of trains in sidings, and then a roundhouse which was a rail museum. I was all for pushing on, but Danielle persuaded me to stop and look around. I am glad that we did. It is safe to say that we were the only guests that day, but we got a guided tour by a man who had worked all his life on the railways of New South Wales as a fireman on steam trains, and then on diesels. He was a great guide, and really brought the story alive for us. It felt a real privilege to hear him talk. This railcar in the photo was used as the "Paybus" once a month, when it would bring the men's wages to them out in the wilds of central Australia. It was raided once [crew killed, money lost] but carried on for many years. Later the same vehicle was used to transport the Queen on a royal visit in the 70s.