Current Operations
PRRPS has continually expanded the type and number of services over time as more rollingstock and track is restored and rehabilitated.
The Afghan Express is a return trip to Quorn from Port Augusta (78 kilometres return). This train usually consists of Ghan carriages from the 1920s and is often hauled, wherever possible, by an original Ghan steam locomotive, NM25, and recreates the type of travel experienced on the Ghan in the 1930s and 1940s.
A shorter journey, the Pichi Richi Explorer, is a return service to Woolshed Flat departing from Quorn (32 kilometres return). Travel on this train is either in South Australian Railway carriages circa 1900 to 1915 hauled by a steam locomotive, or in a 1928 SAR diesel railcar. The use of older SAR rollingstock on this train replicates what it was like to travel by country rail in South Australia in the very early 1900s to the 1960s. Much of this rolling stock was in service until the end of narrow gauge passenger operations by the South Australian Railways.
Other special services include occasional "double header" steam trains, and dinner trains originating in Port Augusta and stopping at the track-side Willows Brewery Restaurant en-route to Quorn. A new service introduced in 2010 saw guests dining on the train in a first class dining carriage, with a 3-course meal prepared in the carriage's kitchen by a local hotel's chef. Trains and carriages are also available for private hire, suiting a range of different occasions from weddings to tour groups.
There are 85 timetabled trains for the 2011 operating season (March to December).
Read more about this topic: Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society
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