Crossing Australia by Train–Part 2

Around noon on the third day, the Indian Pacific arrived at the site where a flash flood had washed away a section of track causing a freight train to derail several days earlier. In fact, I learned some time later that our train had almost been cancelled because of the rail cars and their contents obstructing the tracks.

Fortunately, the clean-up crews had cleared and repaired the tracks and we passed through the area of the wreck without incident, although at a very slow speed.

There was still no doubt that this was the site of a recent train wreck: rail cars lying on their sides with contents scattered about. The Indian Pacific, running on SLOW, passed through the jumbled mess and resumed normal speeds. Later, I learned from a member of the crew that our train had almost been cancelled because of this wreck.  Fortunately, the people in charge decided everything would be cleared away and the track inspected and pronounced “Safe” by the time we reached the location of the wreck.

Later that day, just as the sun was setting, the Indian Pacific stopped for a couple of hours at Kalgoorlie, a mining town and the passengers who were interested had a chance to visit the site of the largest open-pit gold mine in the world.