Below is a list of maintenance vehicles that are housed at the National Railway Museum.
Ganger's Motor Pump Car - unnumbered
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Good
Entered service: 1925
Entered the museum: 3/5/1995.
Number in class: 1
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
Provenance: South Australian Railways / Australian National
Withdrawn: 1995
60 ton lift steam crane used on SAR. Broad gauge system.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
The 3 wheel pump trikes, with a capacity of two, were used as a means of transport by track gangs. It was their job to inspect, repair and maintain sections of track, and these vehicles were common to both the South Australian and Commonwealth Railways operations.
All the hand operated inspection vehicles were phased out by the introduction of motor powered models. Some were also fitted with motors.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Entered the museum: 1966
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
The 4 wheel pump cars were used as a means of transport by track gangs. It was their job to inspect, repair and maintain sections of track, and these vehicles were common to both the South Australian and Commonwealth Railways operations.
The 4 wheel pump cars were all known locally as Kalamazoos (a particular manufacturer in the USA), and four men were needed to lift them off the track when a train approached.
All the hand operated inspection vehicles were phased out by the introduction of motor powered models. Some were also fitted with motors.
Unit B179 is a No.1 Harvey Handcar, manufactured by the Buda Foundry USA. It was obtained by the museum in 1966.
Ganger's Motor Pump Car - unnumbered
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
These were built for use as motor quadricycles, for both broad and narrow-gauge use. Most of these units had Villiers motors fitted with a few examples, including this unit, having motors built at the Islington Workshops of the South Australian Railways. The storage trolley was used to hold the tools used by staff repairing the line and communications wires. Most people consider this type of car to be very dangerous as it was easy to incorrectly set the wheels and cause the unit to derail at high speed.
Australian National Railways
Narrow Gauge
Class operators: Commonwealth Railways/Australian National Railways
Condition: Good
Provenance: Commonwealth Railways & Australian National
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
This unit was a narrow gauge M19 that was converted to a ‘CC’ class quad.
Australian National relabelled a lot of cars a ‘CC’ as part of the referencing system they used. This unit in all likeliness would have been ‘N165’ in keeping with the Commonwealth Railways system of identification
Australian National Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways/Australian National Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways / Australian National
Ownership: History Trust of South Australia
This is an example of a broad gauge ‘ST2’ class unit. It was used by Australian National.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
This is an example of a broad gauge ‘ST2’ class unit that is unmodified. It was used by the South Australian Railways.
South Australian Railways
Narrow Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
This is an example of a narrow gauge ‘ST2’ class unit. It was used by the South Australia Railways.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Ownership: History Trust of South Australia
Provenance: South Australian Railways
This unit is an example of a broad gauge Ganger’s trolley without a roof. It belongs to the History Trust of South Australia.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
This unit is an example of a broad gauge Ganger’s trolley with a roof.
On occasions a trailer was used for tools and other items when the men were engaged on major repair works.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
This is an example of a broad gauge ‘S’ class unit. It was used by the South Australian Railways.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
This is an example of a broad gauge ‘SD’ class unit. Its condition is excellent and it is complete.
South Australian Railways
Narrow Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Entered the museum: 15 February 1971
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Withdrawn: 1971
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
This unit is an example of a narrow gauge Ganger’s trolley, powered with a petrol engine. Because of distances involved they were widely used throughout the system, superseding the back breaking, hand powered earlier models.
On occasion a trailer was used for tools and other items when the men were engaged on major repair works.
This trolley entered the Museum on 15 February 1971.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: South Australian Railways
These are examples of the unpowered broad gauge trolley that could be towed behind a powered unit.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators South Australian Railways
Condition Excellent
Entered service September 1950
Entered the museum 23.7.1976
Length (over coupling points) 15’ 0’’ (4.57m)
Number in class 3
Ownership History Trust of South Australia
Provenance South Australian Railways
Withdrawn March 1976
Early in 1949 the South Australian Railways became interested in automatic tamping machines, which compact the stone ballast under the sleepers of the track automatically by vibration with horizontal compression through tamping tools. At this stage the Commonwealth Railways had placed an order for one standard-gauge tamper and the Victorian Railways had ordered two broad-gauge tampers.
In mid-1949 an order was placed upon the Matisa Equipment Co., London, (agents for Materiel Industriel SA, Lausanne, Switzerland) for a broad-gauge tamper which was constructed in England and placed in service in September 1950. Compared with the manual methods then in use for compacting ballast, considerable savings in manpower were envisaged. This tamper had a diesel engine for propulsion of the unit and for powering the air compressor which supplied air for the vertical reciprocation of the 16 tamping tools, while the vibratory and packing movements of the tamping tools were by means of chain drives. The tamper was fitted with a Leyland diesel engine of approximately 70 horsepower capacity and had four forward and four reverse speeds up to a maximum speed of 25 mph (40.23km/h)
Two further similar tampers were ordered in April 1950 and placed in service early in 1952. The first tamper was known as Gang Tamper No. 1 and No. RP796, while the other two tampers were Gang Tamper No. 2 (No. RP797) and Gang Tamper No. 3 (No. RP798). No. RP797 was later converted to 3’6’’ gauge and used on the Port Lincoln Division.
After nearly 20 years of service, mainly on main lines north and south of Adelaide, No. RP796 was retired in June 1970 but was reinstated in October 1972 and renumbered RP73/72 (after some repairs) for tamping rail joints only in the metropolitan area (as opposed to its former use for tamping of main line running track). It was finally retired in March 1976.
Commonwealth Railways
Standard Gauge
Class operators: Commonwealth Railways
Condition: Excellent
Entered service: 1941
Entered the museum: 1980
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
Withdrawn: 1978
Basically a 1941 Maple Leaf Chevrolet, MIC 4 was used as a Commonwealth Railways standard gauge inspection and pay car.
Fitted with steel railway wheels it ran initially on the lines from Port Augusta to Woomera and Cook and was equipped with a hydraulic turntable for reversing.
Originally donated to Steamtown Peterborough in 1978, it was in turn donated to the museum in 1980.
Genesee and Wyoming Australia
Standard Gauge
Class operators: Australian National Railways/Genesee and Wyoming Australia
Built by: Toyota Motor Corporation/Aries Rail
Condition: Very Good
Entered service: 1996 / 1997
Withdrawn: December 2016
Entered the museum: 07.12.2016
Ownership: Port Dock Station Railway Trust
A hi-rail vehicle is basically a road vehicle that can operate on rail track and road. Hi-rail is an amalgam of the words Highway and Railway.
Hi-rail vehicles are converted road vehicles, which retain their normal road wheels, but are fitted with additional flanged steel wheels for running on rails. Propulsion is transferred to the head of the rail through the conventional road tyres with the rail wheels used to guide the vehicle along the track. The rail wheels can be lowered or raised by hydraulics, to suit the method needed.
This particular vehicle was built by the Toyota Motor Corporation in its Honsha plant, Japan in 1996 and exported to Australia. Upon entering Australia the vehicle was purchased by Australian National Railways and was converted to a hi-rail, and was used for track inspections.
With the sale of Australian National Railways in 1997, ownership of this vehicle was transferred to Genesee & Wyoming Australia. Between 2001 and 2004 this vehicle was used for inspections during the construction of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway. Between 2004 and 2016 this vehicle was used around Genesee & Wyoming Australia’s broad and standard gauge tracks in South Australia.
In December 2016 this vehicle was retired by Genesee & Wyoming Australia and generously donated to the NRM.
South Australian Railways
Broad Gauge
Class operators: South Australian Railways
Condition: Good
Entered service: 1881
Entered the museum: 16.09.1970
Number in class: 2
Ownership: History Trust of South Australia
Provenance: South Australian Railways
Withdrawn: 1970
Travelling cranes were usually manually operated cranes which could be used for lifting light loads around goods yards.
Number 2327 is one of two cranes which were built by Cowans, Sheldon, England, and placed in service by the South Australian Railways in 1882 as Crane Number 3 (Adelaide). Number 2326 became Crane Number 3 (Port Adelaide). The numbers 2326 and 2327 were given circa 1903.
In 1932 each crane was equipped with a match wagon - G-class 4-wheel steel open wagon No.1101 being added to No.2326 and G363 being added to 2327. Number 2327 is a 5-ton crane.
The South Australian Railways introduced Truck Placers from around 1965/66. They were primarily used to replace local railway horses engaged with shunting at busy country locations.
A Truck Placer is small tractor that has hydraulically fitted railway wheels which can be raised or lowered, to enable it to be used on rail tracks, as well as on the road.
Fitted with a coupling at one end, the Truck Placer could couple to railway wagons and simply relocate and/or position them ready to be attached to a passing freight train. Similarly they could position incoming railway wagons detached from freight trains. This saved a great deal of train running time.
The NRM Truck Placer was used at Keith and Tintinara, where it was busy shunting livestock, fuel tank, grain and fertiliser wagons.
It was donated to the NRM by Roger Size, from Karoonda. It was subsequently fully restored and painted in 2021, and named Nugget - the name of the last railway horse in service at Kapunda.