This is a combined steam engine and coach and is one of two supplied to the South Australian Railways for use on rural routes with little traffic. This locomotive was known as Steam Motor Coach No 1 and it was based at Quorn for use on a weekly service to Hawker. It was knicknamed Coffee Pot.
The locomotive was built by Kitson & Company at Hunslet near Leeds in 1906 and the coach by the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company of Birmingham.
In 1924 the Commonwealth Railway took over the operation and control of the Central Australian Railway and hence the locomotive passed into the ownership of the Commonwealth Railway. It was then renumbered as NJAB 1.
The locomotive was stored at Quorn from 1932.
In 1960 the locomotive was placed on display at Alice Springs station although it had never worked there.
In 1975 the locomotive was acquired by the Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn for restoration. It was returned to service there in 1984 and has continued to operate for special events.
The railway from Port Augusta through the Pichi Richi Pass to Quorn opened in 1879, and was part of the first stage of the Great Northern Railway that was intended to link Port Augusta with Darwin. In 1929 this line reached Alice Springs.
The East-West Transcontinental railway across the Nullarbor Plain was completed in 1917, and the Pichi Richi Railway became part of the East-West route for the next 20 years.
Quorn was a vital railway junction, especially during Second World War when military, coal and other traffic placed sizeable demands on the railway.
The Pichi Richi Railway was closed to regular traffic in 1957 following the construction of a standard gauge (4ft 8½in gauge) line from Stirling North to Brachina
It locomotive was most recently returned to steam in April 2015 following an overhaul which lasted eight years.
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