Day 5. Broken Hill - Peterborough. Barrier Highway-everyone waves. 16/05/2015

This morning beautiful sunny blue skies greeted us.  We departed the caravan park around 9 am. to head onto the Barrier Highway that would take us to Peterborough a journey of about 270 kms.  Good road that was very flat and straight in stretches but also had with a few small hills in places with just saltbush to be see for many miles.  We sighted our first wild Emus along the way as well as a number of caravans heading in the opposite direction.  It would appear that everyone waves to each other on the Barrier Highway, so we decided to include camper trailers, combi wagons and truck drivers in our embargo.   Saw plenty of roadkill - reds and greys.
Stopped for a takeaway coffee in the middle of nowhere to sustain us until we reached Peterborough. Arrived about 12.45, quickly set up caravan for lunch then headed off to the township to book in for a tour of the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre later in the day and also the Sound and Light Show at the Centre later in the evening.  After stopping at the Heritage listed Town Hall where we viewed a very large tapestry depicting the story of Federation and the Victoria Cross won by Keith Payne for heroics during the Vietnam War.  Next door was another Heritage listed building, a very impressive YMCA  both beautiful sandstone buildings.
A visit to an old customer of John's was next on the list and we were made very warmly welcome by Les and Rowena Sandow.  They live in a house that dates back 115 years.  Peterborough is a very old township that boasts a remarkable railway history.  The first survey of the town was in 1880 and by 1923 there was a population of close to 4,000 people with 4 pubs but after the decline of the railways in the early 1970's it now is around 1,900 people.
We did a very informative tour of Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre climbing up into a number of iconic steam engines, 1st class Transcontinental Lounge Car built in 1917 and wonderful dining car dating from 1923, a Maternal Health train that used to visit country and remote areas that was in service in 1946  all housed in a 23 bay Roundhouse complex that was used for steam train maintenance in the early 1900's.
Tonight we went back to the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre to view the Sound and Light Show.We were seated in a 1916 Transcontinental rail carriage on the turntable, with the 23 bay Roundhouse containing the iconic W and T class locomotives beautifully illuminated as a backdrop to a huge screen.  We relived the early days of the building of the South Australian railway system to see Peterborough become the hub for all the different railway lines that were built in the 1800's to transport the wheat, silver, minerals and cattle to Port Adelaide for distribution.  Different stories were told regarding the trains right up until they steam trains ceased to operate after 1970. We thoroughly enjoyed the production.