Trucks, trucks and more trucks

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While on our tour of central Australia recently, we stayed a few days in Alice Springs. While there we visited the National Road Transport Hall of Fame. The Ghan Museum shared the same location and we spent four hours between the two places as well as having lunch there. The Hall of Fame has a number of buildings dedicated to the hardy vehicles and the men and women who drove them. Incredible distances were covered transporting goods and stock to and from the various isolated outback communities and stations. I hope you're able to view the slideshow. You'll see photos of a Spitfire plane being transported to Darwin on the back of a truck. The Japanese dropped more bombs on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour, a fact that many don't realise. Donald Campbell's record-breaking speedboat, the Bluebird, is in another photo plus a bridge that couldn't take the weight and collapsed with a truck and its load halfway across. Drovers once walked cattle from the stations down to the ports or rail-heads but later trucks took over. You can see a bundle of them lined up at some stock-yards waiting to get loaded. Part of the exhibition included the Kenworth Dealer Truck Museum. At one point, Kenworth trucks were completely made in Australia and were very popular with drivers. Every truck in the display was fully functional and sparkling clean. A chart by each truck gave relevant details. The T601 on display had done 2.3 million miles with only one major overhaul. Another had done 4 million miles before being donated to the museum. Other features included cabinets full of models, a library with parts books and service manuals for all makes and models of trucks as well as a great number of antique cars. The sleeping cab of a truck was on display and was very interesting with small cupboards built into every little nook and cranny. It was like a miniature luxury motel unit. There is also a photo of Leyland Tiger and Cub emblems. The bus we converted to a motor-home is a Leyland Tiger.