The Ghan of Australia. "The Ghan" service was notorious for delays caused by washouts of the track. A flatcar immediately behind the locomotive carried spare sleepers and railway tools, so passengers and crew could repair the line. The very uncertain service via this route was tolerated because steam locomotives needed large quantities of water, and Stuart's route to Alice Springs was the only one that had sufficient available water. During World War II the service had to be greatly expanded, putting great pressure on the limited water supplies. As a result, de-mineralisation towers, some of which survive to this day, were built
Last Train Home (film) Ebert praised the film for its depiction of conflict in one family as they struggle to improve their quality of life; giving the film four out of four stars. He concluded that due to the film's depiction of the effects of capitalism on the country that "[t]he rulers of China may someday regret that they distributed the works of Marx so generously." Praising "Last Train Home" as "a documentary masterpiece," Brian Brooks of IndieWIRE wrote that "filmmaker Lixin Fan may very well be one of modern-day China's great non-fiction storytellers." Critics of IndieWIRE placed "Last Train Home" at "top four"