The Ghan Katherine and Darwin; the stops at Alice Springs and Katherine allow time for passengers to take optional tours. Each train has 16 to 38 stainless steel carriages, built by Comeng, Granville, in the late 1960s / early 1970s for the "Indian Pacific", plus a motorail wagon. A Pacific National NR class locomotive, plus a second locomotive if necessary, usually hauls the train, but occasionally other engines assist, such as an AN class or a DL class locomotive. Starting in August 1929, "The Ghan" ran on the Central Australian Railway, originally built as a narrow-gauge railway to Alice Springs. In 1957,
Esther Ghan Firestone with Eli Rubenstein) and conductor of the Habonim Youth Choir. She was born as Esther Cohen, and her mother's maiden name was Ghan. Her mother had fled to Canada to escape the pogroms in Ukraine, where she had been imprisoned and assaulted and had faced great poverty. Esther's uncle suggested she adopt the stage name of Esther Ghan for the sake of her career. She later married Paul Firestone and had six children: Debbie, Shawn, Jay, Danny, Ari and Hillary; Hillary died of ovarian cancer in 2009. Flanagan, Marie. "Music and baby food mix beautifully for her," Toronto Daily Star,