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,
The Ghan Afghan Express". By 1951, when steam engines were replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, this disparaging derivation, like the cameleers, had faded away. Modern marketing has completed the name turnabout. "The Ghan" was privatised in 1997 and has since then been operated by Great Southern Rail, initially as part of the Serco Group. GSR was sold to Allegro Funds, a Sydney investment fund, in March 2015. The train usually runs weekly year-round. During December 2012 and January 2013 it ran only once every two weeks. Until 2016, a second service operated between June and September. The train stops at Adelaide, Alice Springs,