page_title: Narrow-gauge railways in Australia
section_title: Northern Territory
hierarchical_section_title: Narrow-gauge railways in Australia / By state / Northern Territory
caption_attribution_description: Preserved NSU class diesel locomotive in Marree (Australia) by urban-b.de
context_page_description: Rail transport in Australia involves a number of narrow-gauge railways. In some states they formed the core statewide network, but in the others they were either a few government branch lines, or privately owned and operated branch lines, often for mining, logging or industrial use.
  Prior to becoming an independent unified country in 1901, each of the six British colonies in Australia was responsible for rail transport infrastructure. Of the six colonies, only three opted for 3 ft 6 in narrow gauge railways. The other colonies opted for either 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in standard-gauge or 5 ft 3 in broad-gauge railways, maintaining only limited narrow-gauge rail lines, except for South Australia, which wavered between narrow and broad.
  As a result of this legacy, Australian railways are a confusing mix of all three gauges. Over time most of the mainland lines of whatever gauge linked up with inconvenient break-of-gauge stations where they met, including the infamous Albury railway station on the Albury–Wodonga line from Melbourne to Sydney, where the old cry of "Albury, all change!" has sunk into the national psyche.
context_section_description: The Northern Territory adopted narrow gauge when it was still part of South Australia, and a north–south transcontinental line was planned from Adelaide to Darwin in the 1870s. The Central Australia Railway was built northwards from 1878, reaching Alice Springs in 1929, and closed in 1980 when a parallel standard-gauge railway was built.
  The North Australia Railway was constructed southwards from Darwin to Birdum, opening in 1889 and closing in 1976. The 3000 km standard-gauge Adelaide–Darwin railway opened in 2004.
  Because there are no tunnels or narrow bridges on the old narrow-gauge line, the line received a lot of second-hand standard-gauge rolling stock, this rolling stock being noticeably larger than the original narrow-gauge wagons and carriages.
caption: NSU class diesel locomotive as used on the Central Australia Railway
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