The Sulphide Street Railway and Historical Museum is a history buff's paradise. Enter through the old Silverton Tramway Company station and find yourself in a world of antiques and old trains. The collection of rolling stock includes an 1888 Y class steam locomotive, a class T loco from the early 1900s, a 1951 W class diesel loco, and the very art deco Silver City Comet, which motored between Broken Hill and Parkes from 1937 to 1989.
Many of the exterior exhibits can climbed on - you can even walk right through the Silver City Comet - and the kids can pretend they are an engineer or stroll through the carriages calling out "tickets please!" The Hospital Museum confirms that it's far better to be sick now than it was back then. There's plenty of equipment here to horrify a modern medico.
A sign says that the old horse drawn ambulance made 315 trips for patients in the first year of operating. Of these there were 257 mine cases. So not only were miners at considerable risk of injury, they also had to survive a horse and carriage ride to hospital. But this was luxury when compared with Broken Hill s first ambulance, a tarp covered stretcher on wheels, bought by BHP in 1890 to save patients, the torture of transport by bullock dray.
The Migrant Museum is a fascinating insight into the views of Australia's new arrivals. There are dozens of accounts relating the fear, apprehension, hope and excitement of the migrants, many of whom were fleeing poverty, persecution and a war-torn Europe. It was here that the boys answered the call and signed up for duty in 1914 with the outbreak of the Great War on the other side of the globe.
Inside the Ron Carter Transport Pavilion, among the restored horse-drawn buggies and gangers vehicles, as some old-time ambulances. Given the age of this equipment, it is good to know there are folk clever enough to bring local history back to life. Next door there is another entire room full of bits and pieces that have yet to be formally displayed. Poke around here and you'll come across a treasure trove of old bicycles, suitcases, typewriters, railway lanterns and much more.
Suphide Street Railway and Historical Museum is the spiritual home of the Silverton Tramway Company. It provided passenger and freight rail service to the Broken Hill community from 1888-1970, closing when rail gauge was nationalised. Sulphide Street station opened on 2 January 1889 as the terminus of the Silverton Tramway from Cockburn, a settlement which sits on the NSW/South Australian Border on the Barrier Highway.
The Museum is staffed by volunteers and most of the items on display have been donated.
The Sulphide Street Railway and Historical Museum is at Lot 1, Blende St., diagonally opposite the Visitor Centre.
Open daily from 10am to 3pm, closed Christmas Day and Good Friday. Entry fees apply.
Silver City Comet in the days when it rode the rails
