Lost locomotive found in desert

A LOST locomotive has been found in the Territory desert after more than 60 years.

A group of amateur treasure hunters hot on the heels of $400,000 worth of gold stolen from the old Ghan in the 1930s found a rail graveyard in the Simpson Desert.
Train artefacts, fixtures, crockery and personal items have been found at the site 200km south of Alice Springs.
"This was just on the surface,'' amateur historian Chris Vaughan said yesterday.
"It's time to dig a hole.''
Mr Vaughan and a group of volunteers had been looking for the graveyard for about four years after locals in Alice Springs told him trains used to be buried in the desert.
"It all started with a photo of a train wreck at Rodinga, which is a siding south of Alice Springs,'' he said.
"We were told by some old locals that they used to bury trains out there and being a steam buff I started doing some research.
"Four years later we've gone to a location and found components that are unique to a Bayer-Peacocke loco, which we know was being used ... around that time."
Mr Vaughan said the treasure hunters were hoping the research would help lead them to "the legendary missing gold from 1935''.