English: "The Ghan" train crossing the flooded Finke River, Northern Territory, Australia ca 13 Feb 1953. In early 1953, a tropical low-pressure system disrupted the Central Australia Railway for six weeks. The first Ghan service after the "big wet" left Port Augusta on 9 February and took five days to reach its destination, Alice Springs. The train had to stop at several places to allow sand to be removed from the track and there was a two-day delay at the Finke River while the locomotive crew waited for the water level to drop. Then the train proceeded slowly across when the water was still 250 mm (10 inches) above the rails, which because of previous bridge washaways had been laid across the river bed. When diesel-electric locomotives were used, it was no longer possible to run where water covered the rails because low-slung electric traction motors in the bogies would be affected.