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Did cinema carriages ever run on
Australia's rail network? Well, not
exactly. No research has turned up a
carriage conversion followed through to
the degree of detail as this one in
England, but carriages modified for
educational purposes were used as
temporary cinemas.
The most ambitious and best-
equipped example of a train designed
for adult education purposes was an
initiative of the Victorian Railways
Commissioners and the Department of
Agriculture.
Between 1924 and 1935 The Better
Farming Train completed 38 tours,
visited 390 towns (some of them more
than three times) and was invited by the
governments of South Australia and
New South Wales to run on the broad
gauge lines into those States. Over 11
years the train was estimated to have
travelled more than 12,000 miles
(20,000 km.) and to have been visited
by 350,000 people.
K Class engine A2-9-0 pulled 15 India’s representative in Australia
carriages and wagons (soon lengthened for the opening of the Federal
to 18 carriages and wagons). The tally parliament in Canberra in 1930, was so
included cattle trucks to show off prize impressed by what he saw and heard
animals, open roofed carriages with about the BFT that on his return home
canvas sides for demonstrations, three he initiated a similar train.
passenger carriages modified for One well-known aspect of the early
lectures and demonstrations, one louvre days on the Transcontinental Railway
wagon for electricity generation, one includes the story of the
staff sleeping car and one guards van Commonwealth Railway’s ‘Tea and
with 12 bunks, toilet and shower. Sugar Train,’ which ran between Port
The modified saloon cars seated 80 Augusta and Kalgoorlie. As the name
people on rows of bench seats with a suggests, its purpose was to supply the
centre aisle. One hundred farmers were fettlers and remote settlements along
often squeezed in. Overflow crowds the line with basic necessities. These
waited for the next session. The first trains included wagons converted into
tour in October 1924 travelled the main shops - butcher, baker, bank and others
Gippsland line and the train stayed in - and they also brought entertainment
Bairnsdale for one week in response to films to these communities, screened in
the crowd numbers. At each stop a or from a carriage. Whether the
large marquee was erected in the Commonwealth Railways ever
station yards to house more displays. converted a carriage into a cinema as in
The Journal of Agriculture and the the UK example, is not known.
Victorian Railways Magazine made The Victorian Railways ran a
much of the train and its attractions. ‘sister’ train to their BFT. This one was popular, and with an all-inclusive price
Lantern-slide lectures were part of the exclusively for captains of industry and set to cover costs, the railways made
night sessions. Neither source mentions the well-heeled. The purpose of the money on them, which explains why the
the use of motion pictures. However, in Victorian National Resources RESO train lasted longer than the BFT.
his book Victorian Railways to 1962 Development (RESO) train (1922 - An all-male event, one ladies
Leo J. Harrigan, in a section on the 1939) was to promote a better organization wrote to the railways
BFT mentions that films were screened understanding of regional Victoria and commissioners asking that the trips be
on the train at the different stops. perhaps open minds to the possibilities opened to women. Vetoing this idea, the
In 1927 the French government for investment there. Chairman of the Resonians explained
introduced their equivalent of a better To go on one of these tours was to that a RESO trip was not a holiday, it
farming train on the Paris to Orleans become a Resonian and enjoy a was hard work!
line. Film shows might have been one collegiate atmosphere in first-class On their most ambitious adventure,
of the educational tools used in that surroundings. The trips were always 60 Resonians paid 80 pounds each
experiment.

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