It was jointly operated by the State Rail Authority and Australian National as a tourist train with sightseeing stops at Broken Hill, the South Australia / Northern Territory border, Kulgera, the Iron Man statue and the Finke River Bridge.

[3][4][5] It operated weekly departing Sydney on Mondays and Alice Springs on Wednesday, taking 47 hours to complete the 2,857 kilometre journey.

[6] It was suspended from December 1986 until March 1987, to allow the rolling stock to be used for extra Indian Pacific services during the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle.

[9][10][11] The service was revived in April 1999, when The Ghan from Alice Springs to Adelaide was rerouted to Sydney on selected journeys.

[4][16] The Alice Springs bound service also included State Rail Authority RUB sitting carriages as far as Port Pirie.