gauge

This should be Wirth's Circus also Wallangarra was where the change of gauge between Queensland and NSW railways occurred so perhaps the elephants were waiting to change trains rather than as the result of an accident?

Simon Miller Thanks Simon for your detective work! We've updated the metadata here and in our catalogue. :)

Wow these poor things get to tour the world.

Wirths' became Australia's pre-eminent circus, traveling around the country by rail and visiting New Zealand regularly. Posters proclaiming that the circus was 'Coming by special trains' created anticipation and excitement for country people. Watching elephants skilfully push and pull wagons from the railway siding to the circus site was a spectacle in itself. Wirths' Circus toured from 1880 until its demise in 1963. Source: collection.maas.museum/object/444450

I hadn't realised this fact either! I'd assumed (never do that..) Rolls Royce took care of their own things elsewhere and not within another makers factory. These engine blocks may not have ended up as wartime equipment either - Rolls Royce were, and still are, renowned for their reliability. The engines could also have ended up in shunting locos or even rare items such as emergency winders for mines should their headgears fail.

Interesting explanations. Thank you

does it spin a "yarn" and wooley jumpers

First impression is a vertical twin cylinder steam engine driving a generator.

Niall McAuley On the buttons a bit quicker that me. Just the same comment as I was going to post. Steam intake pipes at top and you can see some wires leading away from stator/field coils.

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/charles-proteus-steinmetz-... The initials on the drawing are not the same but based on the link the generator in the Ford Plant was called a Steinmetz but Charles P Steinmetz was called in to fix it.