British Australian Tramway (Coffs Harbor)

British Australian Tramway

British Australian Tramway on the Coffs Creek Bridge

Former route

Route length:

9 km

Gauge :

1067 mm ( cape track )

Maximum slope :

40 ‰

Minimum radius :

40 m

Legend

	0	Jetty
		Jetty
		Soft
		sawmill
		Coffs Creek
		Macaulay's Headland cut 250 m long, 2 m deep
		Korora Incline Coast Range Ascent
		Bruxner Gap
		Soft
		2 bridges
	9	Bucca Bucca Creek

The British Australian Tramway built and operated 1907-1914 a 9 km long forest railway with a gauge of 3 feet 6 inches (1067 mm) in Coffs Harbor in the Australian state of New South Wales .

Foundation and construction

British Australian Timber Company forest railway at the Pier Hotel, 1908

The British Australian Timber Company (BAT Co.), founded in 1906 by Dalgety Holdings, bought a sawmill, including machinery and equipment, established by George W. Nichols in 1903, as well as 2.2 hectares (5.5 acres) of land in Woolgoolga and three logging contracts in October 1906 worth £ 3,500 plus two other sawmills in Woolgoolga and south of it. She operated these sawmills and the British Australian Tramway (Woolgoolga) .

In 1907, she applied for a permit to build a forest railway to transport tree trunks to the sawmill, and shortly after the permit was granted, she began building the line in the same year. Near Macaulay's Headland, she laid steel rails weighing 17.4 kg / m (35 lb / yd) per meter on wooden sleepers made from locally cut and sawn hardwood. The construction cost was £ 1,500 per mile. The line was built roughly, as sharp corners were left at the rail joints in order to save costs. The one on the superstructure was made of rock or sand. During the construction of the forest railway, John Norton was killed on February 5, 1909 while cutting trees.

Route

Cut in Macauley's Headland, around 1910

From June 1910 the route was relocated and a connection to the jetty was established in the course of the work. Wooden ramps and steam-powered winches were built along the route for loading logs. Each train carried six long logs, with two daily trips back and forth.

The BAT Co. Forest Railway started at the Coffs Harbor dock, crossed Coffs Creek, and then drove into Macaulay's Headland, where the first lumber camp was located. When the forest railway was expanded, the route from the Macaulay Headland was extended before it climbed the slope to Bruxner Park to the junction for Sealy Park Lookout. There it had radii of more than 40 m (2 chain) and a gradient of 4%. The forest railway turned right before reaching the lumber yard at the top of the hill.

Locomotives

The first steam locomotive to be used on the Forest Railway was procured second-hand in Tasmania in 1904. Originally it had the 4-6-0 wheel sequence with two non-driven leading axles and three coupled drive axles before the BAT had a drive axle removed during a conversion so that it had the 4-4-0 wheel sequence . The locomotive made it through Macaulay's Headland without any problems, but after the line was extended to Bruxner Park it was found to be inadequate. The locomotive was too heavy for the lightly laid rails of the forest railway and spread the rails several times in different places.

Therefore, the Dalgety Holdings looked for a more suitable locomotive, and acquired a 25 or 27 ton Shay locomotive, which was delivered on July 8, 1909 on the ship "Cooloon". The Shay could be used along the entire length of the forest runway without major problems.

Manufacturer	Factory no.	Construction year	image	Wheel alignment	Remarks
Hunslet Engine Company	Formerly TMLR No 6 (117/1874)	1874		4-4-0 formerly 4-6-0	Often derailed
Lima Locomotive Works	Lima 2135 from 1909	1909		Shay A class	Weight: 25 or 27 t

Decline and closure

The construction of the North Coast Railway had a significant impact on shipping in the area, but also on the operation of the BAT Co. near the jetty. Since their sawmill was on the planned route, there was a dispute that lasted until February 1913, which delayed the railway construction work in the station area. A fire, the cause of which could not be determined beyond doubt, destroyed the sawmill, which then could not be operated for 1 year. Operations ceased in 1916.

Wooden bridge of the disused forest railway used as a pedestrian bridge over Coffs Creek

In March 1915, the Coffs Harbor Timber Company (CHT) acquired the rail vehicles, a stationary steam engine and 13 kilometers (8 miles) of tracks for the forest railway line from BAT Co. The BAT Co. office on the corner of Camperdown Street and Nile Street was taken over by the State Railways and became Masters Cottage Station. The forest railway bridge over the Coffs Creek was preserved until 1928 in order to use it as a pedestrian bridge after wooden planks had been laid on it. Very little remains of the forest railway. On the beach there are still isolated remains of rails on the north side of Marina Drive and on the section from the Pacific Highway to the turn to Sealy Park Lookout. In the vicinity of Richmond Drive, the remains of an incision on private property have been preserved, and in Bucca Bucca Creek in 2012 the remains of two bridges could still be seen in the difficult-to-access terrain. The former right-of-way is now used by a modern street.

Web links

Commons : British Australian Tramway, Coffs Harbor - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Scott Schache: Bananacoast Railway: Rails of the Coffs Coast A Century Plus of Service 1906–2015.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Ian McNeal: The British Australian Timber Company Tramway, Coffs Harbor, NSW. (LR 86) In: Light Railways 231 , June 2013, pp. 28–29.

-30.30523 153.13577Coordinates: 30 ° 18 ′ 18.8 ″ S , 153 ° 8 ′ 8.8 ″ E

[Schache-1] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Scott Schache: Bananacoast Railway: Rails of the Coffs Coast A Century Plus of Service 1906–2015.

[McNeal-2] A ^b ^c ^d Ian McNeal: The British Australian Timber Company Tramway, Coffs Harbor, NSW. (LR 86) In: Light Railways 231 , June 2013, pp. 28–29.