Emu Bay Railway

Emu Bay Railway Zeehan - Strahan Mount Lyell Railway
Gauge :	1067 mm ( cape track )
Rack system :	System dept
Legend from Wynyard Burnie to Devonport Pigeon Hill Ridgley Highclere Pass 1804 ft Hampshire Ringwood Toronna Wey River Guildford Rouse's Camp Magnet junction connection on Tramway to Mount Magnet Waratah Mount Bischoff tin mine Cummings siding Highest point of the route: 2300 ft Muddy Creek Bulgobac Boko Pinacles 63 Miles Tank Farrell Junction connection to: Mount Farrell Tramway to Tullah ( Wee Georgie Wood Railway ) Primrose Smelters Barker's Crossing Rosebery Renison Bell Argent Tunnel Connection: Boulder Tramway Argent tunnel Melba siding connection: Tramways to Montezuma and Williamsford Rayna Junction Connection: Tramway to Maestris "Mount Dundas- Zeehan Railway" Connection to the Zeehan - Strahan state railway Zeehan Silver Bell Austral Oceana Junction professor Grieves siding Eden Powell's siding Fowler's Siding formerly: Mallana Kopyule before 1926: Henty Bridge Henty Beach Road Bellinger Stella before 1903: Opah West Strahan Strahan Wharf Regatta Point Connection to Mount Lyell Railway Lowana King River Steel Bridge Teepookana Quarter Mile Bridge - King River Dubbill Barrill Rinadeena Hall's Creek Lynchford Queen River Queenstown

The Emu Bay Railway and its connecting lines were a railway line in Tasmania . Today, two remaining routes are still operated by this system, one of them exclusively for tourist purposes. The Emu Bay Railway has been continuously navigable since the end of 1900 and, with the two connecting lines to Strahan and Queenstown, formed the railway infrastructure on the Tasmanian west coast.

location

The trunk line connected the places Zeehan and Burnie along the west coast of Tasmania. In the south it connected to the already existing Strahan (Regatta Point) - Zeehan line, an island operation of the state railway that opened in 1892 and which it expanded in this way. Between Strahan and Queenstown was a further distance, now called Museum Railway West Coast Wilderness Railway is rebuilt. On April 15, 1901, the state railway from Devonport reached Burnie, so that the Emu Bay Railway in the north was connected to the rest of the Tasmanian railway network. The Emu Bay Railway was the main haulage route for the minerals extracted from the mines around Zeehan, as the topography is poor for ports on the Tasmanian west coast. At the same time, before the strong expansion of the Tasmanian road network in the last third of the 20th century, the route was the main connection of many smaller communities on the west coast to the rest of the island, such as Guildford and Rosebery .

history

Main line

Locomotive of the West Coast Wilderness Railway museum company

Mount Lyell Railroad (System Abt) cogwheel locomotive No. 3

The line was - in contrast to most other rail lines in Tasmania, which, with a few insignificant exceptions were built and operated by the state - privately built and operated. That happened in Cape Gauge . The initiators and financiers were the operators of the mines in the Zeehan area. The first sections of the railway were put into operation in 1897, before they began operating in full on December 21, 1900.

On the occasion of a mining accident in the North Mount Lyell mine in 1912, the trains of the Emu Bay Railway, which transported the rescue equipment, reached travel times that were later never achieved.

From 1961 to March 8, 1964, a car train called the West Coaster ran on the route between Zeehan and Burnie. The expansion of the road network put an end to this.

The route had to be relocated in sections in the late 1970s when the Pieman River dam went into operation and the old route was flooded in some places. At the end of the 20th century, there was only freight traffic and operations on the route south of Melba Flats station ceased. Most of the ores - mainly copper ore - were from the mines in Queenstown with truck drove to the loading dock.

The railroad was one of the longest running and most successful private railroad companies in Australia . In 2004 it was taken over by the TasRail state railway .

Branch lines

• Mount Bischoff Tin Mine - Guildford
• Tramway (610 mm) Farrell Junction Tullah , also known as the Wee Georgie Wood Railway , today: tourist operation.
• Primrose - Smelters
• Renison Bell - Boulder (Tramway)
• Rayna Junction - Maestris ( Mount Dundas - Zeehan Railway )
• Various trams and a. to Montezuma and Williamsford

connections

• In the north, the Emu Bay Railway connected to the state railways to Devonport and Wynyard .
• In the south, the Emu Bay Railway joined the Zeehan - Strahan state railway.
• This in turn connected to the private railway line of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company to Queenstown, which was opened on November 1, 1899. Their operations were stopped on August 10, 1963. The Mount Lyell Railway was partially developed as a rack railway ( Abt system ). It was rebuilt under the name West Coast Wilderness Railway and has been operated as a museum railway since December 27, 2002. The locomotives used are restored originals, the passenger coaches are new. The railway is owned and operated by Federal Hotels , which also operate other tourist services in Strahan.

literature

• Along the Line in Tasmania . Vol. 2: Private Lines. Traction Publications. 1972. ISBN 0-85829-003-0 .
• Geoffrey Blainey: The Peaks of Lyell . 6th ed. Hobart, 2000, p. 222. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9
• LB Manny: The Emu Bay Railway . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, November, 1961.
• Lou Rae: The Emu Bay Railway . 1997. ISBN 0-9592098-6-7 .

swell

The basic information was transferred from the English language Wikipedia and comes from:

• en: Emu Bay Railway
• en: Strahan-Zeehan Railway
• en: West Coast Wilderness Railway
• en: Wee Georgie Wood Railway

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mount Lyell Railway : Strahan - Queenstown.
2. ↑ See Railway in Tasmania .
3. ^ Blainey: The Peaks of Lyell , p. 222.
4. ↑ This is said to have been the first railroad that ran regular service with a Garratt locomotive , K-1 .