Ida Bay Railway
Ida Bay Railway is a forest railway in southeast Tasmania , Australia that now only runs for tourists .
history
The Ida Bay Railway is the remaining, restored remnant of several hundred kilometers of forest railways that once existed in Tasmania and the only line that is still in operation today. Today it is also the southernmost railway line in Australia.
The route was built at the end of the 19th century for the Ida Bay settlement, which is now a desert . In addition, it connected sawmills and limestone quarries to the port.
business
The Ida Bay Railway operates on a 7 km long distance in the track width 610 mm (2 feet ) in a forest area in Hastings , 113 km south of Hobart . The route begins near the bathing facilities of the local thermal springs and the stalactite caves of Hastings. The journey (there and back) takes about two hours. The end point is the beach of Deep Hole Bay , which can only be reached by train.
The train runs partly with rolling stock from earlier forest railways. Much has been preserved in a museum, some of the partially open passenger cars were built on historic flat cars from 1890 and are among the oldest bogie cars in Australia. Two diesel locomotives , built in 1940, have been in use on the railway since 1948. There is also an operational steam locomotive that is used every now and then.
The train runs on six days in summer and three days in winter with several journeys per day.
literature
- Tasmania's Pristine South 2009 . Ed .: Houn Valley News, p. 24.