Tasman Limited

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The Tasman Limited was the parade train of the Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) and the last long-distance train in Tasmania . The connections were first offered on April 5, 1954.

Tasman Limited as the Margate Market Train

The Tasman Limited was created at a time when rail traffic in Tasmania was already in decline and various studies had recommended that the passenger train service should not be reduced, not expanded. Nevertheless, the railway decided to take this offer.

Originally, the train was run in four individual services, a pair of trains between Hobart and Launceston and a pair of trains between Launceston and Wynyard . Each of these trains had its own name: Tamar , Table Cape , Launcestonian and Derwent . Here came DMUs of class DP used. The connections were offered three times a week.

As early as December 6, 1954, the offer was restructured. The timetable has been changed: The connection was now served Monday through Saturday. From December 15, 1955, locomotive-hauled wagon trains were used. The nine cars were self-made by the TGR workshops. Since that number was insufficient, there was a pair of trains that ran these cars on the route between Hobart and Wynyard, and a pair of trains that ran with other cars on this main train between Western Junction and Launceston.

From February 1978 the performance was reduced to three days a week. In March of the same year, the Australian National Railways Commission took over the Tasmanian Railways, which resulted in the Tasman Limited being abandoned. The farewell trip took place on July 28, 1978. The vehicles were last used for a special train on October 8, 1978 and then parked. In 1979 some of the cars were sold to one or more private customers and set up in Margate , a town south of Hobart. The wagons are used there under the name Margate Market Train as shops and cafés. A steam locomotive was placed in front of it, but it never pulled this car. Other cars were converted, used as company cars or scrapped.

literature

  • Jim Stokes: The Rise and Fall of the Tasman Limited . In: Bulletin of the Australian Railway Historical Society, November 1978.
  • NN: Tasman Limited . In: Tasmanian Rail News 150.
  • NN: Looking back - the Tasman Limited . In: Tasmanian Rail News 239, September 2008, pp. 16ff.