Wee Georgie Wood Railway

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wee Georgie Wood Railway
Tullah Railway Station
Tullah Railway Station
Route length: 1.9 km
Gauge : 610 mm ( 2 foot track )

The Wee Georgie Wood Railway is a 1.9 km long, narrow gauge , museum railway line with a gauge of 610 mm (2 feet ) near Tullah in the West Coast Municipality of Tasmania .

Location and name

The originally 10 km long railway line is located near the hydroelectric power station on the Pieman River and the lakes Lake Rosebery , Lake Mackintosh and Lake Murchison . Parts of the route were flooded after the construction of the dams on these reservoirs .

In the past, the railway line that went into operation in November 1902 was also called the North Mount Farrell Tramway , or Farrell Tramway or Tullah Tram for short .

The name of the museum railway, which is still 1.9 km long today, goes back to the steam locomotive that runs there, which was named after the British actor Wee Georgie Wood (* 1894; † 1979), who was only 1.45 m tall, because of its small size .

history

North Mount Farell Tramway

In the area of ​​Tullah, galena , an often silver-rich lead ore, was mined from 1892 onwards. However, it was difficult to market the ore before the construction of the railroad: Before the construction of the railroad, the ore had to be transported on the back of pack donkeys and horses because there were no roads or drivable dirt roads until the construction of the Murchison Highway , which was opened in 1962 after Tullah gave.

Therefore, the construction of a 13 km long horse-drawn railway north to Boco Siding on the Emu Bay Railway was planned. Instead of the steel rails originally planned, it was built in 1902 with wooden rails. It was initially able to handle the traffic at a reasonable cost, but as the mine’s revenue increased, a more effective transport solution was sought. A shorter steel-railed steam railway line was laid along the north bank of the Pieman River by the Dunkley brothers, who had already made a name for themselves in the Tasmanian timber industry. It was put into operation in 1909. It hit the Emu Bay Railway at Farrell Siding on a 1:40 gradient just before the bridge on the Pieman River, so that complex reloading devices had to be built because of the gradient.

The mine was temporarily closed in 1932 due to the drop in crude metal prices during the global economic crisis, but reopened in 1934 when another galena deposit was found nearby. Shortly after the Murchison Highway officially opened in late 1962, operations on the Tullah to Farrell Siding route ceased, but the Wee Georgie Wood steam locomotive continued to travel the 800m section between the mine and the separator.

The Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway Inc was founded in 1977 with the aim of overhauling the Wee Georgie Wood steam locomotive and one day using it as a museum railway. Volunteer and nearby companies renovated the steam locomotive, moved 1.9 km of narrow-gauge rails and restored a passenger car that had previously been used on the Lake Margaret Tramway. On February 5, 1987, Tasmania's Prime Minister Robin Gray officially opened the route.

Locomotives

Manufacturer number Surname Construction year Wheel alignment
Krauss No. 2640 Puppy 1892 B (0-4-0)
Orenstein & Koppel No. 718 around 1901 B (0-4-0)
Fowler No. 16203 Wee Georgie Wood around 1924 B (0-4-0)
Fowler No. 17732 Wee Mary around 1928 B (0-4-0)
Krauss No. 5988 Number 9 1908 B (0-4-0)
Nicola No. 770 Vintage Romeo (Diesel) 1925 B (4wPM)

Web links

Commons : Wee Georgie Wood Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  • HK Atkinson: Railway Tickets of Tasmania 1991, ISBN 0-9598718-7-X .
  • Lou Rae: The Emu Bay Railway 1997, ISBN 0-9592098-6-7 .
  • Along the Line in Tasmania. Book 2. Private Lines . Traction Publications, 1972, ISBN 0-85829-003-0 .
  • Charles Whitham: Western Tasmania: A Land of Riches and Beauty.
Edition 2003 - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. OCLC 48825404
1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. OCLC 35070001

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Farrell Tramway. The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania: 1860-1954) February 14, 1906. Retrieved February 9, 2015, page 5, National Library of Australia
  2. ^ North Mount Farrell Tramway. Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tasmania: 1890-1922) November 28, 1902. Retrieved February 9, 2015. Page 4, National Library of Australia
  3. ^ Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway Inc (2002) 1902-2002 Celebrating the Centenary of the North Mount Farrell Tramway ISBN 0-9750013-0-2 .
  4. ^ A b John Dennis: Off The Beaten Track. Lesser known but interesting narrow gauge railways.
  5. ↑ Mt Farrell Tramway and Wee Georgie Wood History.
  6. ↑ Wee Georgie Wood: Vintage Romeo . ( Memento from February 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 41 ° 43 ′ 47.5 ″  S , 145 ° 37 ′ 27 ″  E