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ABT Railway: West Coast Passion!
ABT Railway
As a boy growing up in England, I spent most of my spare time train spotting. When I was a teenager my favourite steam locomotives were being rapidly replaced by diesel and electric locomotives. With this, the magical attraction faded.
To read the narrative and view the photographs by Roger Findlay--just go to the link.....
http://www.think-tasmania.com/abt-railway/
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The West Coast abt Wilderness Railway:
Queenstown - Strahan Tasmania
This 3ft 6in gauge railway on the west coast of Tasmania, was built through inhospitable and practically impassable wilderness in the late 1800s, to carry products of the copper mines from Queenstown, where smelters opened in 1897, and other related requirements to Queenstown like coke for the smelters etc.. There was no acCess to Queenstown by road until 1932, so trains were relied upon to bring provisions, mail, visitors, and to take locals on picnics to the beach near Strahan. There was a Mount Lyell underground mining disaster in 1912 and nearly half of the 42 victims were taken out in coffins on the railway. The railway connected Queenstown to the port of Strahan on Macquarie Harbour. It is some 35 Kms (or nearly 22 miles) long and generally follows the Queen and King rivers for much of the distance. However, to avoid the King river gorge, the railway had to essentially be constructed with steep climbs to Rinadeena, the high point above the gorge with the nature of the terrain dictating grades of 1 in 16 (6.25%) from Halls Creek to Rinadeena for about 2.25 kms for outgoing trains, and about 4.25 kms of 1 in 20 (5%) for trains to Queenstown between Dubbil Barril (the half way point), and Rinadeena in the other direction. As such grades are too steep for normal railroading, a rack railway of German patent was tested and proved satisfactory before the project was developed.
Read on at the link for the full text/history plus many more photographs http://users.nex.net.au/~reidgck/abt-rly.htm
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ABT Railway
As a boy growing up in England, I spent most of my spare time train spotting. When I was a teenager my favourite steam locomotives were being rapidly replaced by diesel and electric locomotives. With this, the magical attraction faded.
To read the narrative and view the photographs by Roger Findlay--just go to the link.....
http://www.think-tasmania.com/abt-railway/
************************************
The West Coast abt Wilderness Railway:
Queenstown - Strahan Tasmania
This 3ft 6in gauge railway on the west coast of Tasmania, was built through inhospitable and practically impassable wilderness in the late 1800s, to carry products of the copper mines from Queenstown, where smelters opened in 1897, and other related requirements to Queenstown like coke for the smelters etc.. There was no acCess to Queenstown by road until 1932, so trains were relied upon to bring provisions, mail, visitors, and to take locals on picnics to the beach near Strahan. There was a Mount Lyell underground mining disaster in 1912 and nearly half of the 42 victims were taken out in coffins on the railway. The railway connected Queenstown to the port of Strahan on Macquarie Harbour. It is some 35 Kms (or nearly 22 miles) long and generally follows the Queen and King rivers for much of the distance. However, to avoid the King river gorge, the railway had to essentially be constructed with steep climbs to Rinadeena, the high point above the gorge with the nature of the terrain dictating grades of 1 in 16 (6.25%) from Halls Creek to Rinadeena for about 2.25 kms for outgoing trains, and about 4.25 kms of 1 in 20 (5%) for trains to Queenstown between Dubbil Barril (the half way point), and Rinadeena in the other direction. As such grades are too steep for normal railroading, a rack railway of German patent was tested and proved satisfactory before the project was developed.
Read on at the link for the full text/history plus many more photographs http://users.nex.net.au/~reidgck/abt-rly.htm
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Never even considered you would have freezing weather there. I absolutely enjoyed seeing your country. Thanks.
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