12 October 2023

12 October 2023

Queenstown, Tasmania – And on a railway note, Abt No 2 has finally re-joined most of it’s sister locomotives after a major re-build.

Initially built in the 1890s, this engine was fortunate to have been preserved by the Tasmanian Transport Museum Society for many decades, after the Queenstown-Strahan
“Abt” railway closed in 1963.

This railway was constructed through extremely mountainous country in western Tasmania primarily to carry ore from the Mt Lyell mines to the port of Strahan for export.
There being no roads into that part of Tasmania, rail was the only way in – and out – of Queenstown until the early 1960s.

This railway features a rack section, with a pair of toothed rails laid between the main running rails. A pair of matching cogs beneath the Abt locomotives enable them to climb
and descend a pair of particularly steep gradients which would otherwise be impossible.

Five of these special locomotives were built and used by the former Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company. Those numbered 1, 2, 3 and 5 survived into preservation.
No 4 was unlucky, and was scrapped around the time the “Abt” railway was dismantled, soon after it’s closure.

The railway formation was abandoned and left to the rainforest to reclaim. There was a proposal to convert it into a one-way tourist road, but that came to nothing.

During the 1980s, there were proposals to rebuild the railway exactly as it was; these were dismissed by the State Governments of the day until a Launceston entrepreneur gave it
his backing.

The railway was re-built using rails salvaged from the defunct Scottsdale – Herrick line, and three of the original steam locomotives were obtained, rebuilt and converted to
oil burners. Two diesel locomotives, which were also previously used on the “Abt” railway, were purchased back from the Zig Zag Railway in New South Wales.

Period-style carriages were constructed using underframes and bogies purchased from Tasrail. The originals are now in service on the Puffing Billy Railway in Victoria.

Tourist trains have been running on this line for many years and, now, all surviving Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company locomotives are in the West Coast Wilderness
Railway fleet, to haul tourist trains along this very spectacular railway.