West Coast Wilderness Railway

The West Coast Wilderness Railway was constructed in 1897 to haul copper ore from Queenstown to the Port of Strahan by the Mt. Lyell Mining and Railway Co., Ltd.  We rode in the Premier Class coach and were treated to a day of fine food and spirits and extraordinary scenery.  The track follows the King River for the most part and was constructed without machinery or explosives.  There were over forty bridges and several huge cuts, one of which was sixty five feet deep!  All of this was done with wheelbarrows and muscle.  The railway operated until 1963 when maintenance costs outweighed the cost of purchasing a fleet of trucks to haul the ore.  In the late 90's, the old roadbed was restored and two of the original Abt engines were returned to their nineteenth century glory.  The Abt system uses pinion gears and a rack bolted to the sleepers for extra traction up the 1:16 and 1:20 slopes of one section of track.                Abt Engine No. 3 met us at Dubbil Barril after pulling another train up from Queenstown. The rugged engine was completely torn down and rebuilt to original specifications in the late 1990's.    I found the controls to be a thing of beauty in the cab of the engine.  Here is the double rack system that engages two pinion gears underneath the engine.  This bridge was built in England and shipped to Strahan.  It was floated down river and jacked into place using nothing but manpower. All of the trestles had to be rebuilt.  This photo shows the old stone retaining walls that hold the roadbed in place at the end of the trestle.   This area receives about three meters of rain a year and it is hard to imagine how the navvies who built this roadbed survived the leaches, the constant damp clothing and bedding and the soggy food. A fleeting view out the side of our car of one of the steep river valleys along the track.    Our carriage is a replica of the originals and was built in Queenstown.  It is a foot wider than the original carriages which are now on the Puffing Billy in Victoria outside of Melbourne. The King River is dead, but it is at least flowing clean today.  With a pH of 4.5, though, it will be a while before there can be any fishing opportunities.

We watched as the men turned Abt No. 3 around at Dubbil Barril on the manual turntable.

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This site was last updated 12/10/07