|
The Emu Bay Railway was a successful private rail business in Tasmania, and was the longest lasting and most successful private railway company in Australia. Unlike the present day Melba Line the Company ran the line all the way to Zeehan from Burnie, carrying minerals and passengers as an essential service for the West Coast community. In 2004 the Company and its railway line were taken over by TasRail. ==History== Initial attempts to link the West Coast of Tasmania to more settled areas commenced in the 1870s when the Van Diemen's Land Company engaged John C Climie to undertake a survey of a line from near Burnie to Mount Bischoff.〔TASMANIA. HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. TRAMWAY : (No. 90.) Report on Survey of proposed by Mr. J. C. Climie, CE. laid upon the Table by the Minister of Lands, and ordered by the House to be printed, 16 August 1882〕 The Emu Bay Railway Company commenced operations in its own name in 1897 and its operations were taken over in 2004 and absorbed into TasRail. It served Guildford, Rosebery, and Zeehan, the connection between Zeehan and Regatta Point being a government made and run line. During the construction of the Pieman River hydro electric scheme in the late 1970s it had its route changed and new bridges were built. The railway is famous for providing transport to Queenstown from Burnie during the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster, when the times made on various sections which were never bettered. The railway was also one of the more successful users of the notorious war-time Australian Standard Garratts (), during the 1960s. For a short period in the 1960s before the completion of the Murchison Highway, the railway had a passenger and road vehicle train named the ''West Coaster'' between Guildford Junction and Zeehan from 1961 to 1964. On 8 March 1964 the last train to Zeehan was run as an (A.R.E.A) Special train. Thereafter the line was basically goods only excepting a twice weekly 'mixed' which subsisted until 1983, using 'West Coaster' cars ABL1 and 2, which retained their two-tone blue livery. The line was truncated to Rosebery and then extended again over most of the line to Zeehan to its current terminus at Melba Flats where the Mount Lyell company and the successor companies that followed trucked their ores from Queenstown. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Emu Bay Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|