More on the Tasmanian K Class
Yesterday I posted a photo of the world’s first Garratt locomotive – the Tasmanian K class – just follow the link to find the photo.
A little while after I posted that photo I was digging around in my photo draw and came across this builders photo of one of the K Class.
The photo is used with the permission of the National Archives
As I mentioned yesterday Tasmania lost a real piece of its railway heritage when it sold a hybrid version of K1 back to Beyer Peacock in 1947 but for some time in the 1990s another version of the K class ran in Tasmania.
The Bush Mill was an extensive tourist attraction on the Tasman Penninsula not far from Port Arthur and it had a miniature railway that ran for a kilometre or two down into the forest. Originally tourist trains were hauled by a smart red 0-4-2 tank loco but in latter years this superb locomotive was added to the fleet.
It even sported its own builders plate.
I understand that the Bush Mill site has now been closed for several years and the locomotives were offered for sale shortly after the site closed. I’m not sure what became of them.
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February 28th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hi,
you mention that you are unsure of what happened to the Bush Mill Railway stock, well it has all come over to the UK. The maroon tank loco ‘Mountaineer’ and the coaching stock is now at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway in Lincolnshire. Plenty of pictures of it on Colin Peake’s excellent website here. Mountaineer is fully operational
http://miniaturerailways.fotopic.net/
The Garratt is now at the Perrygrove Railway in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and has recently returned to service following a thorough overhaul, pictures are of it on the railway’s website
http://www.perrygrove.co.uk/History3.html
http://www.perrygrove.co.uk/PGimages/Garratt3.jpg
Hope the info is of help to you
Dave