Australia's West Coast Wilderness Railway

[Memma]

Hi All

Another trip report if anyone's interested - this one is a little random but a super interesting trip on Tasmania's West Coast Wilderness Railway between the tiny remote towns of Strahan and Queenstown. What makes this trip interesting is the historic 1896 built steam locomotives that pull the train up at one point a 1:15 (6.67%) grade - the steepest ascent in the Southern Hemisphere - on an ABT rack and pinion system.

https://trainreview.com/article/exploring-tasmania-on-the-west-coast-wilderness-railway

I thought it may be of interest.

I hope everyone is safe and well!

We awaken to rain hitting our hotel room window and grey clouds hanging over the spectacular Macquarie Harbour. But, we’re not surprised by this weather - chances are, when visiting the West Coast of Tasmania, it will rain. In fact, it rains all but 15.7 days a year in this part of the world! Weather aside, we head out to catch our train for the day – the West Coast Wilderness Railway.



The West Coast Wilderness Railway departs from Strahan, a tiny town on the Wild West Coast of Tasmania – the most southern and only island state in Australia. Tasmania is located 240km to the south of the Australian mainland and is the 26th largest island in the world. It has a small population of around 520,000 people - over 40% of whom reside in Hobart, its capital. Strahan, where the West Coast Wilderness Railway commences, is a 4-hour drive west of Hobart.



The West Coast of Tasmania is filled with natural, rugged beauty - with rivers, mountains and dense forests that look very little like mainland Australia. The area around Strahan is particularly remote and is home to Tasmania’s UNESCO-listed Wilderness World Heritage Area, with its verdant mountains and ancient temperate climate rainforests.

 

[Calthrop]

A confession -- this line and various other preserved ones being, "for reasons of own", not my scene: had been out of touch for a fair number of years; was aware that some years back, the WCWR was facing very severe financial troubles and was looking at having to close down. I had not known since then, whether it had survived or not -- @Memma, from your post, plainly it has: in the general scheme of things, a cause for satisfaction !

From the link, definitely a "fun" journey. Am impressed by participants' dedication in doing the run by train both ways; I'd gathered that more usually, "customers" do the journey between Strahan and Queenstown one way by the train, the other way by road coach: the latter accomplishes the run in 45 minutes, the former two hours minimum; factoring in "assorted stops for assorted experiences", a good deal more.

 

[Memma]

Worth it, but a long trip both ways! We drove from Strahan to Queenstown the next day on our way to Hobart and it was a lot faster!!

The line was leased to Federal Group who own the casino in Hobart and a couple of other hotels - they handed back the lease due to losses and significant capital required to fix infrastructure. Ultimately the Tasmanian Government stepped in, spent the $'s and now still operate it. Sounds like things are going well (COVID aside), and it brings a lot of people to the area which is great!

 

[Calthrop]

Worth it, but a long trip both ways! We drove from Strahan to Queenstown the next day on our way to Hobart and it was a lot faster!!

I love the way in which Tasmania's railway topography has meant that at "rail peak", it was possible for a rail vehicle to travel all the way from Queenstown to Hobart (though it seemingly didn't happen all that much -- most of Queenstown's mineral output being shipped out by sea): but the distance by rail was at least three times as great -- maybe more -- as that by road ! This thanks to the way by rail to / from Queenstown, being on a north-south axis, over the tracks of several different undertakings; with connection with the Tasmanian Government Railways' system "proper", being at Burnie on the island's north coast. One presumes that say a hundred years ago, it was theoretically possible to make this whole rail journey by scheduled passenger workings; but what with the very indirect route, many changes, and likely poor connections at those changing-points -- one shudders to think how long it would have taken.

 

[Memma]

I think you could - but it was a long trip via Strahan to Zeehan to Burnie to Devonport to Hobart - quite an adventure...
We got close to a similar detour between Melbourne and Adelaide - the Overland between the two (828km) got to within days of being cancelled which would have meant travelling Melbourne - Sydney - Broken Hill - Adelaide - I'm glad that didn't happen!

 

[Calthrop]

One would suspect that it would, literally, be quicker by sea...