Finally the day has finally come to experience the West Coast Wildernss Railway tourist train. I had been hyping up this activity for quite some time so there was a bit of aprehension should it not live up to expectation. I need not have been worried.
The day started with a windy half hour drive up to Queenstown as we had booked ourselves onto the half day excursion which leaves from the historic mining town. It is also the main hub for the train operations on the railway with Regatta point being the satelite.
We watched the train being shunted and prepared for the journey. The locomotives and rail carriages are in immaculate condition. Our loco was the first one bought over from Switerland to service the Lyell Mining Company railway in 1897. It is a credit to the team that maintain these very old pieces of machinery.
Sadley, the Queenstown Station isn't a great grand historic building, but it certainly does the job.
Eventually we were away with all the noise & smells you normally associated with a steam engine.
Initially, the track follows the Queen River which flows past the, now decommisioned, Mount Lyell Mine & through Queenstown. Unfortuantly, poor environmental controls during the mine's life has resulted in the Queen River being poluted by the run off from the mine. The mine is responsible for the orange silt in the river. They are only recently, taking measures to clean up the mine polution.
As we progressed, the forest became increasingly rugged and dense. By the time we reached Rinadeena Station (above), it was proper virgin rainforest. Rinadeena is a station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but when the mine was in full swing, it was a buzzing trade hub. Now the station is used as a whiskey & wine tasting Cellar.
Rinadeena is also the drop off point for white water rafters.
Rinadeena is where the terrain really starts to get rugged and the track steepens up. The Swiss rack & pinnion system allows the trains to climb much steeper gradients than most normal trains.
As we followed the King River Gorge (below), we could hear the different sound the engine made as the rack an pinion was engaged and could feel how hard it was working.
Dubbil Barril Station was the terminus for our train. The track continues all the way down the valley to Regatta Point but we were going back to Quenstown. There is a bit of a trick to achieiving the going back part. First, we had to wait for the inbound train from Regatta Point (above) to pass by enroute to Queenstown.
Next. Our loco was detached from the carriages and backed along the side track that the other train had just been on....
All the way back to what looks like a bridge to nowhere.
Except it is not a bridge, rather a turntable. Then the driver & fireman, push the turntable around...
...and around...
Until the loco is facing the opposite direction. (see video below).
There is a short loop track that meanders through the wild rainforest and under the actual rail bridge.
With our loco returned to the head of the train, we were off back down the hill to Queenstown. Understand that the scenery was quite spectacular thought the journey. The gorge is incredibly steep and the rainforest is very dense. I can't imagine how the rail contruction crews managed to build this unique railway. Sadly, it was near imposible to photograph so we just sat back and enjoyed the journey.
We stopped at Rinadeena on the way back so that the loco cold be topped up with water before we could continue.
The last stop was at Lyncford Station which is almost back in Queenstown. Everyone disembarked and were given the chance to pan for gold out the back of the station.
We were each given a bag of dirt and a pan so it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to it.
No luck for any of the adults, but strangely most of the kids found little specs of gold.
Harry was pretty proud to have some gold to go with his ironstone.
Back in Queenstown, the station was buzzing. Both trains were in, and there was a lot going on to turn them around and send them out again. Out train was doing another run to Dubbil Barril and the other train was returning to Regatta Point.
This wonderful half day (or so) adventure has definetly been one of the top highlights of the entire Tasmanian adventure.
