The West Coast Wilderness Railway, Tasmania is a reconstruction of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway between Queenstown and Regatta Point. Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. ... Municipality of West Coast Local Government Areas of Tasmania For other places by the same name, see Queenstown. ... Regatta Point, Tasmania The port and terminus of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway line from Queenstown, Tasmania. ...

Original Operation

The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company began on the 29th March 1893. The railway was completed on the 1st November 1899.

The railway utilised the Abt system of cog railway for steep sections. Because of the gradients, tonnages were always limited on the railway.

The railway ceased operation on the 10th August 1963. The line and most removable constructions were lifted however most of the bridges were left intact.

The formation and some of the bridges remained intact for decades after closure, however when reconstruction was a reality in the late 1990's most required replacement.

hi peoples!!

New Railway

It recommenced operations on the 27th December 2002 under the name of the Abt Wilderness Railway, and was officially re-opened by the Prime Minister John Howard and the late Premier of Tasmania Jim Bacon in 2003. John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), Australian politician and 25th Prime Minister of Australia, came to office on 11 March 1996 and gained re-election in 1998, 2001 and 2004. ... Image:Ac. ...

A number of the original engines used on the line had been recondioned into running order, but rolling stock was new and oriented towards providing facilities for year round tourist operations.

Stopping Places

Most of the historical stopping places and named locations of the original railway line have been kept.

• Queenstown
• Lynchford
• Halls Creek
• Rinadeena
• Dubbil Barril
• Teepookana
• Lowana
• Regatta Point

The current owners and operators of the Railway are the Federal Hotels group which also owns and operates other tourist operations in Strahan. Strahan is a small town on the wild west coast of Tasmania, Australia. ...

Further Information

The most accessible recent writer regarding this railway is Lou Rae, as he has written a number of books about West Coast railways. See: West Coast of the United States West Coast, New Zealand West Coast, Tasmania This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Some earlier writers on the Mount Lyell Railway were - Geoffrey Blainey in 'Peaks of Lyell' - first written in the 1950s, C.C. Singleton in the ARHS Bulletin in the 1940s and the 1960s, H.K. Atkinson in the 1980s - are an example. Professor Geoffrey Blainey AO (born 1930 -), is recognised as one of Australias most significant and popular historians. ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... // Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...

The Australian Railway Historical Society Tasmanian Branch has a web page regarding railways in Tasmania and the West Coast.