Historic Railways

Dramatic wilderness, ingenuity and dedication combine to create one of Australia's great train journeys.

Tasmania's reconstructed West Coast Wilderness Railway, between Queenstown and Strahan, is one of the world's great railway journeys.

It runs through the spectacular rainforested gorge of the King River. The locomotives use a unique narrow-gauge rack-and-pinion rail system, named for the inventor, Swiss railway engineer Roman Abt, to climb the steep grades.

In the north-west, the Don River Railway runs regular excursions and displays a superbly tended collection of steam and diesel locos.

At Tullah on the west coast, you can find the Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway (named after a British comedian popular in the 1890s), which originally connected the then isolated town with Farrell Siding on the Emu Bay Railway.

The Ida Bay Railway is Australia's southern most rail link, running for seven kilometres (4.5 miles) from Ida Bay, south of the Lune River, and before you reach Recherche Bay.

The Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk has preserved the original locomotive workshops as they stood when abandoned in the early 1990s. Today, you can walk through the workshops and hear the echoes of the men and their machines.

The Transport Museum at Glenorchy has a large collection of restored railway locomotives, carriages, trams and more. The museum is open Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 1pm until 4:30pm.

Visit www.railtasmania.com for more information and links to all websites of Tasmanian Tourist Railways.

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Historic Railways