Overseas Steam in Australia

The coincidence that several railways in Queensland and Western Australia share a common gauge (3ft 6in, 1067mm) with those in Southern Africa where working steam lasted much longer has opened the door to imports across the Indian Ocean.

I know of three current projects:

The following information on a Queensland operation is taken from the Cairns Kuranda Steam Trains Limited Partnership website - http://www.iig.com.au/~cns03899/ (link dead 26th April 2014). Since when three successful test runs with 0401 were carried out in early July 2002 (added 26th August 2002).

"The Cairns Kuranda Steam Trains Limited Partnership are a third party rail operator that will provide a tourist steam hauled passenger service on QR's Network. Our exciting rail journey will be from the tropical city of Cairns to the rainforest village of Kuranda, in far north Queensland, Australia. The train ascends the famous Kuranda Range along the Barron River Gorge taking over one and a half hours to complete the journey. It travels through world heritage listed rainforest and provides spectacular views of Cairns and the Pacific Ocean.

Our current locomotive fleet consists of a single ex South African 24 Class Loco no 3620. As the operation grows more locomotives will be acquired, most likely from South Africa. The locomotive had conversion work (oil burning, loading gauge and Westinghouse Brakes) done in Auckland, New Zealand by Mainline Steam.

3620 has been renumbered 0401 to run on QR tracks, as QR already have a locomotive 3620 on the roster. The original loco numbers have been retained for historical purposes.

The Vital Statistics for our 24 class are:

Cylinders 19 x 26"    Boiler Pressure: 200 lbs     Total  Weight: 130tonnes             Tractive Effort: 31000 lbs @ 85%BP   Axle Load 11.9 tonnes  Configuration: 2-8-4 (Berkshire) "

I have heard rumours that it will be joined by at least one 19D (3322) ... RD

The 2ft 0in (610mm) gauge Bennet Brook Railway in Northern Perth, Western Australia also has ex-South African Locomotives. These are NG15 2-8-2s 118 and 123 which were imported in June 1985. They have their own website http://www.git.com.au/~meads/bennettbrook/index.html (link found broken on 27th October 2017), the new one is http://bbr.org.au/. 

The Puffing Billy Railway has long had Shay A class 14 from Alishan and also more recently a South African narrow gauge Garratt, NGG16 2-6-2 + 2-6-2 from the Alfred County Railway in 1996. Of course, it will have to be regauged from 2ft (610mm) to 2ft 6in (762mm) gauge to run there....

Two former Chonburi (Thailand) Sugar Factory 750mm gauge 0-6-0Ts were imported to Australia. 103 (Henschel 25427/1956) is at the Walhalla Goldfields Railway in Victoria while 104 (Henschel 29583/1956) is at the Dalby Pioneer Park Museum in Queensland.

610mm gauge Porter 0-6-0T 14P from Victorias Mill, Negros, Philippines was reported in Melbourne in 1986.

700mm gauge Orenstein and Koppel 0-4-4-0T Mallet (3770/1909) from Java, Indonesia was reported at the same site in the late 1990s.

The owner of the last two locomotives, Jeff Daly, died in 2009 as of July 2009, they were due to be sold.