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1919 Tallowood Ventures |
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1919 approaching Tallawudjah Creek during a Glenreagh
Mountain Railway operating day on 6 January 2007.
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Builder |
Beyer
Peacock & Co, Manchester |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
1761 of 1878 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-0 |
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No. in class |
77 |
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Originally
supplied from 1877 as main-line freight locomotives, the A(93) / (Z)19 class
locos were progressively superseded by more powerful 2-6-0 and later 2-8-0
freight locomotive types, however they found a niche as light-line motive
power on steeply graded mountain branches such as the Batlow / Kunama, Oberon
and Dorrigo lines, as well as shunting roles such as the extensive sidings
and wharf lines at the former Darling Harbour yard. Preserved
locomotive 1919 was first issued to traffic as A 114 of the A(93) class,
becoming 1919 of the (Z)19 class at the NSWGR’s 1924 renumbering scheme. Among
its travels around the New South Wales, it was allocated to South Grafton for
use on the Dorrigo line during the 1950’s and features in contemporary
photographs and recollections of Dorrigo line operations in Ron Preston’s
excellent book ‘Tender into Tank’ which documents the various (Z)19 class
operations (and their 2-6-4T tank engine cousins, the Z(20) class) around New
South Wales. 1919 has
had an interesting and varied preservation career. She was one of the last
steam locomotives in NSWGR service when finally retired from Darling Harbour
shunting duties (after some earlier periods of storage) around 1972/3. 1919
features in one of the webmaster's early railway memories; together with
3075T it ran a NSWRTM rail tour to Picton and Moorebank on 16 April 1972 as
the last steam train on the Moorebank / Holsworthy branch. On a family outing
we intercepted this train at Liverpool and a series of photographs in the
family album show the arrival of the train and engine repositioning
operations as 1919 was readied to take the train solo onto the Moorebank /
Holsworthy branch. I clearly recall flustering my father with a series of
"why? why? why?" questions as he explained to his 5-year-old son
that 3075T was too heavy for the branch's bridge over the Georges River, and
thus 1919 would take the train alone. 1919 was initially preserved for the Lachlan Vintage Village at Forbes. It was stored for a few years at Parkes before reaching the Lachlan Vintage Village, being plinthed as the gatekeeper in 1979 and later painted a gaudy sky blue livery with silver dome and chimney. The Lachlan Vintage Village was an interesting museum featuring relocated historical buildings, a recreated Aboriginal camp and other displays relevant to the region. From a railway perspective it included a 2’ gauge line using ex-sugar industry locomotives and a standard gauge railway which ringed the site. Unfortunately the Lachlan Vintage Village did not succeed as an ongoing concern and the railway assets were progressively sold off. Standard Goods loco 5367 was sold to the Lachlan Valley Railway, the ex-Sugar industry locomotives passed into private hands and the remaining standard-gauge steam locos 1919 (on gate duty), 3112 and Beyer-Garratt 6042 went to auction in November 1986. 1919 and 6042 were purchased by the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum and 1919 was road hauled to Dorrigo, joining the collection of DSR&M exhibits stored there. 1919 later
passed to the Glenreagh Mountain Railway (GMR), whose focus is the
restoration of the lower portion of the Dorrigo branch from Glenreagh to
Lowanna, and was transferred to their Glenreagh West base in 2000. Following
overhaul, 1919 returned to operation in July 2004 and ran tourist trains over
the GMR’s restored section of railway from Glenreagh West to Tallawudjah
Creek, which was a fitting return given 1919’s allocation to the Dorrigo line
during the 1950’s. Glenreagh Mountain Railway operating days often coincided
with community market days at Glenreagh West and the webmaster enjoyed such a
trip on 6 January 2007 (as shown in several photos on this page); at that
stage the GMR trains were running frequently and filled to capacity with
visitors from the adjacent markets. Unfortunately, GMR operations were
suspended in 2008 while the organisation works to meet new regulatory
requirements - hopefully this setback will soon be overcome, allowing the GMR
to restart operations and extend their line over Tallawudjah Creek, up the
escarpment and through the No.1 & 2 Tunnels towards Lowanna. In the
meantime 1919 is stored at Glenreagh West depot; I understand it is nominally
serviceable but requires (at least) full mechanical and boiler inspection and
documentation before it can be recertified for traffic. For more
general information about the A(93) / (Z)19-class locomotives, refer to the
page for sister 1905. Wikipedia also
provides further information and technical details for the A(93) / (Z)19-class. Update: Early 2023
brought a change of direction for the Glenreagh Mountain Railway, with all assets
including 1919, Rail Motor CPH 11, rolling stock and the railway corridor being
transferred to Tallowood
Ventures. It seems that Tallowood Ventures aim to turn most of the rail
corridor to Ulong and Lowanna into the Tallowood Mountain Rail Trail, with heritage railway
operations limited between the Glenreagh West depot (including the relocated
Moreland Station building) and Tallawudjah Creek. (Reopening the railway back
across the Orara Way road and derelict Orara River Bridge towards the former Glenreagh
main line station is conceptually possible at some stage in the future). Tallowood
Ventures recently won a grant toward the restoration of 1919. I understand
the loco received a boiler inspection and was found to be in excellent
condition, with repair work now underway with the intention a return to steam
during 2025. Rowan
Kinnane from Rail Media Productions has recently published the following
YouTube video about locomotive 1919: |
Happy days on the Glenreagh Mountain Railway as another trainload of visitors approach the halt at Tallawudjah Creek.
These trains ran full as the Glenreagh markets were operating at the other end of the line and attracting large crowds. 6 January 2007
1919 approaches Tallawudjah Creek as a lone S-truck sits in the paddock on the left.
A scanned photo of 1919, recently arrived at Dorrigo in approximately 1987.
It is still wearing the sky blue livery it received when
the gate guardian at the Lachlan Vintage Village.
This slide from John Hurst’s collection shows 1919 stored
at Enfield, circa 1973.
1919 leads a tour train at Liverpool on 16 April 1972.
References
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a |
‘A
Compendium of New South Wales Steam Locomotives’ compiled
by Alex Grunbach, published
by the Australian Railway Historical Society, New South
Wales Division, 1989. |
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b |
Kramer, J. 'The Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum - an
Illustrated Guide', published by the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum, 1987. |
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c |
Preston, R.G. ‘Tender into Tank’, published by the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, 1984. |
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Page updated: 10 June 2025
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