Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company No.8

West Coast Heritage Centre, Zeehan

Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company No.8 at the excellent West Coast Heritage Centre on 8 May 2021.

My thanks to Chris Stratton for contributing this view.

Builder	Lokomotivfabrik Krauss & Co, Munich, Germany
Builder’s Number & Year	5480 of 1906
Wheel Arrangement	0-4-0WT

This small Krauss locomotive was built new for the Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company and became No.8 in their fleet of 2’ gauge machines for working around the mine site and works in Queenstown. Judging by the builder’s numbers, it was one of two purchased in 1906, the sister loco being No.7 (Krauss b/n 5479 of 1906) which was scrapped in 1953.

Small German-built locomotives such as this example had been popular for mining, industrial and construction duties until the outbreak of World War 1, after which British manufactured machines were favoured.

No.8 spent its entire working life with the Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company, being retired in 1963. It found a home in the West Coast Heritage Centre at Zeehan, where it has been displayed for many years among the railway exhibits. Fortunately, a substantial weather roof protects these railway exhibits from the worst of the very wet west coast climate!

The West Coast Heritage Centre (formerly known as the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum) at Zeehan is an excellent museum and well worth a visit, with fine displays & well-presented exhibits. The locomotive collection is well protected from the very wet west coast climate under a substantial weather roof facing onto the main street. Zeehan and the local mining industry certainly have a rich railway history, and indeed a 2’ gauge tramway once ran down the main street in front of the museum!

A second view of Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company No.8 on 8 May 2021, courtesy of Chris Stratton.

No.8 is looking out onto the main street of Zeehan – along which a 2’ gauge tramway once ran.

The placement of the coffee cart is somewhat incongruous - skinny flat white, please!

Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company No.8 at the excellent West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum on 8 May 2003.

(By coincidence the webmaster visited on the same date as Chris’ photos above, but 18 years prior!)

Not much has changed for No.8 in that time; it remains well cared for and protected from the west coast climate under a substantial roof.

While this is not a great photo – taken with a first generation 2 Megapixel digital camera - it does show the outside Stephenson valve gear.

Outside valve gear allowed a well tank to be placed between the frames, and consequently a lower centre of gravity – the top of the well tank can just be seen.

References

a	'Light Railways - Australia's Magazine of Industrial & Narrow-Gauge Railways', Number 153, June 2000. Article ‘Krauss Locomotives in Australia – A close look at their characteristics and an overview of their migrations’ by Bruce Macdonald. Published by Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. pp.10-18. (This article is also available online.)
b	Wikipedia page for Lokomotivfabrik Krauss & Co / George Krauss, retrieved 10 September 2021.

Page updated: 14 September 2021

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