|
|
Peronne National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide |
|
This photo is kindly provided by Geoff Murdoch and shows Peronne statically displayed at the ARHS Mile End Museum during July 1971.
|
Builder |
Kilmarnock,
Scotland |
|
Builder’s Number & Year |
1545 of 1919 |
|
Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-0T |
The Broken Hill
Associated Smelters (BHAS) were established in 1889 to process the silver, lead
and zinc ore delivered from the rich mines at Broken Hill, NSW. The ore was
railed from Broken Hill via the 3’ 6” gauge routes of the Silverton Tramway to
the NSW border at Cockburn, and then onwards to Port Pirie by the South
Australian Railways. BHAS established an internal railway network at the Port
Pirie smelter to receive and transfer the ore into their refinery, together
with lines for slag disposal, wharves and general
transport. Four locomotives were supplied by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co of
Kilmarnock, Scotland, a leading builder of industrial locomotives. Delivered shortly
after the end of World War 1, the four locos were named after significant
battles on the Western Front in which the Australian Infantry Force fought -
Pozieres, Polygon, Peronne and Passchendaele.
Interestingly, three were 15-ton units with 10” x 18” cylinders while the
fourth ‘Pozieres’ was somewhat heavier with larger 12” x 20” cylinders.
It seems the larger
version with 12” x 20” cylinders proved more useful, and in 1928 one of the 10”
x 18” locos – Polygon – was replaced by a new 12” version named ‘Port Pirie’.
Polygon was sold to New Guinea Copper Mines Ltd in 1927 and exported to their
mining operation at Bootless Bay, east of Port Moresby, New Guinea. To my
knowledge it is the only steam locomotive to have worked in PNG, and alas it
was scrapped in 1961 – becoming the only one of the five BHAS steam locos not
to survive into preservation.
The five
locomotives were:
|
Name |
Builder’s No. |
Notes & Disposal |
|
Andrew Barclay b/n 1543 of 1918 |
Cylinders 12” x 20” Statically displayed at Puffing
Billy – Menzies Creek Museum. To Bellarine Railway in 2010 and returned
to service. |
|
|
Polygon |
Andrew Barclay b/n 1544 of 1918 |
15-ton, Cylinders 10” x 18” Replaced by ‘Port Pirie’ and sold
in 1927. Worked at Bootless Bay, Port
Moresby PNG. Scrapped 1961 |
|
Peronne |
Andrew Barclay b/n 1545 of 1919 |
15-ton, Cylinders 10” x 18” Statically displayed at Mile End
Railway Museum (ARHA SA). Returned to service for National
Railway Museum, Port Adelaide. |
|
Andrew Barclay b/n 1546 of 1919 |
15-ton, Cylinders 10” x 18” Initially placed in Risdon Park,
Port Pirie. Later moved to Homestead Park
Pioneer Museum, Port Augusta. Transferred to Pichi Richi
Railway, Quorn in 2019. |
|
|
Andrew Barclay b/n 1955 of 1928 |
Cylinders 12” x 20” Displayed at National Trust (Old
Station) Museum, Port Pirie |
A guidebook
to the newly established Mile End Railway Museum, published in 1974, describes
‘Peronne’ exhibited there with commentary that the first four BHAS locomotives
had been acquired as war surplus. This claim was repeated in a later guidebook ‘On
Shed at Mile End’ published in 1980; presumably the years of manufacture and
naming of these locomotives gave rise to this view. (Indeed, I also repeated
this claim in an earlier version of this web page.) Subsequent research by
Richard Horne (as published in a letter to Light Railways magazine, as
referenced below) has now established from Barclay’s records that the four
original locomotives were ordered new by BHAS and had no connection to the war
effort, although their construction and delivery was delayed by the conflict.
A diesel hydraulic loco
was acquired by BHAS in 1961 and took over all shunting duties, the slag lines
having already been converted to truck haulage in 1941. The remaining BHAS
steam locomotives were deemed surplus around 1964 but fortunately each found
homes in preservation. It seems Peronne was destined for scrap as non-ferrous
fittings were removed and it was stored pending disposal, but fortunately an
enthusiast stepped in to purchase the locomotive in 1965. It was later donated
to the Australian Railway Historical Society (SA Division) for their formative
Mile End Railway Museum, where it became a static exhibit.
Overhaul of Peronne at
Mile End began in 1984 in preparation for the collection’s move to the new National Railway Museum
site at Port Adelaide, where Peronne was to be an operating exhibit. (I recall
visiting Mile End during August 1987 and being shown the restoration work proceeding
in the open air, without the benefit of a covered workshop. A museum volunteer
proudly showed me the axle box bearings he had recently helped to overhaul,
while Peronne sat behind, jacked-up off its wheels.) The overhaul was completed
in 1988 and Peronne was transported to the Pichi Richi Railway, Quorn for
testing and commissioning. Peronne then returned to Adelaide, being delivered to
the new site at Port Adelaide. Peronne now resides in the running shed at the National
Railway Museum and operates on the 3' 6" sections of their mixed gauge
railway trackage.
The National Railway Museum
website also includes this excellent exhibit history for Peronne.
References
|
a |
National
Railway Museum website, collections page ‘Peronne’ retrieved
21 January 2022. |
|
b |
Bellarine Railway website, ‘Our Trains’
page retrieved 21 January 2022. |
|
c |
Information
provided by D. Price via emails dated
27 January 2011, 26 July 2011 & 28 December 2021. |
|
f |
Wilson,
J. ‘The Mile End Railway Museum - the first ten years’ Published by the Australian
Railway Historical Society (SA Division) Inc., 1974 ISBN
0909970092 |
|
g |
Fluck,
R. E. & Samson, R. ‘On Shed at Mile End’ Published by the Australian
Railway Historical Society (SA Division) Inc., 1980 ISBN
0959507302 |
|
h |
'Light Railways - Australia's Magazine of
Industrial & Narrow-Gauge Railways', Number
265, February 2019. Letters (page 28) ‘WW1
Surplus and Memorialised Locomotives’ by Richard Horne. Published
by Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. |
Page updated: 2 February 2022
|
Government Railways: |
|
|||||||||
|
Private & Industrial Railways: |
|