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Mulgrave Central Mill No.6 ‘Pyramid’ Stored at ANGRMS Woodford |
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Pyramid in open storage at ANGRMS Woodford on 12 April 2003
and showing signs of its years in a Mareeba park.
The side tanks have rusted through at the base, a common
ailment for plinthed locomotives.
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Builder |
Hudswell,
Clarke & Co. Ltd, Leeds |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
1521
of 1924 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-0T |
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This
locomotive is one of two identical Hudswell Clarke units delivered to
Mulgrave Central Mill, Gordonvale in 1924, namely No.5 ‘Mulgrave’ (B/N 1522)
and No.6 ‘Pyramid’ (B/N 1521). Mulgrave Central Mill is situated alongside
the Mulgrave River in tropical north Queensland and in the shadow of the prominent
local landmark ‘Walsh’s Pyramid’ – an iconic nearby peak with a distinct
pyramidal appearance, 20 km south of Cairns, and clearly visible from
aircraft approaching Cairns airport! Surrounding
the mill are many hectares of sugar cane being farmed on the river’s fertile
flood plain. No.6 ‘Pyramid’
worked in sugar cane haulage to Mulgrave Central Mill for 30 years until the
loco fleet was dieselised in 1955. After a period of storage at the mill, Pyramid
it was plinthed in the Rotary Park at Mareeba (on the Atherton Tableland,
above Cairns) in 1959. Alas fate was not so kind to sister loco No.5 ‘Mulgrave’,
which was scrapped around 1960. Many sugar
industry steam locomotives had been plinthed during the 1960’s while others could
be found in open storage at the various mills. Alas time and the wet tropical
environment were taking their toll, leading to a number being scrapped during
the early 1970’s and against this background the Australian Narrow Gauge
Railway Museum Society (ANGRMS) began acquiring locomotives under threat.
Such was the case with No.6 ‘Pyramid’ which was donated to ANGRMS in 1976. The
loco was transported to Brisbane in 1976 for an initial period of storage at
Rocklea, before arriving at their Woodford site in 1979. ANGRMS is
based at Woodford station on the former QR Kilcoy branch, a portion of which
has been re-laid to 2’ gauge for heritage train operations on what is now
known as the ‘Woodford Railway’. A series of storage sidings at Woodford
house No.6 ‘Pyramid’ and other steam locomotives saved for posterity by
ANGRMS, but alas many are yet to receive any rehabilitation. ANGRMS has
recently constructed spacious new three-road running shed at Woodford, but it
seems a large, covered storage and display shed is required to provide a
suitable environment for the various steam locomotives stored at Woodford. A major
user of Hudswell Clarke steam locomotives was the Colonial Sugar Refining Co
Ltd (CSR) in Australia and Fiji, and an excellent book ‘Salute to the
Hudswells’ by Ian Stocks, David Mewes and John Browning provides details and
histories of these machines. This book also provides a summary of Hudswell
Clarke locomotives supplied to non-CSR mills in Queensland and Fiji, including
No.5 and No.6 at Mulgrave Central Mill. Sobering reading in this book is the
fate of several steam locomotives that had been statically preserved in Fiji
but became derelict and have been scrapped in recent years, including a rare
4-4-0 passenger version (Hudswell Clarke B/N 1118) used on the local ‘Free
Train’ service and thought to have been scrapped as recently as 2006. The
fate of these machines provides context for those saved by ANGRMS and
remaining in storage at Woodford, where hopefully grant funding can one day be
found for a suitable storage and display facility. The ANGRMS
collections page for Pyramid provides some useful historical and
technical information for this loco. |
References
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a |
Light
Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. Web site (Retrieved
3 November 2018): 'Preserved
Australian Sugar Cane Locomotives' list by John Browning |
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b |
Wikipedia page for Hudswell, Clarke & Co. Ltd, retrieved
28 November 2018 |
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c |
‘Salute to
the Hudswells’ by Ian Stocks, David Mewes and John Browning Published
by Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society, 2014. |
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d |
Page updated: 29 January 2019
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