What a treat for Sunday night from Nicholas Pusenjak, thanks so much. The use of steam traction on the Western Australian Government Railways system ceased in 1971. A selection of the more modern types of locomotives, (Pm/Pmr, V and W classes) some of which had been subject of recent general overhauls and had done little work since overhaul were stowed in case of oil shortages or unforeseen upturns of traffic. Chimneys were sealed, boiler cladding and mechanical parts were coated with protective grease. But the need to reactivate them never came and the WAGR sold them for scrap and in the case of a lucky few engines, to individuals or groups for preservation. Representative samples of most classes where there were survivors went to the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) on permanent loan for display at the Rail Transport Museum at Bassendean and ownership of these subsequently passed to ARHS which now trades as Rail Heritage WA. Two locomotives 4-6-4 Baltic tank Dd592 and 4-8-2 Mountain type tender engine S549 “Greenmount” have steamed in preservation. The WAGR retained two very elderly steam locomotives on its books, - these being G class tender engines 4-6-0 G123 and 2-6-0 G233. These were allowed to be used on Vintage Train excursions arranged by the charismatic George Baxter of the Bunbury Tourist Bureau. Other than these engines, no steam was permitted and the WAGR vigorously resisted requests from ARHS to run steam hauled excursion trains. A new group, the Pinjarra Steam and Hills Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1974 with the aim of running steam trains on the branch line between Pinjarra and Narrogin. They purchased four W class locomotives from the WAGR with the intention of having three operational and one for spare parts. With steam having been gone for some time and the desire to distance itself from an obsolete mode of traction diminishing, the WAGR was being weaned away from its anti-steam stance and was becoming amenable to the operation of steam on a country branch line. So with considerable fanfare on 12th September 1976, the first steam hauled train other than the two G class ran. The new Society didn’t own any passenger rolling stock at the time, so the first trains used coaches hired from Westrail, the successor to the WAGR. A former Midland Railway F class diesel electric locomotive took the first train from Perth to Pinjarra where W920 was attached and double headed it to Dwellingup. By 1979, the anti-steam attitude had all but evaporated and a series of steam hauled passenger trains were operated from Perth railway station on all three suburban lines that existed at the time. The Pinjarra Steam and Hills Railway Preservation Society was now trading as the Hotham Valley Railway and their W945 was used on these trains that were sponsored by the state owned Rural and Industries Bank of Western Australia – known colloquially as the R & I as part of the Festival of Perth and the celebration of Western Australia’s 150th birthday. The train was named the “Festival Flyer” and used Westrail wooden body suburban passenger stock. I haven’t touched on preserved transport in my Weekend Transport Treats, preferring to concentrate on revenue service operations. However, some of the preserved activities are now very much part of our history, so there is scope to include them from time to time. W945 became the first locomotive to steam into the Perth metropolitan area since 1971 when it came up from Pinjarra with a train of support vehicles. She faced Fremantle, so trips on the Fremantle line were made boiler first, returning tender first and running through to Midland, returning to Perth boiler first. She then did a tender first trip to Armadale, returning boiler first. The R&I Festival Flyer trains ran over several weekends and although it was high summer, there didn’t seem to be any issues with the train setting fire to the line side vegetation. So, my selection of photographs scanned from Agfa transparency film show W945 crossing the Swan River at Guildford, returning to Perth from Midland; at Perth railway station; and finally passing through Claremont en route to Fremantle. The date, March 1979. The smooth running and success of these trips paved the way for preserved steam locomotives to roam the rails and thus began a halcyon period of excursion trains.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 12:45:59 +0000
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