Re: Tasmania's Abt Line - Work Commences

["Robert Bushby" <romanabt@tassie.net.au>]

Further to the above posts,

Last Tuesday 25 Jan saw the official "raising of the arches" of the new
Queenstown Railway Station trainshed. Contrary to the post, the beams are
not Huon Pine but good old STEEL, and the other timber used in the buildings
is good old hardwood, unlike the original station which used Huon and King
Billy Pine clad in iron. The new beams look very impressive. Building work
is proceeding quite rapidly on the station site, and the developer and
operator of the railway, Roger Smith (Honeybank Corp of Penny Royal
Launceston fame) is hoping to have the station completed by June 2000.

Site Work on the workshops and depot site at the "fire track", further down
Driffield Street has commenced, and one house on the formation in Queenstown
has been moved and relocated. New fences where the railway comes out of the
station and onto the side of Driffield Street have also been erected against
affected properties.

At Strahan, Hazell Brothers, the contractor for the earthworks, has set up
their site offices in the old quarry near Lettes Bay, and a walk along the
line yesterday from the Iron Bridge at Teepookana to the Quarter Mile Bridge
revealed survey pegs along the line. No earthworks appear to have commenced
yet at that end.

One of their first projects is to build an access road from the Strahan Road
down to Rinadeena (at the top of the rack) to give them access to the middle
of the line so earthworks can commence on several fronts at the same time.
West Coast weather will be critical to the timing of the earthworks, which
has already been delayed by the time taken to get the project this far.

Locos Nos. 1 (from the Zeehan Museum) and 3 (from the Miners Siding
Centenary display) are in pieces in a workshop at the Mount Lyell Mine
awaiting the awarding of the contract to rebuild them to operating
condition, along with the building of the necessary rolling stock - the
original coaches are beautifully restored and working  at Puffing Billy.
Hopefully, locos 2 and 5 may come home again one day to work again after the
credibility of the project is proven.

The federal funding for the project of $20.45 million is just for the
railway project. Associated infrastucture is all to be built by the
Developer awarded the licence to operate the railway. He is currently
planning to spend about $5 million on this part of the works alone.

It is certainly a very exciting project for us down here, and now the
station is taking shape, the community at last has something to show for it.
There are still a lot of "hoped fors" by enthusiasts and others regarding
locos, rolling stock and the project in general. Only time, money and
commercial reality will unfortunately (or fortunately) resolve many of these
issues. With 34kms of line, a 7km rack section, 60 tonne loads per loco, it
will be a challenge to operate successfully, but also very exciting. It is
trully a worthwhile millenium project which will not only craete a great
worl class tourist attraction for Tassie, but also restore a unique piece of
Australian Railway and Community Lifestyle History.

I will post updates as and when time permits, and hope to set up a web site
a little later where I will post current photos of the construction
progress.

Rob Bushby
Queenstown, Tas., 7467.