Mount Dundas

Mount Dundas- Zeehan Railway (Also known as the Maestris Tram)

The Dundas to Zeehan railway line was a seven mile (11 km) long railway line on the West Coast of Tasmania.

Operation

It was built by the Mount Dundas and Zeehan Railway Company and opened on the 25th April 1892. ^[1] Under an agreement signed on 4 February, 1891, the Tasmanian Government Railways [TGR] operated the line.

On 28 June, 1899, the Emu Bay Railway [EBR] agreed to purchase the Dundas railway, however the TGR continued to operate it.

The closure of the Silver Bell smelters in 1913 virtually ended mining in the Dundas district, leaving the railway with only a small amount of passenger and timber traffic. By 1921, Dundas had only 55 people. Between 1922 and 1924, the line carried no revenue passengers and only very small amounts of freight. By 1926, timetables merely listed stations on the line and noted that trains ran 'as required'. After a derailment in August, 1931, the TGR refused to work the line. The EBR provided a locomotive to work whatever trips ran thereafter, until a stop block was placed at the junction in June, 1932. ^[2] The official closure date is given as 5 July, 1932, after which contractors were permitted to work timber over the line by horse-power. The rails were lifted in 1940.^[3]

Stopping Places

• Zeehan
• Rayna Junction (junction with Emu Bay Railway from 21.12.1900.
• Brickworks -- Also known as Brickfield's Siding from 1905
• Mather's
• Leslie
• Nobby's -- also known as Nobby's Cutting Siding
• Brewery Junction
• Dundas -- also known as Mount Dundas
• Maestris (station for the Comet Mine)

See also

• Emu Bay Railway
• North East Dundas Tramway
• Railways on the West Coast of Tasmania

Notes

1. ^ Atkinson, H.K. (1991). Railway Tickets of Tasmania. ISBN 978-0-9598718-7-6.  page 138
2. ^ Atkinson, H.K. (1991). Railway Tickets of Tasmania. ISBN 978-0-9598718-7-6.  page 138
3. ^ The Tasmanian Government Railways on the West Coast Stokes, H.J.W. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, January;February, 2003 pp3-21;43-62

References

• Atkinson, H.K. (1991). Railway Tickets of Tasmania. ISBN 978-0-9598718-7-6. 
• Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed. ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9. 
• Rae, Lou (2001). The Abt Railway and Railways of the Lyell region. Sandy Bay: Lou Rae. ISBN 0-9592098-7-5. 
• Whitham, Charles (2003). Western Tasmania - A land of riches and beauty (Reprint 2003 ed.). Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown. 

2003 edition - Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.

1949 edition - Hobart: Davies Brothers. OCLC 48825404; ASIN B000FMPZ80

1924 edition - Queenstown: Mount Lyell Tourist Association. OCLC 35070001; ASIN B0008BM4XC

• Whitham, Lindsay (2002). Railways, Mines, Pubs and People and other historical research. Sandy Bay: Tasmanian Historical Research Association. ISBN 0-909479-21-6.