State Library of South Australia

A firewood train on the Goondah-Burrinjuck line [PRG 280/1/7/49] • Photograph

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Summary

The caption on the original photograph identifies this as 'A freight train pulling wagon loads of cut wood near Sydney'. This appears to be incorrect with several researchers identifying it as one of the Krauss-built locomotives hauling a firewood train on the narrow gauge railway (2 foot) to Burrinjuck Dam in NSW. The narrow gauge track was built from Goondah (a station on the Great Southern Railway, west of Yass) to Burrinjuck in 1907-1908 (the line was opened in June 1908),and was used to haul cement, firewood, construction materials, food supplies and passengers to Burrinjuck, where a power station, located near the dam site, was being constructed. Some 80,200 tons of firewood was consumed for this purpose, between 1909 and 1928. Length of the railway was 26 mile 26 chains (42.2 km); the rails were taken up in April 1929. The locomotive is one of the four German-built Krauss steam locomotives, purchased by the Department of Public Works, NSW, for the construction project. The date is probably bewteen 1908 and 1916 - after this time the locomotives' builders' plates (the oval shape on the side of the cab), which gave away their German origins, were removed as a result of the feverish anti-German feelings which built up during The Great War. Further information can be obtained forn the book 'The Goondah-Burrinjuck railway' by John R. Newland.

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Physical description

Photograph; 12 x 19.5 cm

Dates / Publication details

Approximately 1910

Collection

Part of Searcy Collection

Subject

Railroad trains -- New South Wales

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

Digitisation information

Date

25/09/2002

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

3,296 x 2,062 pixels (6.8 MP)

Size

6.80 MB

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