LOCOMOTIVE LOST TO INFERNO?

There are fears that a locomotive stored at the Yarloop Steam Workshops and Museum in Western Australia has been lost in the devastating bushfire that swept through the region on January 7. The locomotive is a South Australian Railways ‘Yx’ class 2-6-0, No. 176, originally built by James Martin & Co, Gawler, Southern Australia as an SAR ‘Y’ class in 1898. Beyer, Peacock & Co constructed 50 examples of the 129-strong class, which was the most numerous on the SAR. Between 1908 and 1924, 48 members of the class were re-fitted with Belpaire boilers and were classified as ‘Yx’. No. 176 was sold to Bunning Bros, Western Australia for Donnelly River Timber Tramway in 1937 and converted to ‘Yx’ specification in 1956. At the time of going to press, Steam Railway has not received confirmation of the exhibit’s status, but there are hopes that the locomotive survived the fire that destroyed the rest of the heritage-listed former timber workshops. In 2013, the Zig Zag Railway in Lithgow, New South Wales, was similarly devastated by bushfires. Although the railway’s infrastructure was lost, its locomotives survived with only moderate damage. The Yarloop Workshops were operated by Millars Karri & Jarrah Forests Ltd between 1901 and 1978. The Heritage Council has described the Yarloop Workshops as “the most intact example of an early privately-owned 20th century railway workshop in Australia”. The recent bushfire is not the first natural disaster to affect Yarloop; in 1978, the site was extensively damaged by Cyclone Alby.