NARROW GAUGE NEWS
1922-built former sugar cane engine will be repatriated and restored for its centenary.
Australian Avonside to join Bala fleet
‘
Quarry Hunslets’ will no longer have a monopoly on motive power at the Bala Lake Railway, as the fleet is to be joined by an Australian Avonside 0-4-0T.
Purchased by an unnamed BLR volunteer and expected to arrive at the line in October, Avonside Works No. 1909 of 1922 spent the entirety of its career working on the sugar cane plantations at Farleigh Mill in the Mackay Region, north east Queensland. Retired in the 1960s, it was subsequently plinthed in a park near Farleigh Mill before being purchased by Eric Gibson, who moved it and stored it in a shed on his farm near Mackay itself, where it has remained in an unrestored state ever since.
BLR general manager David Jones said: “We are delighted that the engine is coming to us. While we are principally home of the ‘Quarry Hunslet’, it will be wonderful to have something different for our visitors to see and ride behind.
“We understand the new owner’s intention is to have the locomotive up and running in time for its centenary. Having a slightly larger locomotive here will be very useful, handling the trains over the extended railway into the town of Bala itself.”
BLR chairman Julian Birley – himself no stranger to repatriating locomotives, having acquired ‘Penrhyn Port’ Works No. 364 Winifred from Indianapolis Raceway in 2012 – added: “The great success for this impending arrival was persuading the Australian Government to grant an export licence. This is notoriously difficult and even in this case failed at the first attempt.”
Meanwhile, the BLR’s extension into Bala itself has taken “a great step forward”, as Gwynedd Highways has agreed in principal to the line’s proposed scheme for crossing the River Dee, the primary obstacle between the line’s current Pen-y-Bont terminus and its intended destination. Mr Birley said: “This is 85% of the challenge of the whole project and, while it still all has to be formally approved, it is a great step forward.”
A planning application for the work is to be submitted to the local authority later this autumn.
●● The BLR’s new acquisition is the second overseas Avonside 0-4-0T to have been repatriated to Britain this year, following Richmond Light Railway owner Jeremy Martin’s acquisition of ex-South African sugar estate Avonside Works
No. 1986 Renishaw No. 2 (SR505).