what's going on with rail in Tasmania?

[anika]

Hi everyone,

Curious to know what's going on with the rail transport scene in Tasmania...

Does anyone know? Is there still any actively used railway there? Who currently owns the track and the trains?

Anika.

[andy_b]

Hi everyone,

Curious to know what's going on with the rail transport scene in Tasmania...

Does anyone know? Is there still any actively used railway there? Who currently owns the track and the trains?

Anika.

It's too cold in Tazmania. All I'd be doing is rooting. Not sheep though - that's for the Kiwi's.

[BigBuff]

Hi everyone,

Curious to know what's going on with the rail transport scene in Tasmania...

Does anyone know? Is there still any actively used railway there? Who currently owns the track and the trains?

Anika.

It's too cold in Tazmania. All I'd be doing is rooting. Not sheep though - that's for the Kiwi's.

Sheesh you really are a wanker Andy. Crawl back into your burrow and hibernate for the winter.

BB.

[Z1]

Hi everyone,

Curious to know what's going on with the rail transport scene in Tasmania...

Does anyone know? Is there still any actively used railway there? Who currently owns the track and the trains?

Anika.

There is still trains running here in tassie. Although there is a lot of loco shortages also there has been some derailments.

The rail operater is Pacific National. The track owner is up in the air atm, rumoured to be Tasports or either ARTC.
Even some pics.






All pics are taken by me too.

[craigd]

Hi everyone,

Curious to know what's going on with the rail transport scene in Tasmania...

Does anyone know? Is there still any actively used railway there? Who currently owns the track and the trains?

Anika.

There is still trains running here in tassie. Although there is a lot of loco shortages also there has been some derailments.

The rail operater is Pacific National. The track owner is up in the air atm, rumoured to be Tasports or either ARTC.

Thanks very much for the update on the Tasmanian rail situation. I haven't ever been to Tassie myself but one of the things I would like to do it visit there both because of the rail scene and because I'm a Saab enthusiast and a few of the Saab car club members there are very active members of the club!

What is the origin of the locos? I believe some of them are ex-QR since the Tassie system is 1067 mm gauge just like QLD apparently? Are there any NZ locos? I don't know if the railways in NZ are narrow or standard gauge though.

The pics are excellent. if you like, you could register to use the image galleries and you'd be more than welcome to upload and share any rail images that way. You can manage the galleries yourself and they're fairly customisable too. If you'd like to do that and you have any problems just let me know.

Do you work on the railways there btw or just a keen enthusiast?

Thanks for your contribution!

Craig.

[Z1]

Nah don't work for the railways, just a casual observer!
Now most of the locos are ex Tranzrail DQQR and the one DC loco. The last locos in my pics are ex QR1460/1502 Class/Tranzrail Dq locos, 6 are out od service, six in service.
The old QR 1300/Zc locos are out od service, used for parts for the MKA class. The old QR 2350/ZB some still in service, used for the Bell Bay line container trains and shunters.
In the first and third pic is Tasmanian built Y class, a carbob coby of the SAR 800 class EEs.
The second pic is the "banana's", ZP2100 ex ZB9 which had a nasty fire in the early 90s and was rebuilt by AN Port Augusta workshops. ZR2101 was built by the crew at East Tamar workshops here in tassie. Was planned for a few more Zr locos but An was sold.
The 4th Pic is the 1972/1973 built Z class. Copied off the WAGR R/RA class.

Also yep i will get a gallery going on here ASAP!

[craigd]

Is there any word if QR is going to consider getting involved in rail in Tassie now that they've got themselves firmly establised on the mainland after buying out Interrail (who derailed CLP-13 on 2BM7 at Sefton Park Junction last week!), CRT and Wesfarmer's interests in ARG?

Tasmania is, with QLD, one of the two remaining strongholds of narrow-gauge operation in Australia but I guess with limited potential PacNat probably has all the market in TAS sewn up. I don't think any narrow-gauge operates in WA these days, and there's only limited narrow-gauge in SA.

Would be good to see some active competition for rail contracts in Tassie though.

Craig.