|
The Don River Railway which is a preservation group dedicated to restoring and running trains saved from Tasmania's past railway years, supplied a steam locomotive and train for two return runs to Burnie in association with the unusual sailing of the Abel Tasman from Devonport to Burnie and return, as part of the Tasmania day weekend celebrations in 1987. The first return run was on Saturday November 21st and the second the following day. The train to Burnie on the first run, ran side by side with the Abel Tasman which was taking passengers to Burnie. These passengers from the Abel Tasman, then returned on the train to Devonport; while those on the train returned to Devonport by road coach. The Abel Tasman stayed the night in Burnie and returned to Devonport the next day, November 22nd, in time to load before its scheduled early evening departure to Melbourne. Returning from Burnie on that day, she transported another trainload of passengers who had this time, travelled to Burnie on the second run of the train. The pictures on the PDF, the link to which is below, show the Abel Tasman and the steam train in Burnie. The first picture is of a view of the Port of Burnie and the Abel Tasman berthed there, taken from Round Hill lookout, while the other two are of the train on the wharf beside the Abel Tasman. The coming of the train and the ship together at Burnie wharf, was reminiscent of years before the drive on drive off ship era, when what were called "boat trains" took passengers right onto the wharf to the ship.  Click here or on picture below to view the pdf file of
the rare visit to Burnie of the Abel Tasman
The ticket below is a train only ticket of the first run which was possible owing to the passengers for the train being on the ship at the time. |
