WEST COAST WILDERNESS RAILWAY

MOUNT LYELL’S copper smelters were originally separated from the port of Strahan, from where it transported its product, by 20km of muddy packhorse track through dense forest, so surveyors scouted out a railway route. The Queen and King river valleys were suitable but King River gorge was too steep for conventional technology. The answer was an Abt rack-and-pinion railway. Invented by Swiss engineer Carl Abt, it has two steam engines and a pair of pinion wheels driven by separate steam cylinders. When the steep rack section is met, the pinion wheel cogs engage offset teeth on the centre rack rail for a secure, continuous grip. It was built from 1894 by more than 5000 labourers working six days a week often in cold, rainy and muddy conditions. Trees were cut by…

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Australian Geographic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2019

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