Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Rack Tanks

To operate trains over the steeply graded line between Queenstown and Regatta Point, the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company had a fleet of five rack/adhesion tank engines. Of an 0-4-2T design, all locos were built by  Dübs and Co. of Scotland or their successor, the North British Locomotive Company, between 1896 and 1938.

Throughout their lives, the locos hauled the majority of trains over the steep grades, which in one section reached 1 in 16. A number of modifications were made to the locos over their operational lives, the most noticeable being conversion of all locos from coal to oil firing, fitting of new sandboxes, generators and headlights, and the repainting of most locos from black to green.

With the closure of the line in 1963, four locomotives were made available for preservation, with the fifth scrapped. Number 1 was donated to the Zeehan School of Mines now (West Coast Pioneers Museum), Number 2 was donated to the Tasmanian Transport Museum Society in Hobart, Number 3 remained in Queenstown for preservation, and Number 5 was donated to the Australian Railway Historical Society, and spent many years at the Menzies Creek Steam Museum, near Melbourne, Victoria

Numbers 1, 3 and 5 have been restored to working order, as part of the restoration of the Queenstown to Strahan railway.

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