The Illawarra Light Railway ; A Day Out To Celebrate 50 Years Of Operation

Well the weather put on a spectacular day today, especially down the South Coast in Albion Park.

The Illawarra Light Railway had an open day and ran a locomotive hauling three carriages of various vintage around their circle of track. This was to celebrate their 50th year of operation.

It is just a pity that they receive very little Government funding as they are regarded as a museum and not a historical society... Go figure.

For a volunteer run organisation, they do a great job of restoring older narrow gauge railway locomotives and rolling stock, even old narrow gauge tram cars ! Everything they run is 2' gauge.
Not only that, they run their train around their loop of track and you can ride it as many times as you like after paying the admission fee. For both my son and I, it cost us a sum of $25.00 to enter. Jack and I even had a tour of their engine shed as it is not normally open to public, but we showed a keen interest so we were allowed in. Got to thank them for that too.
There is also a smaller 5" gauge railway there that the kids love to ride. This being hauled by diesel power. Would have been nice to see some 5" live steam !

I was speaking with one of the operating staff and mentioned how I would have liked to ride in the cab of their 0-4-0 saddle tank and make a video, unfortunately I didn't have long sleeves... Better luck next time.

Here is a raft of photos of various locomotives and rolling stock they have in their collection...

^ Deisel locomotive 'Shellharbour' (Tully) #8 0-6-0DH built by John Fowler & Co. Leeds, England.

^ ^Ex CSR (Consolidated Sugar Refinnery) Condong Mill #6, now named 'Condong', restored at ILRM in Jan 2012.

^ Diesel locomotive 'Ivanhoe' 4wDH built by Commonwealth Engineering Qld in 1960.

^ Diesel locomotive 'Seymour' 0-6-0DM built by Baguley Ltd, Burton-on-Trent UK in 1952 for Drewry Car Co.

^ Diesel locomotive 'The Rustons' 4 wheel diesel mechanical built by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd, Lincoln, England in 1951.

^ Steam locomotive 'Burra' 0-4-0 ST built by Hawthorn Leslie, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1923.

^ Diesel locomotive 'Hudson-Hunslet', 4 wheel diesel mechanical built by the Hunslet Engine Company Ltd, Leeds UK for Robert Hudson Ltd in 1953.

Above and below ; Steam locomotive 'Kiama', 0-4-0ST (1'11 1/2") built by Davenport Locomotive Co. in Davenport, Iowa, USA in 1917.

^ Petrol/Kerosene Locomotive 'Fordson' 4wPM built by Malcolm Moore, Melbourne, around 1939.

A few pieces of rolling stock that I did not have too much information about...

These following images were taken from the train whilst riding. The car we were in is an old tram car, which I believe is Passenger Car #95, bogie end loading saloon built by Clyde Engineering Co. in Granville, Sydney in 1899.

This one from the rear of the car...

The former Otford Signal Box is now at home at the Illawarra Light Railway...

I have posted a live video on our facebook page here :

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1270164850474321

&

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=488773976087636

All in all, it wasn't a bad couple of hours out in the beautiful sunshine. Not the biggest of attractions, but worth a couple of hours wandering around and riding trains.

Cheers, Gary.