History of the Kerrisdale Mountain Railway & Museum Inc.
In the 1950s’ STEAM power was still ‘King” on the railways, and every boy dreamed of becoming an engine driver, such was the allure of the steam locomotive.
Time passed by and so did the steam locomotive, the little boy of the 1950s’ would not be able to get a job as an engine driver of a steam locomotive, so time and reality had taken their toll!
In the 1970s’ ‘The Invincible Steam Tractor No 1’ was built closely followed by No. 2, 3 and 3A, this exercised ingenuity of the maker however, the dream to build a steam locomotive, was always there.
In 1978 the property that the KMR is now built on was purchased by Andrew and Jennifer Forbes, with the view to building the said railway and locomotive, time marched on and in 1987 a new shed was built to house the locomotive ‘of dreams’.
“The Invincible Steam Tractor’ had become derelict, and so had to be fully re-built in its’ 5th incarnation as No. 3B, then attention could be given to the steam locomotive!
In 1990 a boiler and certain engine components were purchased, whilst work was done on a set of axles and wheels. Now that we had the makings of a steam locomotive, thoughts turned to the actual railway that it was to run on. Lots of research went into this form of civil engineering that was quite foreign to the President and Secretary of the new railway then grandly entitled the ‘Kerrisdale Mountain Railway’.
Here it is necessary to point out that the ‘mountain’ part of the name is significant in as much that this refers to the type of railway i.e. steeply graded and tightly curved, so as to gain the maximum height in the shortest distance.
Another feature of mountain type railways is the zig-zag formation to assist in gaining height quickly, so we have incorporated this feature.
At this stage we had a locomotive shed with tracks set into the floor and no locomotive, to build the railway we would need a survey, heavy earthmoving equipment, ballast, sleepers and rail. Some means to carry tools, rail, sleepers, and men was needed.
A short length of line 33m) was excavated across ‘bottom points’ forecourt to the erecting shop.
In the erecting shop a fettlers trolley and ballast truck were designed and constructed, a lot of track was laid up to ‘ ‘Strath View’, ‘Middle Station’. At this point feelers were sent out for a larger diesel locomotive that could be used to speed things up, a Malcolm Moore locomotive was procured, after a year of re-building this locomotive was available for duty. Another vintage diesel locomotive was also secured at this stage to augment the locomotive roster, the Ruston and Hornsby locomotive that was purchased and fully re-built and is now part of the fleet.
As the railway proceeded up the hillside thoughts, promoted by the Murrindindi Shire Tourism department, turned to opening the railway to the public. To expand from a hobby to public usage required proper rolling stock, an open toast rack carriage was erected in the works, and later two derelict coaches were procured from the St Helena Island Tramway in Moreton Bay, Queensland. These carriages were completely stripped, re-designed to fit our loading gauge and fitted with brakes and rubber suspension, after completion, these units, which are semi open, were put on the roster of rolling stock available for service.
The early locomotive shed had now become over crowded, so a service and lubritorium second road shed was designed and built along with a separate ‘crib room’ for the staff, these two buildings were quickly followed by a kiosk and ‘Summit Station’. Having completed the building of the Railway, attention was given to making the ‘Bottom Points’ precinct into an interactive display of live steam engines and associated equipment, doing what they were designed to do a century ago.
We look forward to your visit and sharing of our dream on the ‘Kerrisdale Mountain Railway & Museum Inc.’
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