Mt. Lyell Mining & Railway Company 0-4-2RT No. 2 Abt
Strahan, Tasmania, Australia 		Location: West Coast Wilderness Railway
Status: Operational
Posted: Nov 26, 2025 @ 17:11:49 by shaun gàirnealair
this locomotive has returned to operational status
Posted: Nov 6, 2019 @ 10:11:26 by Russell Newman
The former Mt. Lyell Mining & Railway Company 0-4-2RT No. 2 has been purchased by the West Coast Wilderness Railway for which it was built to work on and has relocated there for restoration to run again.
Posted: Jul 27, 2017 @ 13:07:09 by Robin R Beck
Mt. Lyell Mining & Railway Co. Abt No 2 spent its working life on the Queenstown to Strahan railway line. The line closed 1963 and the railway company donated No 2 to the Tasmanian Transport Museum at Glenorchy, Hobart. No 2 is unique as being in original condition. It's working sisters have all been altered.

Mt. Lyell Mining & Railway Co. ran a 42 inch gauge railway from their smelters at Queenstown through a rain forest to the Regatta Point at the port of Strahan. Also there was a connection to the Tasmanian Government Railway at Strahan. Because of the steep gradients encountered in the forest an Abt rack system was used. The railway was 25 miles long, 4.5 miles being rack. The company over time had 5 rack locomotives plus 7 normal steam locomotives which worked the level Queenstown operations.

All 5 rack locos were converted from coal to oil fired. I cannot find any dates for the conversion. The railway ran until 1963. A road was built in 1932 to Hobart ending the isolation of the town. In 1963 the building of the Murchison Highway allowed copper concentrates to be road transported to a siding on the Zeehan to Burnie railway line. Thus making the rack railway redundant.