It was full steam ahead at the Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre (Roundhouse) on Monday morning when Tank Locomotive 1076 was towed out on the turntable at the centre.
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Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre secretary Terence Carpenter said the 1076 was built in 1884 by the Vulcan Foundry in Lancashire, England and had been painstakingly restored in Goulburn over the past decade.
Mr Carpernter said the loco was originally used on the NSW suburban network.
“They found out that when it had six carriages full of passengers on it – it could not pull them up a hill, so it was used from then on for shunting work at Port Kembla and also here in Goulburn,” he said.
“It then went to the Trainworks at Thirlmere and we got it back here in 2008. It it was a real ‘rust-bucket’ at that stage.”
He said the loco had passed a boiler inspection recently.
“The next stage is to have it certified by a competent steam engine expert to say it can be used within the centre here. If it gets the go ahead it can then travel under its own steam from the departure gate to the arrival gate at the Roundhouse,” he said.
Fellow rail enthusiast John Proctor said the loco was used in Goulburn from 1953 and was re-located to Port Kembla in 1963.
“It was used as our local shed shunter at the loco depot,” Mr Protcor said.
“It was allocated to Goulburn Loco Depot for the best part of 10 years and it has been a 30-year effort to initially get this loco back to Goulburn and then to restore it.”
The restoration work has been undertaken by a team of volunteers.
The Rail Heritage Centre will be holding an Open Day on August 5. More on this story in a later edition.
Meanwhile, another significant loco restoration is being undertaken in Goulburn.
Two privately owned 610mm gauge steam locos are being restored by K and H Ainsworth Engineering.
Ken Ainsworth confirmed the deliver of the locos to his workshop on July 5 and said one of them would have its boiler replaced.
“This came in as a job for us and we are fixing a boiler,” Mr Ainsworth said.
Mr Ainsworth said the restoration process of the iconic 3801 loco was on track.
Locomotive 3801 was built in 1943 by Clyde Engineering and has been in preservation since its retirement from the NSW Railways in 1962. The locomotive was withdrawn from heritage service in 2007. It required major boiler repairs and hydraulic and hand riveting is required to connect new flanged plates to the existing boiler.
