Newsreel footage of Rottnest Island military installations.
Opening scenes show Minister for Defence, Geoffrey Street, visiting Rottnest Island on 22 July, 1939. The visiting party is riding in an H wagon towed by a Fordson-powered Malcolm Moore locomotive from Thompson Bay Jetty to the Oliver Hill gun emplacements. The following scenes show the abandoned installations on the island on 23 Feburary, 1964.
The railway was constructed in 1935 to transport construction materials and supplies from the military jetty at Kingston up to the 9.2" guns at the Oliver Hill Battery and the smaller 6" guns at Bickley Point on Rottnest Island. The line is 3'6" gauge and was abandoned by around 1958.
Four locomotives were originally used by the military on the island; a Tomlinson & Co petrol-driven road vehicle converted to run on rails (known as "Crayfish"), two Fordson tractor engines on Malcolm Moore underframes (one known as "Crab"), and a motor-driven gangers trolley (dubbed "Groper").
In the early 90s a team of Westrail volunteers re-laid the old railway to Oliver Hill. Two ex-WAGR shunting tractors (ST1 and ST2) were overhauled in 1995 for use on the island and two basic passenger cars were constructed on ex-WAGR vacuum braked wagon underframes. The service operated until 2003 when the STs were superseded by a Cummins-powered railcar built by Gemco which continues to operate today.
Video has no sound.
Video copyright: TVW Channel 7 via the State Library of Western Australia. Shared for educational and research purposes.
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5 сен 2024
