Whyalla Foreshore Steam Train Found!

Road Trip Day 12: 3rd June 2007

Whist visiting the Mt Laura Homestead Museum, Rose and I spotted this Steam Locomotive - the only one in the museum - and thought just maybe it was the one I remember playing on at the foreshore as a child.

On closer inspection of the information board we were amazed to learn that it is in fact the very same steam engine! I was even more surprised to learn that this locomotive is more than 100 years old (I bet it didn't get a certificate from the Queen).

Bought new by BHP in 1891 it was used to cart ore along the tramway between Iron Knob and Whyalla. It has a fairly busy history but the key dates for me are that it was placed on the Whyalla foreshore in 1962 where it remained until 1983 when it was moved to the museum. Back then it was all painted black rather than green as you see in the photo. In fact it was the green paint that made me think it couldn't be the same train at first.

Not being able to find any trace of where this train stood on the foreshore during my current visit to Whyalla made me half wonder if I was just imagining a train there based on some other memory. Having found my child hood 'play equipment' (Rose and I used to climb all over this train) it's kind of good to know it now has a good home. It didn't rust away and get sold for scrap.

Whether we like it or not connecting and catching up with fond memories of the past has something of a comforting feeling. It's kind of like catching up with friends you haven't seen in a long time and learning that they're doing okay.

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TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

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