Emu Bay Railway

The Emu Bay Railway was a Tasmanian railway company that operated from 1897 to 1998, linking the port of Burnie on Tasmania's north coast with government rail lines at Zeehan and, through connections, the Mount Lyell railway serving Queenstown on the west coast. Its origins trace to an 1878 horse drawn tramway built to serve the Mount Bischoff tin mines, which was converted to a 1,067 millimetre gauge steam railway in 1887 and substantially expanded by 1900. Headquartered in Melbourne, the company carried minerals, general freight and passengers across Tasmania's rugged west coast for a century. It ceased independent operation in 1998, when Pasminco sold it to the Australian Transport Network, which folded its routes into the Tasrail network. Several of its locomotives survive today with heritage railway operators in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.