The Magnet Tramway, often found referred to as the Magnet Tram, was a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge railway in north west
Tasmania.It ran between Magnet Junction on the
Guildford to
Mount Bischoff railway line, and the Magnet mine.[1][2][3][4]
History
The track was being constructed in 1901.[5][6][7][8] The construction was led by B.F. Waller, who started to work as managing director and responsible engineer in January 1901. Previously, the route had been roughly surveyed by the former mine manager T.H. Jones. Although the destination was only 6.5 km (4 miles) from the interchange in
Waratah, the route had a total of 194 bends and a length of 16 km (10 miles) due to the difference in altitude of 183 m (600 feet). The climb for the first 13 km (8 miles) was 1.9‰ (100 feet per mile) and then it was then less steep. The light rail profiles weighing 15 kg/m (30 lb per yard) were laid on 22,000 sleepers, most of which were made of
Huon Pine.[9]
^Martin, Stephen (1982), The Magnet tramway, Tasmania (1st ed.), APW Productions,
ISBN978-0-949732-19-4
^Chapter 11 Mt.Bischoff, Magnet and Balfour Tramways, pp.172 - 188, Magnet 180-1834 Rae, Lou (1984), A history of railways and tramways on Tasmania's West Coast (2nd ed.), L. Rae,
ISBN978-0-9592098-0-8
^Page 5 - photo of Mallet in steam Anchen, Nick; Anchen, Nick (2014), Railways of Tasmania's wild west (First ed.), Ferntree Gully, Victoria Sierra Publishing,
ISBN978-0-9807640-7-9