from the library: 'Locomotive Enginemen of Tasmania'

This attractively produced book appeared late last year and provides a scenic tour of the railways of this small Australian island state in the second half of the 20th century. The four railway operators in the 20th century were the Tasmanian Government Railways (five enginemen's accounts in this book), the Emu Bay Railway (3), the Mount Lyell Railway (1) and the North Lyell Railway which closed in 1929 (0).  Since 2009, rail freight operations in Tasmania have been provided by the government-owned TasRail. Passenger trains ceased in the 1970s.

Like NZ, the Tasmanian terrain has plenty of rugged areas and for NZ enthusiasts, the distance between the rails is right :-)  The author has managed to assemble an impressively appealing collection of colour photos of trains in action in all environments, including a lot of steam, accompanied by some items of memorabilia.  The texts provide descriptions of the challenges and peculiarities of the railway operations.

For those wanting an easily digestible survey of railways in 'Tasy' in recent decades, this book does the job. 184 pages in landscape format, hardcovered.