Shay locomotives and tramway images
Images of the Cabarlah Tramway
Munro's first log haulage tramway was built about 2 miles to the east of the Cabarlah railway station. The line was 1/2 mile long with wooden rails on the straight sections and steel rails on the curves. The gauge was 2'6". The loading area was at the bottom of a relatively steep grade and horse teams were used to haul the logs along this line to the top of that grade. There the logs were transferred to bullock hauled wagons and transported to the Argyle Mill at Geham.
Images of the Palmtree Tramway and the Shay loco's - 906 and 2097 - that operated on that line
Munro's main tramway was a 26 km, 2' 6" gauge iron railed network centred on the mill at Palmtree. It operated as a means of transporting logs from the two outlying logging centres - the eastern escarpment (where an Incline Winder operated) and the Bunkers Hill terminus - to the mill. It also provided a means of transporting the sawn timber from the mill to the government rail line at Hampton. The first section of the line - from the Palmtree mill to Hampton - was in operation by 1898 and for the first 7 or so years haulage along the line was horse drawn. In 1905 Shay 906 went into service and it was joined by Shay 2097 in 1908.
Images of Shay components at Palmtree, post the closure of operations
The tramway appears to cease operating in 1936 and early in the following year the A&D Munro company goes into voluntary liquidation. An auction of the Palmtree Mill equipment, including the two Shays, takes place on site on the 31st of March, 1937.
Credit: National Library of Australia
The two Shays fail to sell and for the next 37 years they lie in the open at the old mill site. In the 1974 the then property owners donate the Shay remains to the Illawarra Light Rail Society who arrange for shipment of those remains to Albion Park, NSW.
The Shay components returned to Ravensbourne
As the above images show, the Illawarra Light Railway Museum Society made some progress in the restoration of the Shay relics. Some time later some of the Munro Shay components - the major ones being the Shay 906 boiler and the Shay 2097 tender - were returned to Ravensbourne. The next series of photos show the state of those components immediately prior to their restoration by the Munro Tramway Historical Group.
Bridge Images
There were 5 bridges on the tramway network. From west to east, they were: Clark's Bridge, McQuillan's Bridge, Bridge 1, Bridge 2 and Bridge 3.
Clark's Bridge and McQuillan's Bridge were probably built in 1896 - 1897. Bridges 1, 2 and 3 were built on the section of line that connected the mill to the eastern escarpment area - where the incline winder operated. We know that construction of that section was underway in 1898 so they were probably built in 1898 - 1899.
Weathering, bushfires and reuse of bridge materials took their toll on these structures and almost no "on the ground" evidence of their existence remains.
We have no photographs of Bridge 2.