Field Report: In Search of the Newfie Bullet - Part 6

After visiting St. Anthony and the L'Anse Aux Meadows Viking settlement site on the Northern Peninsula. we traveled back across the province, stopping at Grand Falls-Windsor. It was a brief stop as my sole objective was to visit the only other preserved steam locomotive on the island. It was on the grounds of the Mary March museum which is a branch of the wonderful "Rooms Museum" in St. John's.

There was no plaque to interpret the locomotive. However, I did acquire a booklet about Newfoundland locomotives which described it as follows:

"The original #1, a Hawthorne-Leslie 0-6-0 tank engine was used on the AND Company (Botwood) Railway for many years, as #7, after being sold by the Reid Newfoundland Company. It was restored in the 1970's."

Another website has notes about the locomotive which advise that it was built in 1881 with 8" diamter by 12" long cylinders and 27 inch drivers. It was originally Harbour Grace Railway #1, later became Reid-Newfoundland Company #1 and finally became Botwood Railway's #7 in 1918. It was retired around 1940 and eventually hidden by rubble until rediscovered and refurbished for display.

A similar 2 foot gauge Hawthorne-Leslie 0-6-0 Tank Engine (pictured below as well) has been restored to operational condition at a tourist railway south of Sydney, Australia at the Illawarra Light Railway Museum.

Click here to read Part 7 of  this series of News postings.

Posting and pictures by Russ Milland

Click on each image for a closer look!

Illiwara Light Railway's Hawthorne-Leslie