Newcastle Flyer full steam ahead in revisiting past glories

Like an echo of an era past, the 3801 Newcastle Flyer steam engine stands ready to hit the rails again at the NSW Rail Transport Museum.

David Ross

Transport Heritage NSW workshop manager Ben Elliot with the Australian-built 3801 Newcastle Flyer steam engine on Saturday. Picture: Dylan Coker

2 min read

5:26PMJuly 26, 2020.

Updated 11:27PMJuly 26, 2020

Like an echo of an era past, the 3801 Newcastle Flyer steam engine stands ready to hit the rails again at the NSW Rail Transport Museum as a testament to what Australian manufacturing once was and could be again.

Built in 1943, at the height of World War II, when Australia was forced to fend for itself in

Transport Heritage NSW Heritage fleet maintenance worker Bernie McTackett with Australian built Locomotive 3801 at the NSW Rail Museum in Thirlmere. Picture: Dylan Coker

the face of a potential Japanese invasion, the steam engine has been restored in the time of COVID-19 when authorities are again turning to sovereign manufacturing as the virus hits international supply chains.

The 3801 was the first of the last great steam engines built for the NSW rail fleet before diesel superseded it in the 1960s. It was to have again been set into service as a reminder of a past era of rail travel but for now the pandemic has put paid to plans for an open day at Sydney’s Central Station.

Transport Heritage NSW volunteers who restored the 3801 steam train. Supplied: Transport Heritage NSW

At the time it was built, it was cutting edge: the 3801 once set the record for the fastest speed from Sydney to Newcastle.

The Morrison government has invoked the same need for strategic sovereign manufacturing as the nation emerges from the pandemic. “During COVID-19, we’ve seen the great strength of Australian manufacturers lies in drawing on their skills and capability, as well as embracing new technologies,” Industry Minister Karen Andrews said.

“I am looking at issues of sovereignty, recovery and resilience and what that means for current and future industry policy.

“This includes areas where Australian manufacturing has competitive or comparative advantage, including capabilities to develop hi-tech, high-value-added products and services for the global marketplace.”

Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre managing director Jens Goennemann said Australia had demonstrated it was world-leading in production of commodities, energy and gas, pharmaceuticals, medtech and biotech, food and agricultural products, and aerospace and defence technologies.

Workers restore the 3801 steam train. Supplied: Transport Heritage NSW

“We need to focus on higher paying, more resilient jobs in manufacturing of the future, not of the past, not assembling steam engines,” he said. “We need to focus on sectors in which we are very good in the country and get really good at it.”

Transport Heritage NSW Rail workshop manager Ben Elliot said the 3801 was the only 38-class steam engine from its fleet still operational. Churning through 151 gallons of water each mile and one tonne of coal a kilometre, the 3801 could hold 36,000 litres.

The steam engine ran the rails between 1943 and 1965, before being condemned in 1967.

Its entire integral steel frame is a single cast piece of metal weighing almost 40 tonnes and still boasts its original boiler.

It returned to service briefly for the Western Endeavour, which ran from Sydney to Perth in 1970.

In 1974, the engine starred in the 21-minute film A Steam Train Passes, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for the best documentary and the Kodak Award for Cinematography.

Restoration of the 3801 steam train. Picture: Transport Heritage NSW

It is a celebrity to some rail enthusiasts, having run the rails of the continent alongside its better known stablemate The Flying Scotsman, which was brought to Australia to commemorate the bicentenary in 1988.

The train returned to the NSW Rail Museum in 2006, with its latest overhaul beginning in 2009. It took the better part of 10 years and the know-how of almost 30 volunteers and paid staff.

Transport Heritage NSW chief executive Andrew Moritz said it was encouraging that the skills to rebuild an 80-year-old steam engine remained in Australia.