The West Coast Wilderness Railway

The West Coast Wilderness Railway runs 34.5 kilometres from the copper town of Queenstown to Regatta Point in Strahan, on the harbour, through the rainforest of Tasmania's west coast. The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company built it in the 1890s to take its copper to the sea, on track 1,067 millimetres wide, and until a road arrived in 1932 it was the only way in or out of Queenstown.

Between the two towns the line has to climb over the Rinadeena Saddle, and on the Queenstown side it does it on an Abt rack — a toothed third rail that the engines grip with a cog — at a gradient of 1 in 16. Four of the steam locomotives built for that climb, the first of them assembled here in 1896, haul the trains today.

The railway closed in 1963 and was rebuilt to reopen in 2002. No train runs the whole line at present: steam trains run from Queenstown up the rack to Rinadeena and back, and diesel trains run from Strahan a short way along the harbour and the King River and back. This page covers the whole line, and says which part each train reaches.

Queenstown to Lynchford

The steam trains leave Queenstown station on Driffield Street, on the site of the original yard, and run south down the Queen River valley out of town. After about twenty minutes they stop at Lynchford, where Cornelius Lynch found a gold nugget the size of a cricket ball in 1881 and started a rush. The engine takes water from a timber tank, and there is time to pan for gold, look into the old mine shafts and the Pioneer's Room.

Up the rack to Rinadeena

Beyond Lynchford the line meets the rack. For about seven kilometres, between Lynchford and Dubbil Barril, a toothed rail runs between the running rails, and the locomotive engages it with a pinion to climb gradients of up to 1 in 16 — what the operator calls the steepest steam haul in the southern hemisphere. The climb is through cool temperate rainforest of myrtle, leatherwood, Huon pine and man ferns, which gets more than three metres of rain a year. The steam trains turn at Rinadeena, once a small settlement on the ridge whose families depended on the railway; there is a lookout, a short forest walk and something to eat before the train goes back down the rack.

The King River

From the saddle the line drops to Dubbil Barril, at the foot of the rack, and follows the gorge of the King River down to the harbour. It crosses the river twice. The Iron Bridge at Teepookana, a 110-tonne span bought ready-made in London, was rolled across on rail carts in 1899 and is the only original bridge left on the line. The Quarter Mile Bridge began as a 240-metre timber trestle that floods kept damaging; today it is an ex-army Bailey bridge of about 90 metres. Four men died building the railway. No passenger train runs this middle section at present: the operator's Teepookana trip is suspended for bridge and track works.

Strahan

From Strahan the diesel trains leave Regatta Point station, where the copper was once loaded onto ships, and run along the edge of Macquarie Harbour past Lowana, then up the King River into the rainforest. They pause near the 28-kilometre peg, where water runs through the forest beside the track, and come back.

The trains

The steam engines are the railway's own Abt tank locomotives: No. 1, assembled at Camp Spur in 1896; No. 2, lost overboard at Hells Gates on its way in and hauled back up, in service from 1899 and bought back in 2019; No. 3, the first to return when the line reopened; and No. 5, built by North British in 1938. Drewry diesels, which the company bought in the 1950s, work the Strahan trains, because they are not built for the rack.

No train runs end to end. There are three return journeys: two steam trains from Queenstown and one diesel train from Regatta Point, Strahan. Each leaves and returns to the same station.

From 28 December 2026 to 24 January 2027 there are more trains: the Lynchford Express runs Tuesday to Saturday, and the Cryptic Express runs Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday at both 10:00 and 13:30. In the winter season, from 3 May to 19 September 2027, the Rinadeena train runs on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and the Cryptic Express at 10:00 on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. A few weeks differ around public holidays — the operator's calendar for each journey shows every day.

Rinadeena trains stop at Lynchford and Rinadeena; the Lynchford Express at Lynchford only; the Cryptic Express is fully seated and does not stop to let passengers off.

Getting there

There is no other railway on the west coast. Queenstown is about three hours' drive from Launceston, and Strahan another 30 to 35 minutes; from Hobart it is three and a half to four and a half hours by the Lyell Highway.

Times are from the operator's journey calendars, read on 10 October 2026 — as of October 2026. Check the day on the West Coast Wilderness Railway (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Tickets are sold by the railway, online or by phone, for one journey at a time. Every train has Standard carriages, with booth seats and blankets, and a Premium carriage with tables, a balcony at the back and food included. Standard fares run from A$40 for an adult on the Cryptic Express to A$99 on the Rinadeena steam train, and family tickets cover two adults with one or two children.

The railway advises booking four to six weeks ahead, and further in the summer; seats left over are sold on the day, more often in winter. To ride the rack, take the Rinadeena train — it is the only one that climbs it.

No rail pass covers the West Coast Wilderness Railway. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and Australia is not among the 33 countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies (opens in a new tab). The railway is run by the Tasmanian government and sells its own tickets, one journey at a time.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of covered railway companies (opens in a new tab).

Queenstown and Strahan are about half an hour apart by road, so most visitors stay in one and visit the other. The Gordon River cruise, Hells Gates and the Henty Dunes are reached from Strahan; Nelson Falls is on the road from Hobart.

Strahan has more places to stay and is the base for the Gordon River cruises; Queenstown is where the steam trains leave from. The two hotels below are one at each end of the line.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about The West Coast Wilderness Railway. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.