A Tale of Two Baldwins

Front Beach, Sorrento, 1890s

Between 1884 and 1891 eight small 0-4-0T locomotives of 3ft6in gauge, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in America, were imported into Australia by the agents Newell & Co. of Melbourne. The first two were supplied to the Melbourne Harbour Trust Commissioners for a land reclamation scheme, but it is two of the later locomotives that our tale concerns.

The town of Sorrento in Victoria is situated towards the tip of the Mornington Peninsula and became a popular resort in the 1880s for the well-to-do folk of Melbourne who travelled down the Bay on pleasure steamers. The Sorrento tramway was opened in 1890 to connect the town and steamer landing on Port Philip Bay (Front Beach) to the wilder ocean beach (Back Beach), just over a mile away. To work the new tramway, the company bought Baldwin No.9086 of 1888 which had already been imported by Newell and Co. A second locomotive, Baldwin No.12007 of 1891, was built to order for the tramway and arrived sometime in 1891 or 1892. The two Baldwins hauled four wheel crossbanch tramcars to handle the heavy summer steamer traffic; outside of these times a single four wheel horse tram sufficed for the meagre local requirements.


Waiting at the Back Beach, Sorrento

Unfortunately, the line was never very profitable and road competition increased as the summers went by. When the original 30 year concession came up for renewal in 1920 the company called it a day and sold up. The locos, and possibly rolling stock, were bought by the Loch Valley Timber Co. and hauled by horse teams to their new home in the forests of Gippsland where they hauled timber from the bush sawmills to the Victorian Railways station at Noojee.


Heading into the forest on the Loch Valley Tramway, 1921

Noojee station yard, 1920s. The wagon has tramway-style running gear and is likely the chassis from one of the Sorrento tramcars.

In May 1922 the timber company was visited by a delegation from Britain promoting the upcoming British Empire Exhibition to be held at Wembley in 1924. The delegation included Colonel Archie Christie and his wife Agatha; Agatha Christie had only recently published her first two novels at this time and was not yet the famous author she became in later life. Agatha's letters and photographs from this trip survive and provide us with a fascinating snapshot of one of the ex-Sorrento Baldwins with Agatha Christie sat on the bufferbeam!

Agatha Christie at Noojee, May 1922

Sadly the Baldwins life in the forest was to be short. In February 1926 a devastating bushfire swept through the area and destroyed the company's mills and the timber worker's homes. The two locos had been at the bush end of the line and suffered damage, but as the six miles of tramway to Noojee had been destroyed there was no way to get them out. The timber company did not have the means to rebuild and their licence was cancelled in 1929. The locos were eventually dragged out and cut up around the Second World War, but curiously the firebox of No.9086 was left in Noojee where it remains today. No room on the wagon perhaps?


Firebox of Baldwin 9086/1888 at Noojee, 2002

Sources and Further Reading
http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/sorrento.htm
ARHS Bulletin No.278 December 1960 - The Sorrento Tramway
Light Railways No.065 July 1979 - The Saga of 'Sandfly' and the Lost Tribe
Tram to Sorrento - Arthur Winzenreid, 1984
Agatha Christie - The Grand Tour, Edited by Mathew Prichard, 2013 Amazon
The Age 22nd May 1922 - Gippsland Timbers - British Visitor Impressed
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/19719685869/
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/14860795?selectedversion=NBD28265333
http://www.noojeehistoric.org.au/