What happened to Bendigo steam tram motors?

[Mal Rowe]

The attached pic was shared on the Light Railways of Australia facebook
page by noted LR historian John Thompson.

It shows one of the former steam tram motors from Bendigo at the Cave
Hill tramway out of Lilydale VIC.

Cave Hill was (and still is) the location of a limestone quarry and the
standard gauge tramway brought in firewood for processing the lime.

For those whose tram interest is broader than passenger carrying trams,
see: https://media.lrrsa.org.au/tepo111/Light_Railways_111.pdf

Mal Rowe whose interest is broader

[pn1]

The Cave Hill quarry closed about 10 years ago (2015?) and is being transformed into a housing estate called “Kinley”.

Paul

> On 29 May 2026, at 14:34, Mal Rowe <mal....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The attached pic was shared on the Light Railways of Australia facebook page by noted LR historian John Thompson.

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> <Bendigo steam motor Cave Hill.jpg>

[Andrew Cook]

Interesting photo Mal,

The disposal of the former Bendigo tramways steam motors is complex. There are several versions of what happened to them after disposal from Bendigo. One that is correct, is the one that was sold to David Mitchell at Lilydale in 1907. Here's a history of it and a small article (re-comped) in the Bendigo Advertiser, which was POORLY printed (the press operator seems to have not changed the packing on the cylinder for months, or been really tight on ink usage), which states that the motor was transported (dragged?) from the Mollison Street depot to the Bendigo rail yards by traction engine. According to most records it was Pheonix built motor No. 7.

Cheers,

Andrew Cook, who has seen better print quality on a proof press!!!!!!! 

---

From: tramsdo...@googlegroups.com <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mal Rowe <mal....@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, 29 May 2026 2:33 PM
To: TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>; Blogspot <mal.row...@blogger.com>
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] What happened to Bendigo steam tram motors?