Plane Creek Mill No.15C ‘Coronation / Billy’

Remains stored at Woodhouselee

The remains of Plane Creek Central Mill Co. Ltd's 0-6-0WT locomotive No.15C ‘Coronation / Billy’ stored at Woodhouselee, NSW.

This photograph is dated 16th May 2016 and was kindly contributed by Joel Turner.

Builder	J. A. Maffei A. G. Munich, Germany
Builder’s Number & Year	3677 of 1911
Wheel Arrangement	0-6-0WT

This 0-6-0WT locomotive operated at the Plane Creek Mill where it was numbered 15C and apparently also went by the names ‘Coronation’ and ‘Billy’. It was one of two locomotives supplied by Munich builder J. A. Maffei to Plane Creek Mill, the sister locomotive being b/n 3777 of 1912 and known as ‘Polly’. Plane Creek Mill is located at Sarina, south of Mackay, and started operations in 1896. Today it is operated by Wilmar and interestingly, now also produces Bioethanol as a sustainable fuel.

J. A. Maffei is a well-known loco builder in Germany but, to my knowledge, these two units for Plane Creek Mill were the only Maffei locomotives supplied to Australia, and No.15C ‘Coronation / Billy’ is certainly the only example surviving in this country. J. A. Maffei went into bankruptcy in 1930 but combined in 1931 with another well-known Munich based loco builder, Krauss, to form Krauss-Maffei, with later products including the Leopard tanks formerly used by the Australian Army.

It seems the two Maffei locomotives were in use at Plane Creek Mill until 1969. I am not aware of the circumstances of their disposal but is seems that ‘Polly’ was scrapped while No.15C ‘Coronation / Billy’ may have been dismantled. Its remains were obtained for preservation by a Sydney enthusiast / collector in 1973 and taken to the Marsden Museum of Historic Engines, Goulburn, NSW prior to the dispersal of railway exhibits from that museum. I understand the remains later resided at a private site in the Sydney suburb of Gymea, in company with Krauss 2589, Krauss 6611 & Krauss 6927. More recently it seems the owner and Krauss locomotive remains have moved to a rural property at Woodhouselee, near Crookwell, NSW.

Glen Hall provides further information for this loco and its sister Polly b/n 3777 of 1912 on his informative Mackay History site.

My thanks to Joel Turner for providing updated information and photographs for this locomotive. As per the photos on this page, the chassis seems surprisingly complete, but I have no knowledge of the boiler, side tanks and cab etc – further information in this regard is welcome.

(The webmaster has childhood memories of the large collection of 2’-gauge locos stored at the Marsden Museum of Historic Engines in the early 1970’s, and I would greatly appreciate photos of those machines to add to this website.)

A second view of the chassis of Plane Creek Central Mill's 0-6-0WT locomotive No.15C stored at Woodhouselee, NSW.

The chassis is surprisingly complete, but I don’t know if anything remains of the boiler, side tanks or cab etc.

This photograph is dated 16th May 2016 and was kindly contributed by Joel Turner.

References

a	'Light Railways', Number 69, July 1980. Published by Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. Article pp10-22 ‘Marsden Museum of Historic Engines - Goulburn Steam Museum’ compiled by K. McCarthy.
b	Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. website, 'Preserved Australian Sugar Cane Locomotives' list by John Browning: (www.lrrsa.org.au/LRR_SGRc.htm) Retrieved 1 September 2021.
c	Mackay History website www.makckayhistory.org, Retrieved 3 September 2021.
d	Wikipedia page for J. A. Maffei / Krauss-Maffei, retrieved 31 August 2021.

Page updated: 8 September 2021

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