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Isis Mill No.4 Displayed at Childers |
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Isis Mill No.4 plinthed under a weather roof at the
Childers Historical Complex (town museum) on 9 March 2009.
Here it keeps company with another
ex-Isis Mill loco, No.6 (Fowler b/n 13325 of 1912).
The loco appears to have a domeless
boiler.
This view was kindly contributed by Dave Jones.
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Builder |
John
Fowler & Co, Leeds |
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Builder’s Number & Year |
7607
of 1896 |
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Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-0T |
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The city
of Leeds in West Yorkshire became something of a centre of excellence in the
manufacture of narrow-gauge and industrial steam locomotives, notably due to
builders John
Fowler & Co,
Hunslet
Engine Company Ltd and Hudswell,
Clarke & Co. Ltd. Many John Fowler & Co and similar Leeds-built
machines graced Australian rails, and the website Leeds
Engine Builders provides steam enthusiasts with a fascinating deep dive
into the various Fowler products, both on road and rail. The locomotive
products of John Fowler & Co proved so popular with the Australian sugar
mills that the South Australian enterprise Perry Engineering offered a series
of very similar locomotives, while in Queensland the Bundaberg Foundry offered
Fowler-designed machines under licence, using the trade name Bundaberg Fowler
Corporation. Among the
oldest John Fowler & Co. Ltd. locomotives surviving in Australia is this
machine, which was No.4 on the roster of the Isis Mill, Cordalba. In
preservation this locomotive has moved around with a few owners; I believe it
was at Moama, NSW for some years. In 1983 it moved to Western Sydney, where
it was advertised for sale in April 2004. More
recently this locomotive was acquired for preservation and display at
Childers and moved to the Childers Historical Complex in late 2007 or early
2008. (The Childers Historical Complex is the town and regional museum,
situated on the edge of the Childers commercial district and run by the Isis District Historical
Society.) Isis Mill No.4 is now statically restored and displayed under a
weather roof with three whole-stick sugar cane wagons and in company with another
John Fowler product, Isis Mill No.6.
It appears to have a domeless boiler and makes for an interesting comparison
with stablemate No.6, with No.4 representing a 0-6-0T design while No.6 is a
broadly similar machine but in a tender configuration. The 0-6-0 tender
design became very common on the sugar tramways of both Queensland and Fiji,
but the Hudswell Clarke design seems to have been more prevalent, with many surviving
examples listed on this site. Another
former stablemate also survives, Isis
Mill No.3 at Bauple. |
References
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a |
Light
Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. web site (retrieved 15 September 2026): 'Preserved Australian Sugar Cane
Locomotives' list by John Browning |
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b |
'Light Railways - Australia's Magazine of Industrial &
Narrow Gauge Railways', Number 181,
February 2005. Published by
Light Railway Research Society of Australia Inc. News item on Page 25. |
Page updated: 15 September 2026
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