Tony Coen was recently awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to Tasmania’s rail network. He has grand ideas for the future of the network.
Even after being awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), Tony Coen is not resting on his laurels. He stepped away from writing a letter to the Tasmanian Government calling for better support for heritage rail in the state, to speak with Rail Express about his recent honour and his work in rail.
Coen received an OAM for services to railway preservation and to pipe band music. He has a long history with the rail industry, starting as a fireman and then progressing to driver with the Tasmanian Government Railways and transitioning to a number of heritage railway organisations.
This includes Association of Tourist and Heritage Rail Australia, Tasmanian Transport Museum, Derwent Valley Railway, Don River Railway and Tasmania Association of Tourist Railways. Coen explained however, that his journey to trains was a little different to the norm.
“My father used to encourage me to take an interest in anything steam powered,” he said.
“As a boy I’d travel from Hobart and Bellerive on the ferries to go to school and they were steam powered. You could find me hanging around the engine room. I used to get to know the engineers over the years.
“I grew up in the twilight age of steam and so I became keen on the railways.”
Coen joined the Tasmanian Government Railway in 1966 as a trainee engineman and then soon qualified as fireman, thus beginning a long relationship between Tasmania’s rail network and himself. He was a fireman for eight and a half years before moving onto the role of driver.
But perhaps Coen’s true service to Tasmania’s rail network was the preservation of the state’s rail assets. He first became involved in the preservation with his good friend Dr David Flecker when the pair put in a tender for a steam locomotive and won.
“We then began the company [Tasmania Locomotive Company], raising funds and began running excursion trains,” Coen said.
“Our depot was in the Cadbury chocolate yard. Cadbury were very good to us. We ran onto the main line from the Cadbury yard.”
Rail preservation in Tasmania
Coen said that rail preservation has struggled in Tasmania when compared to other states and he has been continually advocating for the industry in the state.
“We have managed to get things slightly restored but we are still not running on the main lines,” he said. “The organisation [Tasmanian Association of Tourist Railways] has been working with the state government to get sensible insurance cover.
“The government recently came to the table and supported us with this.”
Coen joined the Tasmanian Transport Museum in 1963 as a schoolboy. He explained that a group of school-aged boys bought one of the last trams from Hobart and that is how his association with heritage rail started.
“They pooled their money and somehow they could afford it,” Coen chuckled.
“I am not sure how they got it from the depot across to the waterfront, but they must have moved it there by a lorry and thus began the organisation.
“I joined soon after that and my mother paid my membership for me.”
That tram entered the Transport Museum and remains there until this day, having been lovingly cared for.
Passion for trains
Coen’s passion began with a love of all things steam, including trains and ships, but it has grown to include all things rail.
“To me it doesn’t matter what is pulling it, seeing trains doing work and pulling things is always impressive,” he said.
“It was steam trains originally but traction engines were also interesting to me.”
Coen’s time working on trains saw him spend most of his time working as a fireman and he said that it was sometimes hard work.
“They [steam trains] weren’t pleasant things at times,” he said.
“Firing engines could be bloody hard work and it was not just shovelling coal, it was working with the clinker in the firebox and helping to build up the steam.
“The thing was though, the machine would talk to you, they were alive. You don’t get that with a diesel train and that is what makes steam engines special.”
It’s obvious steam trains still hold a special place for Coen. He reminisces about the openness of the cabin and the beauty of a hard-working steam train.
“When you were leading with the tender in bad weather you would just have everything flying over the back, bouncing off the coal and straight into you,” he said. “You would be wet and cold on one side with black spots all over you and then your back would be hot and dry thanks to the fire.
“Last week we had trains down here running during the cold snap. It didn’t get over 11 degrees and because it was so cold the steam would settle. It created some beautiful visuals for those in attendance.”
Tasmania’s new stadium
The Australian Football League recently announced that Tasmania would receive the league’s 19th licence. It was also announced a new stadium would be built at Macquarie Point in Hobart. However there’s a building standing in its way and Coen wants to fight for it.
A 109-year-old rail goods shed runs through the centre of the proposed stadium location. The circa-1915 shed has received heritage listing by the Tasmanian Heritage Council.
“It is a heritage-listed building,” Coen said.
“The building is in good shape, which will make it a difficult job to move. It is big and it will take a lot of work to size it up, dismantle it and put it back together.
“They want to move it across to the other side of the stadium and put it at right angles.”
The goods shed is still used to this day. The organisation is proposing to use it as a tourist and heritage railway station and as an intrastate coach terminal for the state’s existing bus network.
“It is big enough to be used as an exhibition space, which it already is used for now,” Coen said.
“Our proposal is to have railway access so we can continue running our heritage trains. We could even see it being turned into a railway station in the future and it might be able to service the stadium if Tasmania’s train network grows.”
The future of the
state’s rail network
Coen’s passion for rail does not just start and end at the heritage rail network but extends to the future of the state’s rail network.
The Tasmanian rail network is a single-line, narrow gauge transport system. The operational network extends from Brighton to Western Junction and to the Port of Bell Bay in the northeast and Burnie in the northwest. Connections are also provided to Fingal in the east and Boyer in the Derwent Valley.
The Melba Line (formerly named the Emu Bay Line) connects the West Coast to Burnie and is currently operated by TasRail.
Currently the state has no passenger network and Coen wants to see this change.
“I think Tasmania needs suburban trains once again,” he said. “I know it takes a long time to travel by train in Tasmania because of the mountains between Hobart and the Midlands, but with modern trains it is far more achievable than it was in the past.
“Commuter trains would be good, but I think intercity should catch interest soon.”
Coen believes the return of the commuter rail network will help further prop up the freight network to take the strain off the state’s road network.
“If we can get freight off our roads and onto rail we can save billions in government spending on our roads,” he said.
“I think it will be important that we do not have a monopoly, so the load is being shared across a range of transport options, but we can better utilise rail networks in the state.”
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