Lake Macquarie Light Rail is located near the township of Toronto on the western shores of Lake Macquarie, 20 km south of Newcastle in the State of New South Wales, Australia.

The Railway, built to 2 foot gauge (610 mm), is privately owned but operated by a group of friends who meet regularly.

The basic objectives were to establish and operate a railway based on the best possible restoration and operational practices and standards.

The track makes the best use of the 11 acres of undulating rural land available and provides a basic but very interesting circuit traversing a creek in two places and presenting grades of 1:27. A figure eight loop allows for reverse running with 2 stations, Onslow and Nomad servicing separate entrances to the property.

The project was started in 2002 and to date four locomotives are operational on the railway: two petrol shunting locomotives (No.4 'Twiggy' and 'Malcolm') and two steam locomotives - a Perry 0-6-2T (North Eton No.7) and a Baldwin 0-4-2T (Fairymead No.1).

The Railway also hosts: two other Perry steam locomotives - an 0-6-2T (North Eton No.6) undergoing a full restoration and, 0-4-2T (Mourilyan No.7) which requires minor work to become operational once more, together with; 0-4-0T Krauss steam loco ('Jack') which, under lease from its owners, is undergoing a full operational restoration.

Various items of rolling stock including a ballast/plough wagon, work wagons, a passenger carriage, a dining carriage and a fettler's quadricycle have been built on site.

Also during this time two major bridges, all trackwork, a locomotive shed including a service pit, a carriage shed, six sets of points and a water tank with column have been completed.

Automatic signalling has been installed for clockwise operations and further signalling is planned. Please browse through this site and enjoy our railway.

As future projects are completed we will add them to the site.

Visits can been organised by sending an e-mail message via the Contact the Railway button at right, below.