The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet began life in the workshops of John Fowler & Co in 1910. Of course, it wasn’t known as the Green Hornet then, simply – No. 12271 of 1910.¹ 

John Fowler & Co, based in Leeds, England, was a manufacturer of steam driven agricultural machinery before expanding into the production of steam locomotives. It concentrated on the narrow-gauge market and found a niche supplying engines, track and wagons to sugarcane plantations.²

No. 12271 was put to work at the Macknade Sugar Mill located near Ingham in Northern Queensland where it was given the number eight on the roster.³

Following its retirement from the mill, the engine remained at the nearby town of Lucinda before being acquired as part of the rolling stock for the heritage railway attraction at Timbertown, a theme park at Wauchope on the NSW Mid North Coast, set up in the 1970s to showcase local history.⁴ It remained there until its sale in 1999 when it was moved to Taree and put on display in the grounds of the Railway Lodge Motel (formerly the site of Taree Railway Barracks).⁵

Happily, this rare survivor has been given a new lease of life with its return to Timbertown for restoration in March 2022.⁶

Author: Penny Teerman