Help Bring Chiverton Home to South Australia

Chiverton is a '0-6-2' cane train, built in South Australia by Perry Engineering, Adelaide in 1938. It toiled throughout its working life in the cane fields of Queensland, hauling sugar cane and freight around the Kalamia Sugar Mill at Ayr, about an hour South East of Townsville, before being retired to a children's playground. The second of a production run of some 18 or so narrow gauge 'Cane Locomotives', Chiverton faithfully served the children of Ayr as a playground feature for the next 17 years before passing to a rail enthusiast who has stopped the decay and preserved the locomotive as a static display for a future generation to bring back to life.

That future generation is now here! with your help we can bring this important piece of South Australian railway history back to its birth place and, with some work, relight the fire and breathe life back into it for future generations to admire and interact with as a living, breathing Steam Engine. The task is large but not insurmountable for the team who have taken this on. With a proud history of restoring, maintaining and operating a number of steam powered engines, from massive traction engines, steam rollers to one of the smallest full sized steam locomotives in the world, the new keepers of Chiverton are not only one of the most qualified groups to bring it back to life but, as part of the rejuvenation of the Cobdogla Steam Museum, the new loco will be central to the rebirth of the museum and bring back a sense of pride and well being to a number of families within the local Riverland Communities.

This is your opportunity to be part of that program!

This is the first of what will be a range of opportunities to be part of the restoration of this diminutive giant of a locomotive and will assist the Cobdogla Steam Friends Society to finalise the purchase and transport back to the workshops in Loveday, South Australia. Future fund raising rounds will let donors become directly involved with breathing new life into the engine and help see it in steam again, this time pulling carriages full of smiling faces!

Current fundraising target - $15000.

The society has already raised some $15,000 in the first 5 days of this campaign but we need another $15,000 to finalise the purchase and transport it from Junee, NSW ,back to the workshop in Loveday, South Australia.

Become a small part of preserving our history today. Every little bit counts! And look out for future opportunities to help us bring Chiverton back onto the rails so it can wend its way through the picturesque grape vines, orchards and floodplains of the Riverland district and bring joy to the young and the young at heart for many more years!