The West Coaster was a passenger train operated by the Emu Bay Railway between Burnie and Rosebery from October 1960 until January 1964.
[1][2][3][4] Enquiries about transporting road vehicles led to the Emu Bay Railway deciding to replace its railmotor service with a locomotive hauled service with flat wagons to carry road vehicles.
[5] The service departed Burnie in the morning, stopping at Guildford to load the road vehicles before continuing to Rosebery returning north in the afternoon.
With the opening of the Murchison Highway in December 1963, the West Coaster last ran on 2 January 1964.
[2][3][7] To operate the service, two Dübs & Company built 4-8-0 steam locomotives were restored to service and named Murchison and Heemskirk and, along with three former Tasmanian Government Railways carriages, repainted in the company’s two-tone blue livery.