Over the last couple of years Queensland Railways have been slowly abandoning a number of their cross-country branchlines. In a world where road transport costs are increasing the wisdom of abandoning those branchlines is questionable and in 50 years time the Government of the day could be regretting the short-sightedness of their predecessors.
Here, looming out of the winter fog that was around a couple of weeks ago is Biggenden station located on one of those recently abandoned branchlines. There are some quite large (in Queensland terms) towns along the same line as Biggenden and you have to wonder the difficulties those towns will face without a rail link to the seaboard.
Queensland is a vast state and as late 1960 the railways provided the only all-weather route to many towns. Scattered along the railway lines between the major towns were many small communities that relied almost entirely on the railway for all their transport requirements … even the transport of injured people to the nearest hospital.
That’s an existence that many of us would find it hard to comprehend for we have all-weather roads and ambulances to rush us to hospital if we’re injured. But before those all-weather roads and fast ambulance services all they had were the railways … and the railway ambulances.
The driver’s “cab” of one Queensland Railway ambulance
It’s possible that no two ambulances were the same and this one was built by Norman Parker in the early 1940s. It’s powered by a V Twin J.A.P.otore cycle engine and gearbox. It originally served the Dimbulah and Mt. Mulligan mining districts before being transfered to Gayndah in 1960.
It was presented to the Gayndah Historical Society in 1981 by the Gayndah Q.A.T.B. and it was restored by the Society in 1986 with the help of a Queensland Museum Grant. The rail ambulance is presently on display at the Gayndah Museum along with many other historical vehicles.
The interior of the driver’s “cab” - definitely spartan by today’s standards
The interior of the Gayndah rail ambulance
The 2 cylinder motor cycle engine that powers the rail ambulance
Unfortunately space at the Museum is rather limited the the area where the rail ambulance is displayed is quite cramped and it’s hard to get some decent photos of the front of the vehicle.
Museum staff tell me that the engine is still in working order and they could take it out, put it on the tracks and it run as well as the day it came to Gayndah.
Here’s a link for some better photos and some history of this interesting vehicle.
Working on a railway is a very dangerous affair and there are always safety procedures in place to ensure that railway workers are protected as much as possible from those dangers. What you’re about to see here would never be allowed in most countries but in some poorer countries workers are prepared to take risks just to keep their jobs.
On this electrified mine railway the loco’s pantograph is hand-held
It’s sad to note that Cyril Freezer passed away yesterday. Although many thousands of model railway enthusiasts - including me - never met Cyril personally he was very well known to us and had a great influence on us.
Cyril was the editor of Railway Modeller for many years and the magazine contained much of his work. He was a prolific layout designer and he will be sadly missed.
Now here is an interesting idea that I came across at the Brisbane train show earlier this month … and it was especially interesting for me because I seriously dislike building benchwork.
Modular Train Tables will provide you with a kit to build the benchwork for your layout and then ship it to you in kit form. It seems that all the necessary fittings are supplied and all you have to do is assemble it … all the cutting has been done for you.
Follow the link to the website and you can place your order online.
Toni and I drove down to Brisbane yesterday to visit the 2009 Brisbane Model Railway Exhibition. We haven’t been to an exhibition in at least eight years so it was interesting to see where the hobby has gone in that time.
There were definitely some very interesting exhibits and the trade stalls were worth visiting too. I’ve posted some of the photos I took at the exhibition here. As you will see most of those are of narrow gauge displays featuring everything from HOn2.5 right through to some very large-scale models.
Here’s one photo you won’t find over there - it’s the O-Aust Kits 32 class - I rate it about a 10 on the drool-worth scale
If you’re into DCC control for your model railroad … which I’m not … yeah I know, Luddites have nothing on me … you should head over to the website of a new DCC supplier here in Australia.
RailCon Model Railway Control make their own gear and they have some very interesting modules for sale including 2 and three aspect signal controls. Follow the link and you’ll see all they have to offer.
As I’ve said before, I’m fascinated by unusual shunting locomotives, small steam engines and anything that’s just a little bit quirky. So is it any wonder that this caught my eye.
If you like to see interesting branchline trains and odd little roadside tramways then you’ll definitely like this.
Once again, work has got in the way of my hobby and Toni and I have been been working long hours every day for weeks but I’m grabbing 5 minutes now just to point you in the direction of a new website that’s out there and definitely worth going back to.
Scott Perry who is a very active member of the On30 Conspiracy list has started work on a new layout and his new website will take you through it’s construction. Scott has some very innovative ideas on layout design and even now … while he’s still in the baseboard construction period … there’s plenty to think about.
Back on February 21 I took a run over to Maryborough to have a look at what was out in the open at the EDI/Walkers plant and there I found 8306.
Pacific National will be moving into the Queensland coal transport market … perhaps as soon as the last quarter of this year … and they’re having two classes of electric locomotives built to handle that traffic. Once class is being built in Germany and the 83 class is being built at the EDI plant in Maryborough - the same place that built the PN class diesels for Pacific National.
This photo was taken from a public street … that’s where most of the EDI products receive their finishing touches.
From the EDI plant I headed over to Maryborough West and found two more EDI/Walkers products in the yard there.
The loco nearest the camera is 3532 a rebuild of one of the original classes of electric loco that QR had built when they introduced electrification to the north coast line. 3532 was waiting to head north where it will spend its working life hauling coal trains.
Behind the 35 class is Pacific National’s 8304 and off to the left is a the Maryborough West shunter - a 1720 class that was so decrepit looking that you couldn’t read it’s number from either side or from either end.
