Model Trains and Things

Sadly just about every state in Australia is littered with abandoned railway lines … most of them built at least 100 years ago and at a time when it was more important to provide a service than return a large profit.

The abandoned line that runs northwest from Townsville to the town of Greenvale is definitely an exception. The line wasn’t built last century … it was built in the early 1970s and opened for traffic in 1974. Although it did have a passenger service that had no hope of returning a profit, the it’s main purpose was to transport nickel from a mine at Greenvale to a smelter near Townsville.

And as soon as the mine ran out of ore in 1993 the line was closed.

Before the track was lifted there was an attempt to have the section through the Hervey Ranges … just out of Townsville … kept open as a tourist line but that fell through and the rail along the full length of the line was lifted and ultimately used on the line out to Mount Isa.

These days the old formation is still in place and appears not to have been sold off to neighboring farmers and there is some chance that trains will run on this line again for surveys have shown that there are mineral deposits along that line that are worth mining.

As recently as 2008 there were plans to reopen at least part of the line to serve a proposed iron ore mine and the mining company had even gone so far as to purchase four of the 1100 class locos that had once seen service on the Emu Bay Railway to work the line. Unfortunately the global financial crisis put an end to that plan.

When the line was operating there were two and possibly three ore trains a day running on the line however by 1989 the number of ore trains operating each day would have been down to just two. It was usual for one of those trains to be made up of 92 ore wagons hauled by four locos while the others were made up of 69 wagons and hauled by three locos.

Cattle trains also used the line and there was also rail motor that ran a fortnightly service from Greenvale to Townsville and return. The rail motor would run empty to Greenvale on the day prior to it’s Townsville trip … do it’s return trip to Townsville providing a same-day service for shoppers … and then on return empty to Townsville on the third day.

This less-than-economic passenger service remained in place until the line was closed.

The ruling grade on the Greenvale line was 1 in 40 and the longest grade ran for 15km and faced empty trains. There were also a number of tunnels bored to take the line through some of the ridges in the Hervey Ranges.

I stumbled on the Greenvale line and two of the tunnels during this last week quite by accident. I was up in Townsville for the press release of the new Toyota Hilux and part of the drive programme took us out to the Hervey Ranges Tea Rooms where we were split into two groups and sent in different directions.

Our group went down to the old track formation, along it for a short stretch and then through quite a lengthy tunnel (unfortunately I’m not sure which tunnel it was but it did have a slight bend in it). We were then halted at the next tunnel and turned back because of a rock fall at the far end. We were also told that the cutting at the far end of that tunnel was unstable and it was not safe to even walk through the tunnel.

Even though I was driving I managed to grab a few photos around the tunnels and at the turn-back I jumped out and took one looking through to the rock fall. Another photo in this set was taken by Noel McKeegan, editor of Gizmag, and shows us coming out of the tunnel at what I think was the Greenvale end.

Once we got back from the tunnels we were sent out to a look out and that’s where I was able to grab the scenic shot you see above.

You can see the state of the old track formation from the photographs … it was a bit rough in places but it was fine in the tunnel that we drove through.

My apologies for being a little vague about some of the details of where the photos were taken but on these press day drives the mind tends to be focused on how the vehicle is handling, how it’s handling the conditions and whether or not I’m going to be able to return the vehicle in one piece and not so much on where you’re driving.

My thanks to Arthur Shale, Peter Murray, Neil Farmer and the other members of the QRIG group who took the time to answer my questions and get involved in an interesting discussion about the Greenvale line.

If you’re interested in reading about the new Toyota Hilux then follow the link to  AussieMotoring’s intro to the new Toyota Hilux.

Owanyilla is located between Gympie and Maryborough on the single-track rail line that runs up the Queensland coast from Brisbane to Cairns.

It was a fairly unremarkable place – I don’t even recall seeing a locality sign on the highway that runs to the east of the railway line – until a wood chipping plant was built on the eastern side of the rail line. The woodchip loader was served by a balloon loop that could be accessed directly accessed from the north so that empties could run straight into the loop and loaded trains could return to the north without the need for any shunting.

At some stage someone decided that a wye or triangle was also needed at Owanyill so now we have the perfect prototypical example for anyone who wants to build a continuous run on their layout. Once in the balloon loop you can just go on going round and round.

The woodchip loader has been closed for some years now although the satellite view does show some wagons on the loop. It’s possible that those are stored coal hoppers that have been superseded by larger capacity wagons. is so old that, as one commenter pointed out, that it shows a woodchip train being loaded.

You can see the current satellite view here and as at 23 July 2011 it still shows the train on the loop.

Google maps also indicates that there is a station at Owanyilla but that was removed some time ago.

For us it’s basically just down the road and next weekend might be a good time to find our way into the area and take some photos.

Earlier this year Queensland was overwhelmed with flooding and in many places railway lines were ripped up and washed away and some of the worst damage occurred on the eastern side of the Toowoomba Range.

Tracks were washed away, bridges were damaged and in some places there was almost nothing left. One of the worst affected places was the picturesque station of Spring Bluff. Apparently there wasn’t much of the roadbed left in some places.

Since the flloods Queensland Rail has worked day and night to reopen the line because it carries around 100 trains a week ranging from general freight right through to heavy coal trains. The line will re-open to traffic on March 28 although a lot of work still needs to be done.

Here you can see them hard at work repairing the track that runs through Spring Bluff.

Mungar … now there’s a name that doesn’t quite roll off your tongue. It’s not even a very attractive sounding name and unless you’re a Queenslander by birth or by choice you’ve probaby never even heard of it before.

Today it’s just a little village on the backroad from Maryborough to Tiaro but there was a time when it was quite an important railway junction … one of two junctions on the north coast line between Gympie and Maryborough and mainline trains regularly stopped at Mungar.

Branchline trains heading for the busy Monto branch left the mainline at Mungar by either the southern or northern leg of the triangle that was located at the southern end of the station. Trains taking the southern leg of the triangle avoided the station all together while trains using the northern leg could access the back platform of the station and a very small goods yard.

The rather attractive wooden station was manned and there was a loop off the mainline to allow trains heading north and south to pass.

You can see some photos of the station as it appeared back in 1992 here and this is what it looked like on 13 March 2011. At least the platform is still in place

QR in their wisdom mothballed the Monto branch a few years ago and finally closed it on 30 June 2010.

Currently though the track is still in place along the branch line and if a train did come in from the branch it could still access the main line via either leg of the triangle.

The signal guarding access to Mungar station limits from the branch is still switched on and local residents using the main road still halt at the stop sign even though there hasn’t been a train through there in years.

Of course the mainline still gets plenty of use and while we were there the southbound Tilt Train ran through but the passing loop doesn’t seem to see much use at all.

It seems that QR National has a new paint scheme. It may not be the most inspiring paint scheme you have ever seen on a locomotive but someone at QR National’s headquarters must have loved it.

Here you can see it on two brand new 41 class sitting in Maryborough West yard on January 16.

Thanks to a new lens and a new camera I can get you closer to 4142 than I would have been able to with my old Canon G10.

And just to compare the new with a couple of the old paint schemes here 1738D in what became known as the ‘Bronco’ scheme and another rather decrepit looking 1720 class in the much earlier blue scheme.

They were stowed at the other end of the yard on the same day.

June 30 this year saw the official closure of a number of Queensland branch lines including the Theebine – Kingaroy line and the Colton – Takura line.

While some of the branches that were closed on that day had seen traffic in recent years and were still in reasonable condition it’s been quite a few years since the line from Colton to Takura – the line that originally ran through to Hervey Bay … has seen a train and it shows.

On 19 June this is what the terminus at Takura looked like and, while I couldn’t see any track in all that grass others did find some a few weeks later.

Further back towards Colton though no matter how hard you looked you couldn’t see any track. This is the scene looking west at the Churchill Mine Road level crossing. Yes, that is a large tree growing right in the middle of the where the track should be.

You can find the report and more photos from one intrepid explorer who recently surveyed the Colton – Takura Branch here

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.

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.

About every three months Toni and I have to go to Rockhampton so we drive up and back along the Bruce Highwayand. tThe best part of the trip would have to be the section north of Mount Larcombe right through to Rockhampton because that’s where the Bruce Highway parallels the main north coast railway line.

That’s also the section that was subject to duplication work a few years back so that it could cope with the large number of coal trains coming in from the west and heading down to Gladstone to unload. Queensland Rail runs some very long coal trains along this section and you will nearly always see two locos on the front of the train and one or two locos cut in at about the halfway point in the train.

It’s quite an impressive site to see one of these fully laden coal trains thundering along and I was surprised to read today that Queensland Rail limits the speed of these coal trains to 80km/h. It was surprising because we sure weren’t doing 80km/h when we were trying to keep up with this fully laden train on the last trip