Model Trains and Things

Garratt steam locomotives are fairly well regarded the world over but in every family there has to be a black sheep and for the Garratt family of fine steam locomotives the black sheep has to be what was known as the Australian Standard Garratt.

On paper the Australian Standard Garratt should have been an absolute winner but in fact it was an absolute lemon. The Australian Standard Garratt was built during WWII under the auspices of the Commonwealth Land Transport Board at the Newport Workshops in Melbourne, the Islington Workshops in South Australia, the Midland Workshops in Western Australia and Clyde Engineering in New South Wales.

The first Australian Standard Garratt took a mere four months to build and while they were quick to impress railway staff with their pulling power their design faults soon showed through. The lack of a flange on the leading driving wheels contributed to their habit of derailing and a long list of other faults soon had railway unions calling for industrial action.

The locos saw service in Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. In Queensland the Australian Standard Garratts were withdrawn as soon as the War ended and in Western Australia they lasted into the early 1950s and several of the Western Australian engines were then sold to South Australia for crew training to prepare staff for the arrival of the 400 class Garratts 

In Tasmania the Australian Standard Garratt was a little more popular and they lasted service until 1957. And that’s where we see this official photograph of one of the Tasmanian Government Railway locos. There’s no mention of just where the photo was taken but, as you can see, even official photographers have trouble with poles and lighting.

Photo used with the permission of the National Archives

A number of Australian Standard Garratts passed into private ownership and the largest private operator of these locomotives was the Emu Bay Railway. They liked the Australian Standard Garratts so much that, when one was wrecked in a derailment, they went out and bought another one as a replacement.

The Emu Bay Railway scrapped their last Australian Standard Garratt around 1966.

Looking back from this point in time it’s perhaps difficult to understand just what a disaster the Australian Standard Garratts really were … especially in Queensland … but perhaps this slide presentation from YouTube will help you understand.

As the Savannahlander says, it’s “a remarkable and unique rail journey into Far North Queensland’s savannah country”

You will find their website here and it’s quite interesting to read of a tourist railway’s struggle to provide a decent service in the face of official bumbling.

The video below shows part of the trip through the Delaney Gorge.

Toni and I spent most of Saturday visiting a new client – a local historical museum – out west and on the way back we stopped for a break at Biggenden where I took some photos of the railway station there.

Those photos are still sitting in the camera so I though I’d start the week with this video taken at the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers which was on last weekend too. My thanks to Graham R for putting it up on YouTube.

The steam loco is 1079 and there’s some great stack-talk as she gets stuck into the task of hauling the train. Fortunately 1620 – Queensland’s first Heritage Diesel is there too and if you’ve never heard and English Electric diesel in action then you’ll find this video interesting too.

Perhaps the most remote railway line in Australia is the Comalco line at Weipa on Cape York Pennisula. The line is only 19.5km in length but it’s used to haul some heavy loads of bauxite … and other things too.

Unfortunately photos of the line are a little rare but here are two photos taken earlier this year  around 2000 – 2001 (see comments below) that I came across on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krustymokester/2243709798/in/set-72157594378293048/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krustymokester/2243710628/in/set-72157594378293048/

that you might find interesting

Every now and again … and likely to be every month for the for next few months … Toni and I have to drive up to Rockhampton and back in the same day. The highway doesn’t really touch the northern railway line till just after Calliope and from then on the road and the railway line run quite close together right through to Rockhampton.

That part of the northern line is coal country and you really should be able to see plenty of trains but until last Tuesday we had hardly seen a train on the line during our Rockhampton trips. Last Tuesday more than made up for it though and we ended up seeing four coal trains and three freighters.

Unfortunately I only got to photograph one down coalie running back to the mines  and I couldn’t get across the level crossing in time to grab a photo of it with the sun behind me. I really only had time to put the handbrake on, dig the camera out from under the seat and turn it on before the train was almost on me.

Leading the train is 4044 with one of the new 41 class in the shafts – further back in the train acting as distributed power was 4032. The last time I’d seen that loco was the year before last when it was under construction at Walkers/EDI at Maryborough.

There was some interesting motive power in Rockhampton yard too but there were too many poles in the way and we didn’t even bother getting out of the car and we just missed a 2200 class on an up work train running down the middle of the street on the northern approach to Rockhampton yard.

We’ll be back in a month so we might do better then.

The crew of a Brisbane bound coal train had a little more excitement than they were expecting on Tuesday night. As the train was passing through Toowoomba the driver noticed smoke coming from one of the units on the train.

Fire crews attended and removed 2358 from the train and extinguised the fire that was burning in the dynamic brake system. The local paper reported that the damage was minor.

2358 originally entered service in September 1979 as 2454 – a 1500hp loco fitted with an EMD 12-645E engine. It was rebuilt as a 2300 class and was back in service in December 2001. The rebuild included the fitting of an EMD 12-645E3C engine that produces 2475hp.

Here’s another member of the 2300 class stabled in Maryborough West yard on 30 December 2007.

Pac Nat

- cut off from it’s Brisbane terminal on Tuesday when a north bound QR freighter derailed eight wagons and left the main northern line blocked till Friday morning. You can read the news story here

- and out of the grain haulage business in Victoria. Oh the joys of privatisation where railway companies don’t provide services for for businesses that are affected by the drought. You can read that news story here.

Victoria recently bought back the railway lines from Pacific National – will we see government run freight operations reappear in that State?

On a positive note for Pacific National – they are very close to finalising some coal haulage contracts in Queensland. Expect an announcement any day now – not that it will do much good in easing the coal export problems because the choke point seems to be the ports and not the railways – although that depends on just who is trying to cover the bum at the time.

Maryborough Queensland is located about three hours drive north of Brisbane. Maryborough has almost always been a railway town, it’s the home of EDI where locomotives have been built for over 100 years, it was the home of the busiest branchline in Queensland, it was a crew change point on the north coast line and today it has lost a lot of its importance.

The main station in Maryborough never sees a passenger train anymore, crews are still changed here … but some of the crews are employed by another transport operator, and the busiest branch rarely sees a Government train these days.

But Maryborough is still worth visiting because you never know what you’re going to see in the yard.

When I took this photo just over 12 months ago there were two new Brisbane suburban carriages from EDI stored adjacent to the platform and what’s that peeking out of a shed at the end of the platform?

It’s a Queensland B15 class steam loco. It was built here in Maryborough when EDI was known as Walkers Engineering and one day it will be restored. Until that day comes it will sit under cover against the buffers at the end of the platform at Maryborough.

So if you’re heading north from Brisbane take the detour off the Bruce Highway and wander down to the station in the middle of Maryborough … you never know what might be sitting in the yard.

Premier Anna Bligh today welcomed news that a rail link between Moree and Toowoomba is progressing.

“A nation building project such as that proposed deserves careful consideration,” said the Queensland Premier.

“We will work closely with the New South Wales government in coordinating and evaluating the proposal’s assessment.”

“The Border Railway has the potential to open up new transport and mining opportunities.

“I look forward to seeing the business case behind building a high-speed standard-gauge rail link between Melbourne to Gladstone. At first glance the project looks very exciting and now the hard work of assessment and evaluation will determine its viability.

“I congratulate ATEC on having the courage to progress their idea and look forward to seeing their business case,” she said.

Siemens in Australia and New Zealand has been awarded a A$170 million contract by Queensland Rail (QR) to supply 25 Class 3800 heavy haul electric locomotives. The contract comes as an extension to an existing order placed last year for 20 new locomotives.  It is also in addition to the contract with QR to upgrade 63 Class 3700 locomotives.

The additional 25 Class 3800 heavy haul electric locomotives will be delivered over a period of 12 months commencing at the end of 2009.

The upgraded Class 3700 locomotives have commenced revenue operation in Queensland, delivering improved productivity with more coal being hauled by fewer locomotives. The first 20 locomotives already on order are now under construction in Siemens main locomotive factory in Munich and are due to be delivered and placed into service in Queensland during 2008. 

Siemens Transportation Systems Executive General Manager, Paul Bennett, said the new locomotives will expand QR’s locomotive fleet in the Goonyella Coal Systems and provide increased haulage capacity.

“The new, state of the art Siemens Class 3800 electric locomotives will provide improved performance to the upgraded Class 3700 locomotives, allowing QR to increase the payload of each train, improve cycle times and lower operating costs. All locomotives are equipped with Siemens locomotive ac traction technology, which has been proven in Queensland to exhibit high reliability in harsh operating conditions.

“Siemens is pleased to have again been entrusted to deliver this prestigious project and we are delighted to be continuing our valued relationship with QR,“ said Mr Bennett.

The Siemens locomotive factory in Munich is the centre of competence for construction and produces approximately 150 electric and diesel locomotives per year.