Rail heritage

[ozbob]

We here in Queensland can only dream now hey Bob.


For those that haven't heard, Qld Rail Heritage is no more, was all shut down quietly a few months ago.

SX sets are to be scrapped as too expensive to convert to wheelchair accessible.
Loco's are now out in the weather, even the Garrett has been pushed outside.
Blue Baby was all but completed, project cancelled.
No more Steam Train Sunday etc due to OHS risks being too high 

Yo, sad time.  Queensland Rail is nothing much any more.

I think they are all on borrowed time.  I consider myself fortunate to have experienced rail in much better days.  I do feel for the QR Heritage Volunteers who put in a lot of time and effort.  Shafted basically.

Check this out.  The Ipswich Express https://theworkshops.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions/Events/2019/06/Ipswich+Express+9+June+2019#.XPR5CKRfjb0

Bus to Swanbank, ride at Swanbank, bus back to the Workshops.   No sign of Steam Train Sundays etc. no more.

Now, I find going through the various library archives fishing for old photographs a good interest and relaxing.   I am past worrying about the rush to OHS and PC utopia. 

[ozbob]

Other states can generally achieve the balance needed.  Queensland ?  ... 

Big weekend in Sydney town for the QB Weekend 8-10 June 2019

https://www.transportheritageexpo.com

" The award-winning Transport Heritage Expo brings Sydney's transport history to life with heritage train and bus rides, train displays,
live music and so much more!
​
This year, we're excited to welcome historic steam boats as a new mode of heritage transport.

Don't miss this fantastic and nostalgic long weekend event for families and transport enthusiasts alike.

Brought to you by Transport Heritage NSW. "

[SurfRail]

Why not put something out?  The press should be all over it.

[ozbob]

Why not put something out?  The press should be all over it.

I don't want to interfere at this stage.  The QR Heritage Volunteers may be working on something.

[red dragin]

Why not put something out?  The press should be all over it.

I don't want to interfere at this stage.  The QR Heritage Volunteers may be working on something.

Not to my knowledge, but I didn't specifically ask either. Was too shell shocked by the news.

What gets me is that they are ok to subcontract a volunteer organisation to carry passengers under their name on a privately maintained branch line, but won't carry them on their own mainlines.
That's not a comment against QPSR either, I've done driver for a day on the PB15 (hence my profile photo with L plate on it)

[ozbob]

If you can, could you talk to some contacts and see if they want to go public?

Thanks.

[red dragin]

If you can, could you talk to some contacts and see if they want to go public?

Thanks.

My 'contact' won't unfortunately, too wrapped up in the whole heritage business and wouldn't want to burn any bridges. He's great for gossip though 

[SurfRail]

It might be easier to ferret it out more subtly (ie "When is the next Steam Train Sunday?")

[ozbob]

I rang the Workshops and asked if any Steam Train Sunday trips coming up?

Response,  'not at the moment.  We are not able to run them at present although we are working on bringing them back. '

If they come back the details will be on the web site with ' bells on ! '. 

I am inclined to not stir the pot at the moment ...

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/3801Productions/status/1140120071387267072

[ozbob]

ARHS - QLD STEAM TRAIN TRIP

"Steam in the City"

13th July 2019

9.55am & 11.40am Departures

Join us for our "Steam in the City" trip on Saturday 13th July. Our special train will be hauled by one of the Queensland Rail Heritage BB18 ¼ "Bety" Steam Locomotives with passengers travelling in wooden heritage carriages, many of which are more than 100 years old.

After departing from the historic Roma Street Station we will cross the Brisbane River via the Merivale Bridge then pass through South Brisbane Station on route to Yeerongpilly where we take the "Tennyson Loop". This will have us passing the Brisbane Golf Club and the Queensland Tennis Centre which now sits on the site of the former Tennyson Power Station. We will travel past the Tennyson Intermodal Terminal of Pacific National before joining the Ipswich line heading through Sherwood, recross the Brisbane river, then through Milton with the famous Castlemaine Perkins XXXX Brewery on our left. Our train will then take the exhibition loop, travelling through the Queensland Rail Mayne Yard before heading back to Roma Street via the underground stations of Fortitude Valley and Central.

Our trip will take approximately one hour making it ideal for children and families.

We have scheduled two separate trips travelling similar routes so you can choose either our 9.55am departure or our later 11.40am service.

Tickets > https://www.sunshineexpress.org.au/shop/steam-train-tours/steam-in-the-city/

[red dragin]

Hopefully they've fixed whatever failed on the BB the day prior to ARHS last trip.

[ozbob]

Brisbane Suburban Steam Trains in the 1960s

[ozbob]

Queensland Times -->Work starts to get 91-year-old steam train back on track

A DEDICATED team of volunteers has begun work to restore a historic steam train back to its former glory in time for its 100th birthday.

Locomotive 761, built in 1928 by engineering firm Walkers Limited, is now in possession of Swanbank-based Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway and has been sitting dormant in a park out west for 50 years.

After negotiations with Maranoa Regional Council and the people of Mitchell over the course of the past three years, it was agreed it would move to Ipswich for another lease on life.

The council surveyed the community and found the majority of residents wanted to see it restored, even though it will be a sorely-missed part of the community.

In exchange, a cab, carriage and miniature train were sent west.

The cab taken from a Southport C17 train could find its home in Mitchell's Memorial Park.

It has been named Booringa after the former shire which encompassed Mitchell before amalgamation.

The word means "fire and water" in the local Gunggari languages; an appropriate moniker for a steam train.

QPSR chairman Robert Shearer said non-destructive testing will be undertaken for the next year and a half and the train was in surprisingly good condition.

"The locals are very passionate about the engine, it's been part of their history for the last 50 years," he said.

"The platework was beginning to disintegrate.

"In a locomotive restoration point of view, that's a fairly small thing but for a council to rebuild and a community to get behind it, it's a rather expensive proposition.

"The job's looking like it's not going to be as onerous as we thought it would be to get it going. The big ticket components such as the boiler and the frame are so far coming up with no major concerns so hopefully it will be a fairly straightforward restoration."

It will still take volunteers "working non-stop" for the next five or six years to get it moving once again and the group are seeking help to get it finished.

"It was an Ipswich-based engine for the past 10 years of its life," he said.

"It spent most of its existence on our branch line. It ended up down here in about the 1960s. It had a full rebuild less than nine months before being decommissioned. Apparently, it ran about 100km after that rebuild which explains why it's looking as good as it is.

"Structurally and mechanically because so many of the components were changed, and the Maranoa is a fairly dry region, it's been the perfect location for it to just maintain its structural integrity.

"If we're able to get local support from engineering companies or anyone with a shed, it will make things move faster. At the moment, we do rebuilds in a grassy field out the back of our shed. With more money we're able to outsource more parts."

Mr Shearer said the group had forged strong connections with the Mitchell community over the past three years of talks.

He met a woman in her 70s while the locomotive was being lifted on to a truck to be transported to Ipswich, who had watched it arrive in Mitchell 50 years before.

"We can't thank them enough for what they've allowed us to do," he said.

"I would have never thought to have gone out to Mitchell if it wasn't for all of this. I would go out there in a heart beat for a holiday because it's such a lovely part of the world with the most lovely people I think I've ever met.

"We're hoping this is the start of a very long friendship with that community."

Mr Shearer described the train being craned from the park as "one of the maddest moments of my life".

Some of the students at the nearby Mitchell State School who watched the train "flying" from their school oval are keen to come out and help on the restoration.

Mitchell residents will be offered free rides when it is operational.

To contact QPSR to assist, call 3103 0871.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/1193318202077351937

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Trains loaded onto SS Belpareil--outtakes

https://mirc.sc.edu/islandora/object/usc%3A35113


https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1267525876029128705

[ozbob]

Steam Trains RETURN to Victoria's Mainline! (Steamrail's Y Not Try Again Tour) | Y112 21st March 2021

Y112 was built by the Phoenix Foundry of Ballarat and entered service on the 24th of July 1889. Some great shots of the Y working around Melbourne.

[ozbob]

K153-190 on 8191 Steamrails Cruise Express near Tarnagulla 19-05-21

[ozbob]

Picton–Mittagong loop railway line > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picton%E2%80%93Mittagong_loop_railway_line

The Picton–Mittagong line was opened in February 1867 as part of the Main South line.[1][2]

The line ran north-northwest from Picton, over the Picton Viaduct, across the Great South Road before heading northwest. It then headed west-northwest through a 180-metre tunnel in the Redbank Range.

Stations were constructed at Redbank (1885), Couridjah (1867), Buxton (1893), Balmoral (1878), Hill Top (1878), Colo Vale (1883) and Braemar (1867). There were a number of smaller stops, sidings and passing loops along the line, as well. North of Hill Top, the cutting through Big Hill was for many years the deepest in Australia. The rock-cut inscription dated 1863, commemorating the deaths of two men in an explosion during the excavation of the cutting, north of Hill Top, is considered one of the oldest in Australia. ...

====

Big Hill Cutting - Hill Top NSW

Two Steam Trains power along the Picton - Mittagong Loop-Line, and climb through Big Hill Cutting at Saddleback Ridge.

[ozbob]

EOI: 2 X 2000 Class Inspection Rail Motors / Passenger Carrying Vehicles at Rockhampton (QLD )

> https://www.pickles.com.au/trucks/item/search/-/listing/listSaleItems/44001123#!/search-result?q=ProductType.Machinery.&sort=Product_Type_Sequence

[ozbob]

Steam Locomotives in the Queensland Canefields

[ozbob]

Union Pacific "Big Boy" No. 4014 crossing Lake Houston  August 2021

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

Queensland State Archives

Film showing the journey from Brisbane to Cairns by train along the east coast. Film begins with a map of Queensland and throughout the program shows the progress up the coast. Shows footage of: the towns and industry along the way including farming, mining, boat construction; workers leaving the factory on Bicycles in Maryborough; elevated view of Bundaberg; Gladstone factories and post office; images of coral at Gladstone; town of Rockhampton including houses and public buildings; Rockhampton Botanic Gardens; Central Queensland Meat Export from the exterior and interior; aerial views of mining and coastline near Mackay; images of the beach and coral near Proserpine; main street of Ayr; sugar cane farms in the region near Ayr; town centre of Townsville; agricultural industry in Cairns including Sugar Cane and Corn; elevated views of the Cairns region. The stops on the journey are Gympie, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Sarina, Mackay, Proserpine, Bowen, Home Hill, Ayr, Townsville, Ingham, Tully, Innisfail, and Cairns.

[ozbob]

Interesting ..

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/TheRossJackson/status/1486107638790496258

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Gilligan_Sydney/status/1517872029759803393

[ozbob]

Sunshine Coast News --> Flashback: why catching trains and trams to the Coast were such a big deal a century ago

[ozbob]

NFSA: Australia Post – The Last of the TPOs (1985)

The TPO officers arrive and set up the carriage for the final journey of the New South Wales TPO (Travelling Post Office) service.

> https://aso.gov.au/titles/sponsored-films/australia-post-last-tpos/clip2/

[ozbob]

Two of our iconic Silver Bullet rail motors are departing The Workshops Rail Museum 🚂 on a 1,100km journey to...

Posted by Lance McCallum MP on Tuesday, 8 November 2022

[ozbob]

^

https://twitter.com/railmaps/status/1590899546292641792

[ozbob]

Talking all things Transport & Main Roads for the last couple of days during a Shadow Cabinet tour of Longreach. Visited...

Posted by Steve Minnikin MP on Monday, 14 November 2022

[ozbob]

Mastodon ...

Location is Mona Junction, Halifax

The windmill in the photograph is an ' Iron Turbine ' windmill.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1594923468625092609

[ozbob]

Tait and Steam parallel A2 & K) run 26th November 2022

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1596262129849749504

[ozbob]

^

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1603531132481712128

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1627033642550849543

[ozbob]

27/06/23 BB18 1/4 1089 first run in 3 years