Cunningham’s Gap

[Celtoid]

Anybody been through Cunningham’s Gap (Highway between Brisbane and Warwick, QLD) lately? I went out there bushwalking with my family a couple of weeks ago. I’d heard on the news that there had been some landslides before Xmas, but seeing evidence of what must have happened was incredible.

I’m surprised nobody was killed. Whole sections of the hillside had slid onto the road in various places and complete parts of the road have disappeared down the slope.

It's going to take ages to fix, and one hell of a job.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera.

Cheers,

Kev.

[Bigbjorn]

Anybody been through Cunningham’s Gap (Highway between Brisbane and Warwick, QLD) lately? I went out there bushwalking with my family a couple of weeks ago. I’d heard on the news that there had been some landslides before Xmas, but seeing evidence of what must have happened was incredible.

I’m surprised nobody was killed. Whole sections of the hillside had slid onto the road in various places and complete parts of the road have disappeared down the slope.

It's going to take ages to fix, and one hell of a job.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera.

Cheers,

Kev.


Currently listed as open with care. Was closed briefly after the slips, and then was one lane for a while controlled by portable traffic lights at Clayton's Gully.

[drivesafe]

Hi Kev, I came down the Gap yesterday and I posted this in another thread.

“Cunningham's Gap is a mess. One section is so bad they have a section of two lane wide Bailey bridge ready to put in place and the trip down from the gap was in 2nd and 3rd gear, in LOW RANGE all the way, because of the speed the semi had to travel at.”

If anyone is planning on going that way, the delay is at maximum, about 30 minutes, allowing for both waiting at one end and the VERY slow down hill speeds.

[scanfor]

Hey Drivesafe - the trip up on Saturday morning took me 10 minutes, the trip back on Sunday afternoon took me 45 minutes.
As you said, it was due to the semi-trailers in low gear (doing the right thing I might add). Just painful.
I wondered where that Bailey bridge was intended to be fitted, there didn't seem to be anything in the immediate vicinity.
The area up near the top near the shipping container wall looked more precarious.

[p38arover]

Jeez, I haven't driven over that since 1964 - seriously. I drove an unregistered 1938 Vauxhall from Brissie to Sydney - without a licence as I was only 16.

I drove up that hill in low gear with the front (suicide) doors fully open as it was summer - I'd just finished the Senior Public Exam.

[V8Ian]

Trucks always come down 'the big hill' slowly, you just don't notice how slowly when two downhill lanes are open.

[The ho har's]

Jeez, I haven't driven over that since 1964 - seriously. I drove an unregistered 1938 Vauxhall from Brissie to Sydney - without a licence as I was only 16.

I drove up that hill in low gear with the front (suicide) doors fully open as it was summer - I'd just finished the Senior Public Exam.


digger..digger...can you book him please:D

Mrs hh:angel:

[V8Ian]

Did they have licences back then Ron? :tease: There were no helmet laws. :o

Hi Carolyn, how are you both? :spudnikwaving:

[digger]

Jeez, I haven't driven over that since 1964 - seriously. I drove an unregistered 1938 Vauxhall from Brissie to Sydney - without a licence as I was only 16.

I drove up that hill in low gear with the front (suicide) doors fully open as it was summer - I'd just finished the Senior Public Exam.

MMM Ron, I am going to ask you some further questions, you are not obliged to answer them unless required under this or any other act or law, but anything you do say..... hold on, 1964?... nah I can't issue a ticket for that long back, I've seen photos,the world was black and white!!!

(Dad showed me his photos and I asked what they were B&W, thats when he told me they were colour shots but the world was B&W (on a good day sepia apparently) .... :)

[drivesafe]

Trucks always come down 'the big hill' slowly, you just don't notice how slowly when two downhill lanes are open.

Hi V8Ian, they normally go down the hill a lot quicker and I can usually sit behind a truck in 2nd gear hi range.

All the trucks are staying in low range themselves and this is why I was in 2nd and 3rd gear low range.

In many places, we were going that slowly, you could literally get out and walk beside the RR.

[V8Ian]

G'day Drivesafe, I never come out of low range (in a truck) til past the helepad. Actually I come down Toowoomba in 2/3 low (auto) in the Disco, on the speed limit without touching the brakes.

[Bigbjorn]

Trucks always come down 'the big hill' slowly, you just don't notice how slowly when two downhill lanes are open.

Except overnighters, remember them? They used to go down on the throttle, not the brakes, and round up everybody on the way. My first time over the gap was probably about 1959-60 in a Commer, petrol engine, vacuum hydraulic brakes on th tug, and vacuum mechanical on the trailer. Essentially no brakes most of the time. Probably why drivers of that era and earlier used to float a lot. You couldn't stop them.

[The ho har's]

Did they have licences back then Ron? :tease: There were no helmet laws. :o

Hi Carolyn, how are you both? :spudnikwaving:

We are both fine and dandy thanks:D

[V8Ian]

Except overnighters, remember them? They used to go down on the throttle, not the brakes, and round up everybody on the way. My first time over the gap was probably about 1959-60 in a Commer, petrol engine, vacuum hydraulic brakes on th tug, and vacuum mechanical on the trailer. Essentially no brakes most of the time. Probably why drivers of that era and earlier used to float a lot. You couldn't stop them.Yes Brian, I Pass Every Car MANs. They're all overnighters now. Remember the graffiti, 'larst weke i coodent evern sbell ovaniter now i ar wun' :wasntme:

[Bigbjorn]

The KAA Kenworths, Detroit 8V71 with RTO9513 in a body truck. On the radio calling each other through overtaking manouvres over blind crests and blind curves and double lines. Try to avoid the Putty at times when the overnighters were coming out of Sydney. ****** pests.

[Bigbjorn]

Jeez, I haven't driven over that since 1964 - seriously. I drove an unregistered 1938 Vauxhall from Brissie to Sydney - without a licence as I was only 16.

I drove up that hill in low gear with the front (suicide) doors fully open as it was summer - I'd just finished the Senior Public Exam.

Ron, it is just a bit different now.:angel:

[numpty]

Apart from the last couple of months due to roadworks, I've hardly ever followed a truck down there which wasn't braking most of the time. Low gear indeed! Wonder why there are so many that go over the side? :mad:

[V8Ian]

Times change Perry, many of the young blokes in the game now carry no more than a bottle of coke and change of jocks. The camaraderie that was once so prolific in the industry is rapidly disappearing, another casualty of the mad rush and just-in-time delivery mindset.

[Bigbjorn]

Some of you will be old enough to remember the rockslides in 1968/69 on the last steep pinch of Cunningham's Gap. The Main Roads Dept. wanted to close the road to make repairs. The government of the day said no, essential major road and it must be kept open. MRD were not happy and were doing repairs under difficulty coping with traffic. Suspiciously, there was another major rock slide in the same place which did necessitate closure of the road. Persons with nasty minds thought this may have been deliberate. So for a few months all New England and Newell Highway traffic had to use either Heifer Creek Road or the Toowoomba Range. I remember all the bridge railings on the narrow Heifer Creek Road bridges being smashed when two semi trailers were passing on the skinny bridges.

[UncleHo]

G'day Brian Hjelm :)

YUP! I was one of those that threw a Commer over the CG full load of wool,about 1961, blew a Vac hose off a coupling, Boss always said, "I can replace a truck but drivers are harder to get" had a 14 kid offsider so I told him to bail, and when he was clear I turned left and left to :) went down the side a caught fire, jeez greasy wool stinks when it burns :D


Get shadowed up the gap one evening by a UFO, 2 passengers with me and we took photos took to RAAF Amberly they took the camera and it hasn't been seen since :( Camera ! what Camera :whistling:

[Bigbjorn]

Uncle, you were being a bit naughty. Wool could only be carried by road to the nearest rail.

A UFO, eh! Rum? Grappa? Zanatta's experimental brandy?

[UncleHo]

G'day Brian Hjelm :)

Me ! I was only the driver,I think it may have been to the Newstead Wool stores out of Warwick, long time ago I was still a teenager :eek: I was taking the owner's daughter at the time,used to drive up in the A40 tourer every Friday evening :D


cheers

[Bigbjorn]

G'day Brian Hjelm :)

Me ! I was only the driver,I think it may have been to the Newstead Wool stores out of Warwick, long time ago I was still a teenager :eek: I was taking the owner's daughter at the time,used to drive up in the A40 tourer every Friday evening :D


cheers

Ah, the Nuremberg Defence. Befehl sind befehl.

Just a bit cramped in the back seat of A40's, eh.

[UncleHo]

YUP! sure was.

but not a cramped as a Morris Minor!

[Disco44]

Apart from the last couple of months due to roadworks, I've hardly ever followed a truck down there which wasn't braking most of the time. Low gear indeed! Wonder why there are so many that go over the side? :mad:

A couple of years there was a copper in Toowoomba who booked truckies going down the range if they applied brakes more then three times.Which as we all know meant they were not in the mandatory low/low.It appears that pressure was put on him to stop.His actions severally stopped the rollovers but that did not stop pressure being applied by someone somewhere.Such is life.

[isuzurover]

Drove down Cunningham's gap yesterday, after driving through flood affected areas in NSW and western QLD. Must admit, before we got to the gap, all the damage we had seen was fairly minor.

We had to stop at 3-4 sections that were one lane only.

I noticed a cross placed just behind the (temporary) barrier near the top with fresh flowers. Anyone know about this (seemingly recent) fatality???