Local historic rail excursion

[zulu Delta 534]

This morning the Spice and I rose early (by our standards), hopped on a suburban train and hightailed it into the city, somewhere I rarely go without a vehicle.
After taking a short stroll through Southbank we ended up at the jetty right near the "Brisbane Wheel" and joined a cruise boat for a very pleasant cruise down the Brisbane River. Most interesting way to fill in the morning and offered an entirely different view of the place to that to which I am "land-lubberly" accustomed. Enjoyed a great lunch and, in the morning at least, great weather, but just as we were about to come about and return to the wharf, the rain began to drizzled down. Not enough to dampen the day however.
It was a bit sad to see the Steam powered historic tug "Forceful" in her current sorry state, she is at the moment suffering boiler problems and the current lack of finance on behalf of the local Maritime Historical group, and the scarcity of qualified 'real' boilermakers able to undertake the repairs have laid her up.

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We left the boat and began our transfer to our awaiting train in drizzling rain, but luckily for us some of the obvious squalls missed us so we completed our transfer relatively without too big a drenching.

At Doomben station we were met by a C17 class loco, built locally by Walker Bros in Maryborough in 1951, hauling a water tanker and four historic carriages. All apparently are owned still and run by Q Rail.

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The carriage to which we were assigned was built in Ipswich way back in 1909, modified in 1938 and recently refurbished by the Townsville workshop and rejoined the fleet as the historic item it is today.

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All in all a well worthwhile day despite the weather.

Regards
Glen

[3-Gees]

I have ridden behind 974 many times, years ago before it was rebuilt. It's a nice loco and good to see ti back in service!

Cheers Gregg;)

[robbotd5]

Thanks for posting! Very interesting. Regarding the steam tug. Forcefull, what an awesome name for an old steam tug!! I love it. We have a replica steam ship here in Newcastle that was built for the bi centenary, the William the fourth. It is slowly being restored but due to lack of funds, experience ect, it will be fitted with a diesel engine to drive the paddle wheel.
Regards
Robbo

[Ausfree]

Thanks for sharing. I love the decor in the old carriages. Couldn't imagine that lasting long nowadays with all the idiots around!!!;)

[Pickles2]

I see the engine was built in 1951.....there couldn't have been many built after that?
I lived in Toowoomba in the 60s & the steam engine that used to pull the passenger trains was a BB 18 1/4 ... they were green.
Cheers, Pickles.

[3-Gees]

Hi all,
Pickles, the last Mainline steam loco built in Australia was QR's BB18-1/4 no. 1089 ,which was delivered in March 1958:D. This loco and her sister 1079, are both preserved and running , a couple of years ago they double headed a train up the range for the Carnival of flowers!!, that was pretty cool;)

Cheers Gregg;)

[PhilipA]

Thanks for posting! Very interesting. Regarding the steam tug. Forcefull,
what an awesome name for an old steam tug!!

Its sister ship was as good "Fearless"

So Fearless and Forceful used to bring the ships to berth.
I just Googled Fearless and it is now in the Adelaide Maritime Museum.

Regards Philip A

[Pickles2]

Hi all,
Pickles, the last Mainline steam loco built in Australia was QR's BB18-1/4 no. 1089 ,which was delivered in March 1958:D. This loco and her sister 1079, are both preserved and running , a couple of years ago they double headed a train up the range for the Carnival of flowers!!, that was pretty cool;)

Cheers Gregg;)
G'Day Gregg, Yes I remember those engines very well.....coming from England, I've always loved my steam engines. I actually did an "Engine Driver's Course" with the Victorian Goldfields Railway, driving a steam engine...you arrive in the morning, light the fire, check the Loco, do a bit of shunting, then get to drive the engine pulling a few wagons for around a total of probably 60ks....you have a properly accredited driver with you of course, but you have to do the work, & at the end of the day, you get a certificate...a GREAT day.
We used to live on top of the hill at Drayton, just across the road from the 4GR aerial.
I remember riding my bike to the Drayton Station to pick up a .303 rifle that I bought by mail order!
Cheers, Pickles.