Thread: Steam still on track.

Regarding removal of steam locomotive facilities, worth noting what happened to the last steam locomotive run on the Picola line running west from Numurkah, Vic in the mid 80's before the line was closed and track pulled up. Minor detail that the turntable at Picola had been removed. Could run the K Class 2-8-0 light line goods engine backwards faster than the 10 mph speed limit on the run down track.

It was turned at Numurkah, where tracks have since been removed from the station yard - including points to the turntable, making it presently unusable. Very clever.

Anyway, apparently the enginemen reckoned there was something wrong as they were heading back towards Shepparton. At Picola, the water tank was gone, so the tender was refilled with town supply water in several loads by the local fire truck.

Problem was what was in the first fire tanker load of water. Wetting agent, which the then brigade captain normally regularly used, but no one warned the enginemen. Apparently steam engine drivers are very well aware that it is important not to get soap in water. It does things like froth up and drag water into the cylinders. Could probably drive it a short distance with bleed valves open. However at Shepparton they had to douse the fire, drain everything, then probably 4 hours to raise steam again after it was refilled.

Originally Posted by Mick-Kelly

two of my favorite things in one photo, well done.

Have to agree on that one

Great picture John. They always look fantastic, but they were ****e to work on.

Last steam operations finished in 1973 in NSW, what year did steam finish in QLD?

Dunno about that date for NSW. There used to be a steam engine pulling coal out of one of the mines close to Hexam in the late eighties.

Yes correct, there was steam on the private South Maitland Railway into the early 80s but all state owned steam ended in 73.

Queensland was the first system to completely abandon steam, NSW was the last. QR currently has almost as much track as the rest of Australia combined, and the only electric main line, Brisbane to Rockhampton, which takes heavy goods as well as the high speed tilt train and normal electric passenger services. Almost all the coal haulage is now electric. The new mines on the Darling Downs are still diesel hauled. Electrification for this freight will involve major reconstruction of the line from Rosewood up and over the Toowoomba Range. Brisbane suburban passenger services have been electric since 1979, and now span from Robina to Nambour, west to Rosewood, with termini at Cleveland, Shorncliffe, Ferny Grove, Brisbane Airport.

Almost all branch lines have been closed progressively since about 1952 when the first closures commenced. Better roads and motor trucks made the branches redundant. During the glory days of railway construction and extension, the political view was that no farmer should be more than a morning's travel from a rail point from which his goods could be shipped to market. Hence the spider web of branch lines. The economic downturn in the mid 1920's and later the Great Depression put a stop to railway construction.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

John is correct, the only places that persisted with steam in NSW were the coalfields along the Sydney-Wollongong and Maitland-Newcastle corridors.

I can remember as a child getting covered in crap riding the end carriage platforms on the way home to Heathcote in Sutherland Shire,,
in '65??

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Depends which part of the system you are talking about - for example, the Sydney area was completely electric with some long distance services diesel in 1960 - I remember when I first came to Brisbane in 1962 all suburban services were steam. Brisbane finally introduced electric trains about fifty years after Sydney - which had the advantage that they were able to use a high voltage AC system instead of the DC system used in NSW and Victoria, whose standards date from the end of the nineteenth century.

But it is quite possible that some steam services continued in NSW west of the mountains after Qld had gone completely over to diesel. This may have been because the 60 class Garrets not only outpulled any available diesels, but unlike the heavy diesels could operate on any line in the system, even the lightly built and poorly ballasted developmental lines. This problem has now been solved by closing most of those lines!

John

Mate, I remember the Garrets hauling coal around Newcastle and the sound of two Garrets in tandem under full steam hauling coal up the hill from Fassifern through the cutting at Cardiff is a sight and sound I will never forget. This was through the 1960's into the early seventies when diesel loco's replaced them!!!