Thread: Steam still on track.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

QR used bankers just about everywhere there was a hill. Even suburban. A big part of the work at Wooloongabba yards was supplying bankers up the hill behind Boggo Rd. gaol up to Dutton Park. Also on the Norman Park and Morningside section. Wooloongabba yards had 70 sets of crew stationed there. Bankers were prominent on North Coast Line working up through Gympie. Steam locos made hard work through the hills and bends with a heavy goods train. The big electric goods locos now run up through there with 3+ times the train behind without dropping a rev.

The first Garret to go west from Rockhampton on the Central line spread the rails on a curve on the range near Bungeworgorai and derailed. The Garrets were not a howling success here.

Bear in mind Brian, that line has had some serious re-alignment to eliminate the difficult grades. I know a diesel multi stalled near Yandina, in the 80s, whillt pulling the (every wagon overloaded) nightly QRX service.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

QR used bankers just about everywhere there was a hill. Even suburban. A big part of the work at Wooloongabba yards was supplying bankers up the hill behind Boggo Rd. gaol up to Dutton Park. Also on the Norman Park and Morningside section. Wooloongabba yards had 70 sets of crew stationed there. Bankers were prominent on North Coast Line working up through Gympie. Steam locos made hard work through the hills and bends with a heavy goods train. The big electric goods locos now run up through there with 3+ times the train behind without dropping a rev.

The first Garret to go west from Rockhampton on the Central line spread the rails on a curve on the range near Bungeworgorai and derailed. The Garrets were not a howling success here.

Garrets in Qld were used mainly from Rockhampton up the range to Mount Morgan.I think that the reason they derailed were two fold.First the 3'6" gauge, they really were standard gauge engines adapted and were really designed to pull heavier loads then they did...mining was in it's infancy here in Qld and the loads were no where near what is hauled today.As an after thought IMHO I think that track laying has improved immensely too.One can remember the number of derailments that occurred early on the Blackwater/Gladstone line with the increased coal loads.
The Garrets were a great engines and had their own sound when under full steam.

The restored 'Garrat at Ipswich workshops.

More of the same loco.

Hi Disco44 and thanks.

I don’t know very much about the QLD Garrets but world wide, most Garrets were narrow gauge and the original garrets were specifically made for narrow gauge.

There are still Garrets in operation in southern parts of Africa ( or there were only few years ago ) and these were all narrow gauge and were used for high speed main line work and heavy mineral work and all were narrow gauge.

South Australia also used their narrow gauge Garrets in much the same manor.

In NSW, while they did a lot of coal haulage they were also used for many of their later years on fast mineral trains out west.

Today, the Garret is still, pound for pound, the most powerful steam locomotives ever built. More powerful than anything the Yanks built and the North American continent was the only continent where Garrets were not used.

ACT ARHS are in the process of restoring their NSW Garret which is probably the only one likely to ever steam again.
Project 6029

There are a couple in a paddock at Dorrigo and one in a paddock at Forbes owned by the Dorrigo mob. The one at Thirlmere is beyond repair I believe.

Regards,
Tote

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

Catching trains in Sydney, I remember in the mid 1960's there was still a NSW steam passanger train that left Central stopping at Strathfield, Lidcombe, Liverpool, to where-ever. Okay it was not Suburban, but did stops in the Suburbs.

Originally Posted by JohnF

Catching trains in Sydney, I remember in the mid 1960's there was still a NSW steam passanger train that left Central stopping at Strathfield, Lidcombe, Liverpool, to where-ever. Okay it was not Suburban, but did stops in the Suburbs.

Yes, I am not sure when the steam haulage on the southern line stopped, also could have been still on the Richmond line. But I travelled daily on the Western line from 1959 to 61 and cannot remember any steam trains, although they had been common in the earlier 1950s. Although one I did travel on regularly was a set of carriages from the steam era behind an electric loco.

Further to this subject, I have just found a reference, while looking at when the Garrets were withdrawn - 6042 was withdrawn on 18/3/73, and was the last steam locomotive in government service in Australia.

John