In
1969, Express Freight Train 632 commenced to run Monday to Friday departing
Pinkenba at 12:45pm. Most new wagons built from the mid 1950’s were fitted with
3 piece cast steel ride control bogies. Until 1969 these wagons were classified
as “Goods Wagons” with a maximum speed of 35 M.P.H. (after 1972 this became 60
Km/h). In 1969 most of these wagons were upgraded to Express Freight status
increasing the number of Express Freight Services on the network.
The
train was timed at Whinstanes 12:52/1:13 to pick up (attach), Mayne Junction
1:28 - 34 to change crews both ends, Roma Street (1:41), Corinda (1:54),
Ipswich (2:29), Laidley (3:22), Lockyer 4:12 – 16 cross 625, Murphy Creek 4:26
– 41 meal and cross 637, arriving Toowoomba at 5:54 pm. During the 70’s a
Corinda stop was added to pick up 2:01 – 23. Corinda was the junction for
southside stations. Grain went to flour mills at Moolabin and Clapham, Mobil
was at Cannon Hill and Ampol as located at Lytton. In 1981 the train was renumbered
to 6652, in 1985 the Corinda stop was changed to Redbank. The locomotive to
working the train ran Light Engine (LE) from Mayne. New locomotives coming from
manufactures or off overhaul at Redbank were rostered on this train for their
first outing on the network.
Leaving
Pinkenba at lunch time, the train consisted of empty grain wagons. In the late sixties
that was WH, WHE and QGX wagons and a van. In the early s1970’s this started to change,
WH wagons received new QR 20 bogies and reclassed WHA, auto coupling were being
added to WHE wagons, thus WHET class, QGX wagons were being modified with new
roof hatches and a second cat walk being added to make a temporary class of
QGX/C to about 1979. The load to Toowoomba for a 90 T DEL’s (1450’s DEL’s upwards)
was 630 tons with drawgear. The load with ordinary rollingstock, later known as
D4 drawgear (four wheelers, H, K, C, S wagons etc.) was 430 tons. The other
factor that came into play for marshalling trains was the length of 90 F or
equal to 90 “F” wagons, in later years this became a unit equal to 17 feet, 6
inches over buffers. With the introduction of the metric measures in the early
seventies the unit became 5 metres, and train length became 95 units. In the
original measure a “F” wagon was equal to 1F or 1 unit, “H” wagons was equal to
2, WH was equal to 2.5 units etc. Each wagon on the network had an allocated
length, after the mid 60’s this was marked on all wagons. Using WH wagons for
our train, 2.5 into 90 units equals 35 wagons and a van, at approx. 12 ton each
gives us a load of 432 tons, about 200 tons under a full load Brisbane to
Toowoomba.
The
load for trains south and west of Toowoomba was much higher, this creating
issues for QR getting tonnage to Toowoomba and making use of available engine
power on trains to Toowoomba. Our train of empty grain wagons at the maximum
length, but is 200 ton under the load. Grain trains running from Toowoomba to
Pinkenba were somewhere between 22 to 27 wagons subject to class, where the
wagons were loaded and type of grain being carried. If the same train was returning to Toowoomba
empty, the load would be considerably less. On top of this you need to balance
your locomotives, more or less, what go up needs to come back down or back to
Brisbane.
The
simple answer to the issue is to top up the trains with loaded wagons. Yes,
that sounds good, but most goods yards worked 7:00 am to 4:00 pm. During this
period wagons in the sidings are in various state of being loading/unloading,
to get a couple wagons out of the string would mean shutting down the siding
and stopping work on all other wagons. Plus the load in other wagons would not
be secured, moving them would cause damage to the load and wagon. The answer for the situation was on the
Pinkenba Branch with the oil companies, thus the timed stop at Whinstanes.
At
Pinkenba there was Shell, a big company with a huge terminal with 3 roads, 2
for loading tank wagons and the drum road for loading open wagons, repairs
etc.. The terminal could hold a full train if required and generally the
following train to Toowoomba 642 convey these tanks. Large number of Shell
tanks were fitted with bar frame bogies and could not travel on Express Freight
services. Esso and Amoco were also at Pinkenba, both these companies were much
smaller with limited depots in the South West. Amoco had the QR contract for
diesel fuel sending tankers to depot stations like Toowoomba, Goondiwindi, Roma
and Charleville.
Whinstanes
was much the same, BP was a big terminal with 3 roads much the same as Shell,
but not as big. Golden Fleece and Caltex were much smaller but send fuel to
more locations in the South West than Amoco and Esso. After the morning peak
passenger trains a shunt would arrive at Whinstanes from Mayne with butter and empty
tank wagons. Tank wagons were privately owned by the oil companies and were
give high priority in transit in both directions. Around lunch time Golden Fleece and Caltex
would be looking for a shunt to replace the loaded tanks with empty tanks to
load for the evening trains. The Whinstanes shunt engine and crew would shunt BP
and Caltex, the Lad Porter (This had to be
a Porter over 18 years old to shunt) from the station would take the Mayne
engine and reset Golden Fleece. All loaded tanks were placed in a siding next
to Main Line.
Approximately
half an hour before the arrival of 632 at Whinstanes, the Train Control would advise
the Assistant Station Master how much was to be added to the train. Quite often
six (6) small tanks (approx. 200 T) was added to the front of 632 using the
train engine.
Train
632 arrived in Toowoomba before the evening western and southern trains departed,
allowing loading for the far west to continue without delay. The later fuel
train 642 only had connections to Warwick and Dalby. After 1981,train 642 became
Train 7680, and in 1985 was still a “Goods Train” with a maximum speed 60km/h
as many of the older small tank wagons still had bar frame bogies. In the early
1990’s, tanks wagon were modified and many were placed on underframes off
QLX’s, HO’s, WHE’s, etc., the train became a Fast Freight train 6694
Fuel
was sent to Toowoomba/Harristown for the oil companies (Ampol, Caltex, Mobil,
Shell,and Willowburn for KR Darling Downs and Diesel Shed, Warwick (Ampol, Caltex,
BP, Mobil, Shell), Goondiwindi (Shell, BP, Mobil), Thallon (BP), Dirranbandi (Shell),
Dalby (Shell, BP, Mobil, Ampol, Golden Fleece), Miles (Shell, BP, Caltex), Roma
(BP, Mobil, Shell, Golden Fleece, Caltex, Esso, Diesel Shed), Charleville (BP,
Shell, Mobil, Golden Fleece, Ampol, Diesel Shed, Power House), Cunnamulla
(Caltex, BP) and Quilpie (Shell). There
is most likely other oil companies who shared other sidings, the list was taken
for a QR Document dated 1963 and only showed oil companies with private siding.
Plus there was also companies buying other companies and new companies starting
up. Only the 32 T gross (OB, OC, OP, OT, OV class)
and 40 T gross (OBE, OCE, OPE, OTE, OVE, OHE class) could be sent to Goondiwindi,
Thallon, Dirranbandi, Charleville, Cunnamulla and Quilpie. During the 60’s, fuel from Brisbane terminals also
went to Yarraman and Gympie. Some of these depots/unloading locations would
provide good operations on your layout with minimum space required.
Rail Tank Wagons (Rail
Tank Cars).
In
short these wagons fall into 4 categories by gross mass/weight.
32
Ton (OA, OB, OC, OL, OP, OF, OT, OQ, OV, OS, OR)
40
Ton (OBE, OCE, OLE, OPE, OHE, OTE, OQE, OVE, OKE)
The
32/40 ton gross tanks can travel on all lines.
48
Ton (OBY, OCY, OLY, OPY, OEY, OHY, OTY, OQY, OVY, OFY, OJY) 60 Ton (Steel Construction OBO, OCO, OHO, ORO, OPO, OLO, OPO, OSO, OTO, OVO).
(Aluminium Construction OBAO, OAAO, OCAO, OHAO, OPAO, OALO, OTAO, OVAO).
48/60
Ton RTC can only travel on “A” class lines (15 Ton Axle Load - TAL) or “S” (20
TAL) lines. Thus during the 60’s/70’s these wagons were restricted to the
Toowoomba Area, Warwick, Dalby, Miles and Roma fuel depots in the SWD. In later years Goondiwindi was added to this
list.
This
list is a short overview of tank wagon operations across many years and eras. It
would take many pages to detail the operation of Rail Tank Wagons on the QR
Network.
On Westgate:- My Train 632 has tanks on the front and
empty grain wagons towards the rear. It was common practice in the 60’s/70’s to
have loading wagons on the front of the train with empty wagons on the rear. Behind
the hauling loco is Mobil and Ampol tanks attached at Corinda, then Golden
Fleece tanks attached at Whinstanes and empty grain wagons on the rear. The
train falls short of a full load, 65.4 unit for 447 tons. The maximum train
length on Westgate is 66 unit with restrictions without clogging everything.
The
tanks are a mix of kits and scratch build dating back to the 70’s. Some are
starting to show their age and replacement is being considered. The WH wagons
are scratch build, the QGX and WHE wagons are PGC Kits. The CLV Guards Van was
my first carriage I built in the early 1970’s, it to is starting to show its
age. At a club meeting not long after being built a guy stood up under the
layout it was running on, the van hit the concrete floor. You could have heard
a pin drop. The van was repair with some alterations. The bogies are H0n3, the
sideframes were extended and biro tube was used to lengthen the wheel sets.
Hauling Locomotive :- Southern Rail’s 2400 class DEL fitted
with sound is on it first outing on the test run to Toowoomba.
Tank wagons on the lead are a mix of kits and scratch built.
WH wagons are all scratched built. The QR 5 bogies were a special order done by the late Rodney James of AR Kits for the AMRA Queensland Group and sold to members through the “Sales Cupboard”. K & M wheel sets were used in the bogies.
WHE and the QLX’s are PGC Kits.
The
Guard’s Van was scratch build in the mid 1970’s long before Evergreen sheet was
available. Silicon rubber was poured over the styrene master by the late Jim
Fainges, the mould was available to AMRA Queensland Group members, Plastic Bond
was used to fill the mould to produce the model. Even lettering them days was
free hand.
Another blast from the
past. Trust you enjoy the story.
The train running on the layout can be
found on YouTube
Arthur H.