Looking for other shunting activities for the “Amby West” layout, places to shunt, traffic types that would provoke something different, I turned to the QR’s 1963 “List of Siding” book. Most country stations have a Goods Shed with various types of cranes. A loading bank, again these could be part of the station platform in two levels or on a siding, some could be both side and end loading. Stock yards, these came in various forms, cattle, sheep, pigs, calf or all of the above. Early era they were made from what was available locally and that was mainly timber. From the 1960’s onwards with plenty of old worn rail about this became the go to material for new yards, many are still standing today. All of this was provided by the railway department to serve the local area.
All of the above are on the drawing board to
do and they would set the scene for a “true blue” QR station. To date I have
covered some private sidings, Fuel Depot, Flour Mill and a Butter Factory.
There is a siding for one more industry, looking through the siding book I find
many to pick from. It needs to be small, something you would find in a country
town and provide for more than one traffic type. More than one traffic type would
provide some additional work to shunt the place, or you might say “a real pain in the backside”. Wagons would need to be in a set order to be
placed in the siding and then there would be “hold back” wagons that were not
used or unloaded on the day of the shunt.
Hear is the list I looked at, some are obviously and others I have no idea what they could be. But they could assist you in looking for an industry for your layout.
Chard’s Siding. Nundah.
McKenzie and Hollands Siding. Northgate.
Engineer’s Siding. Virginia
Messrs. Tulloch Siding Sunshine.
Messrs. McKay Massey Harris (Qld) Pty. Ltd Siding. Sunshine
Hyne & Sons Siding Geebung
Normanby Distillery Coy’s Siding. Strathpine
Australian Paper Manufactures Ltd. Petrie.
Explosives Magazine Siding Dakabin
Brown and Broad’s Siding Beerwah
A.C.F. Shirley’s Siding Woombye.
W.A. Bott (64 m 25 ch. NCL)
Moreton Central Sugar Mill (64.m 41 ch. NCL) Nambour
Meadvale Ballast Quarry Siding (97 m 17 ch. NCL) Tandur.
Nestles Ltd Siding. Gympie
Queensland Co-op Milling Siding (166 m 1 ch. NCL) Maryborough
Burgowan Colliey Siding N0.7 Torbanlea.
Wide Bay Regional Electricity Board’s siding. Howard.
P.M.G Departmental Siding. Normanby
Brisbane Sawmills Ltd. Windsor.
Newmarket Plywood Co’s siding Newmarket.
Wunderlich Ltd Siding Gaythorne.
Rocla Co.’s Siding Keperra.
Queensland Cotton Board Siding. Whinstanes.
Ford Motor Works Eagle Farm
Military Siding. Bunour
Oxley Plywood Coy.’s Meeandah
James Hardie. Meeanhah
Harbours and Marine Wharf Pinkenba
Superphosphate (A.C. F. & Shirleys) Pinkenba
Bunge (Aust) Pty. Ltd.
Louis Dreyfus Siding
J.E Long Pty. Ltd.
Butter Marking Board
Brett and Co.
Cold Stores
Brisbane Stevedoring Co’s
Harbour and Marine Department (BHP)
Oil Companies at both Pinkenba and Whinstanes.
Hamilton Sawmills Pty. Ltd. Nudgee
Colonial Gas Association’s Sandgate
H. Buchanan’s Siding Sandgate.
Kingaroy Shire Council Saleyards. Siding. Kingaroy
Peanut Board Siding. Kingaroy
Departmental Sleeper Mill Siding. Proston.
Brittian’s Siding Oxley.
Queensland Lime and Cement Coy.’s Darra
Dowsett’s Siding Wacol.
Ebbw Vale Brick Co.’s Siding Ebbw Vale
Messers Granville Tobacco Processors Pty. Ltd. (Rothmans of Pall Mall Aust Ltd.) Bundamba
Beenleigh Distillery Sgd. Beenleigh.
C.O.D. Cold Stores Siding Glen Aplin.
Wool Scour Siding Blaxland (Dalby)
Roma Meatworks Pty. Ltd Siding. (315 M 50 ch) Blythdale – Roma section.
Lock Bros Siding. Sommariva (Sheep & Cattle Yards)
Glenroy Scour Siding (478 m 75 ch.)
To add to this there was a number of business that had facilities on railway land and used departmental sidings that are not shown in the book.
So far on the layout it’s looking much towards a location on the Darling Downs, butter, flour and fuel. If I look towards the Southern Darling Downs I could add in fruit. Bingo, I may just have it, a fruit Co-op.
The Summit
Warwick
Gayndah
Country locations with Industrial area with their own branch line to service the various sidings could make a great shunting or shelf layout with lots of activity.
Wilson Hart’s siding.
Maryborough Wharf.
Walker’s Foundry (Ship Yard).
Hume Pipe Coy.
Mobile Oil Coy.
Caltex Oil Coy.
Hyne and Sons.
Shell Coy.
Maryborough Sugar Factory.
Bundaberg Wharf.
Harbour Board’s Siding.
Gas Compamy’s Siding.
Bundaberg Timber Coy’s Siding.
Burnett Sawmiil’s Siding.
B.P. Company’s Siding.
Shell Co’s Siding.
Bunda Street.
Caltex Oil Coy. Siding.
Gavial Creek Wharf Branch
Cattle Yard Siding.
Caltex Oil Coy’s Siding.
BP Siding.
H.C.Sleigh Siding.
(I’m not sure, I feel these fuel sidings above received fuel in tank wagons from Gladstone.)
Gavial Creek Wharf.
Stanley Street Wharf
Branch.
Southern Cross Equipment Ltd. Siding.
Messrs. Stewart & Lioyd Siding.
Central Q’land Co-op Stock Food Ltd. Siding
Rockhampton Wharf Sidings.
The photo below
shows other sidings down the street.
Thanks to Rob for sharing his photos with us and assisting us with our modelling. We hear of these small local lines, we may even see them, but don’t take much notice. These photos highlight we can have street running industries on our layouts.
Mackay
Goods, Wharf, and Outer Harbour Branch
Mackay Goods. (0 M .28 Ch.)
Mobil Oil Co’s Siding (0 M .39 Ch.)
Mackay Wharf Siding (0 M .63 Ch.)
Harbour Board Siding.
Howard Smith Siding.
Adelaide Steamship Co.’s Siding.
J.Croker & Sons Siding.
Walkers Ltd. Siding (2 M . 27 Ch.)
Bulk Sugar Sidings (4 M . 5 Ch.)
Caltex Oil Coy. Siding (4 M . 10 Ch.)
Colonial Sugar Refinery Siding (4 M . 18 Ch.)
Outer Harbour (4 M . 62 Ch.) (This line was on the wharf. I recall sitting on a C17 with a string of wagons attached unloading a ship)
On top of these they were
many siding that were provided off the Main Line on the outskirts of towns.
Dalby.
Glenmorgan Branch.
Shell Co.’s Siding
Siding.
Downs Co-operative Dairy Coy. (Natcha).
Natcha
Napier Bros. (Natcha)
State Wheat Board Siding.
Yumborra (Crossing Loop with siding)
Ampol Petroleum (Qld) Pty. Ltd. Siding.
Dalby-Wambo Saleyards Board Siding.
And there is various other small siding with names, some are just 4 ch. Loops.
The Bell Branch and Roma siding were included in the Fuel Depot Blog back in September 2024.
Not all grain loading facilities are tall silos, before bulk grain it was transported in bags. There is still a few still standing today. If you modelled the early 1950’s or before, these could fit into your layout.
Greenmount.
Wallumbilla
Oakey
When storing wheat, hessian was erected along the posts for weather protection.
If modelling an era with bulk grain, sheds were used as well as silos.
Not all Industries are served by rail, but the line may pass through an industrial estate and these business may use the local station and goods yard to receive and send their goods. They can set the scene for traffic in and out of the local station.
If looking for industries
as a backdrop for your layout, these at Rocklea may fill the bill.
Models.
Being a shunting layout I was looking for industries that would provide work, extra moves to get you thinking. The siding has some length so I was looking for two industries that could share the siding, this would require wagons to be sorted out into their order of placement in the siding. Coupled to that there could be “hold backs”, that’s wagon that has been placed and were not unloaded or loaded to go out. I have added a crane as well to the siding, more on that at a later date. I think this will create some congestion in the area and give the operator something to nut out.
The two industries picked centre around fruit growing. A Fruit Growers Co-op arrangement with a timber building for general merchandise associated with growing fruit coming in and dry fruit products going out. Wagons come in could be loaded with fruit packing materials, carton/bags, fencing materials, irrigation equipment and chemicals etc. Loaded out would be fruit and vegetables. A selection of open and box wagons would be required.
Using the photos above of the Cottonvale QFS building, a low relief structure was build. Plans for the building were drawn up using a plan of a similar building located in the Australian Model Railway Magazine. The length was shorten to fit into the allocated real estate on the layout.
The second structure was to be a cold stores for fruit that required refrigeration. Cool cars would convey the fruit to markets. This building is totally freelance, something I made up that I feel will do the job. I guess “X” marks the spot for a cool car to be placed.
Both structures were built from styrene sheet and Evergreen strip was used to finish off the finer detail.
The photos below were taken
during live testing before the scenery had been carried out on the layout, some
grass will be added once the underside electrical and point rodding is
completed. Even at this stage I got a bit carried away operating the layout
instead of finishing off the build. So much so rollingstock has been allocated
and an operating method has been established.
In this scene, a truck
loaded with wool marks the spot to place a wagon. An empty eight wheel open
wagon has been supplied and placed for the consignment. Remove the truck and
the empty wagon can now be used to supply other orders at another location. No
need to build or make removable loads to give a wagon a reason to be in a
particular place.
Detailing items of stacked boxes, sacks and pallets are Infront Models. These require painting to colour of choice
The International Acco is an OZ Kit, it’s titled as a SRA Flat Bed Single Axle Truck. I painted it white to make a general purpose vehicle. The Q.F.S. on the cab door is home-made decal using my Inkjet printer.
The Q.F.S. sign is home-made decal using my Inkjet printer.
Again, Infront Models detailing parts were used to detail the loading platform. The pallet jack is a mini- prints model from Canada.
A few years back, I did have a crack at some low relief building for “Westgate” layout using the Rocklea photos.
This building was a gift
from a modelling friend that looks after the QR conventions website.
Once again Arthur, your level of research is to be commended. There is certainly a lot of variety in the lineside industries you have listed.
ReplyDeleteI find shunting to be the best part of an operation session. (And I didn't think you would be using my pictures so quickly - thankyou).