Yard Cranes - Shunting (Switching) - Layout Part No 6.

Up until the mid-1970’s, loading and unloading of wagons was manual labour. One by one the cartons/creates/drums would be loaded into the wagon and the same on arriving at the destination, one by one they came out of the wagon. If the consignment was beyond a two man lift a crane was used.  

Many station in country area had at least one crane, some had two. Blog post November 2024 on Goods Shed highlights this. Run through sheds had a crane in the shed and a second crane outside. The size of the crane or if the receiving station had a crane this could influence the location a consignment was sent too. The 1963 QR siding book shows the capacity of the cranes at stations. I will list a few to show the various sizes and this will also give an indication of traffic volume at various size stations. 

 

Station.	Capacity of Crane.
Prairie	10 cwt
Tolga	25 cwt.
Yandina/Eumundi/Cooroy/Pomona/Cooran/Amby/Proston/Biggenden/ Gingin/Grantham/Harrisville/Toogoolawah/Linville/Oakey/WarraChinchilla/ Quilpie/Cheepie/Millmerran/Killarney/Inglewood/Yelarbon/Noondoo/Tara/Bell/ Jandowae/Injune/Mt Larcom/Jericho	1 Ton
Landsborough/Nambour/Tiaro/Kingaroy/Allora/Maxwelton/Julia Creek/Mundubbera/	1½ Tons
Murgon/Gatton/Nerang/Mitchell/Morven/Winton/Beaudesert/Boonah/Lockyer	2 Tons
Petrie/Caboolture /Woombye/Kilkivan/Southport/Esk/Yarraman/Mackay/	3 Tons
Gayndah/Eidsvold/Helidon/Clifton/Warwick/Roma/Charleville/Monto/Biloela/ Bundaberg/Rockhampton Wharf Siding/Hughenden/Toowoomba/Gladstone	5 Tons
Blackall/Cairns	7 Ton
Goondiwindi/Rockhampton/ Mt Morgan/Ayr/Charters Towers/Townsville/Maryborough/Russell’s Siding (73M. 58 Ch. Helidon) Urangan Jetty/Bowen Harbour Board/Boogan/Innisfail	10 Tons
Bowen Jetty	20 Tons

One Ton

Cheepie

Amby

Yandina

Note the method of operation, it’s in two parts. The cable from the operating handle drives the big wheel at the top, which in turn drives the chain drum, the lifting hook is fixed to the chain. 

Some cranes have been moved into museums or local parks.

Two Ton

Cooroy

2^nd Crane located in the Back Road behind the station and was used to load pineapple bins (1 ton). 

Muckadilla

Glenmorgan

Three Ton

Kilkivan 

Five Ton

Morven.

Wandoan 

The book does show a few stations with two cranes. 
Roma Street - 20 Ton electric travelling, two x 2 Tons & two x 4 Tons.
Gympie - 5 Tons. 15 Ton electric
Clapham - 5 Tons. 15 Ton electric
Wallangarra - 10 Tons & 3 Tons
Cloncurry - 20 Ton, 2 Ton, 2 cwt.
Babinda - 1 Ton, 2 cwt.

Roma Street.

South Brisbane Interstate

Clapham

Banyo Workshops

Gympie

Howard. Steel derrick 

Stick sugar cane was loaded into open wagons in various sidings on the network, mainly timber derricks were used to lift bundles of cane off farm trucks and swing it across into the rail wagons.  An example of these apparatus is currently available for viewing at the Redland museum. Other photos suggest they may not be a big as this one. 

Over time as traffic changed, so did the cranes. By the mid 1960’s mobile cranes were starting to come on the scene and they too were in various forms from rubber wheeled tractor cranes and shunt tractors fitted with cranes. 

With the move towards containerised freight in the 1980’s, cranes of various sizes to handle this type of freight started appearing in the goods yards.  

Acacia Ridge 

Some travelling cranes not required for general freight were moved to other locations and used for containers.

The crane from South Brisbane interstate was moved to Wallangarra. 

Forklifts and similar machines over time became the most popular method for handling containers. 

Bundaberg had a unit similar to this.

Models.

Looking at both layouts were is four cranes. Some have been purchase some time back and are not available today. 

In some ways a crane is a crane and they all look much the same, if you don’t tell anyone, there is a good chance they don’t know the difference, or you can add or remove bits to make it look the real deal. 

The first crane for Westgate was a transhipping crane to move freight from standard gauge trains (NWSR) to narrow gauge trains (QR). At the time it was hard to find as this kit had been out of production for some time. It is a Wathers kit and was similar to a number of cranes on the QR network. 

Lights were added about 12/18 months ago to allow for night operations. 

For the goods shed at Wyandra a Peter Boormans Workshop brass etch NSWR crane was used.

To unload logs at the sawmill, a VR derrick kit was used.

The Goods Shed crane for Amby West is a Caintode Flats kit which was purchased recently.

During the Amby West build, I came up with an idea of an overhead crane. This would add a bit more to the shunting requirements on the layout. The Gympie crane came to mind and the search was on for something similar. Most cranes available were too big, so back to drawing board to scratch build one. Using the photos of the Gympie crane, knowing the rollingstock and loading gauge a plan was drawn up to fit the real estate available. Evergreen Styrene shapes and strip was used to construction the crane. Yes, mostly guess work, but it looks the part.

 

A shed to store lifting gear was added to the scene, a trolley shed plan from John Armstrong book “Modelling the Queensland Railway Scene” was used. This book is back in print and is available from Queensland Scale Models in Bundaberg. Some old sleepers and tyres used for load securing were added to the location for realism.  

Another crane that is still available today and could be used near your goods shed is the Uneek Model Products 830 5 ton NSWR crane for around $65.00. 

Other interesting reading:-   

“Goods Handling” by Jim Fainges.
“Goods Handling Facilities” by Jim Hutchinson & Jim Fainges,

Both articles can be found in the 2006 Modelling the Railways of Queensland Convention book which is available on the MRQC website.   

This article does not cover all cranes found on the QR network, there is many more at other locations for the traffic that was unique to the area.   

Trust you found the information helpfully and is something you can use for your railway. 

As you can see from the Amby West layout photos the layout is just about completed. A method of operations has been worked out and been put to the test. The last few weeks operating the layout has been fun. The layout has been put forward for consideration for the Layout Tours for the upcoming NMRA Regional Convention is August. Operating Sessions has been suggested. 

Until next time, happy modelling. 

Arthur H.     

Acknowledgements.

Australian Model Railway Association Queensland Library.
QR Siding book 1963
Historians and other modellers, Peter Kennedy, Bill Blannin, Ruth Mavroleon (Redland Museum). P. Barker
Modelling the Queensland Railway Scene by John Armstrong. 

State Library 

Other Industries - Shunting (Switching) Layout - Part 5.

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.  

  

Main Roads Commission Siding. Nundah.
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
 
Bulimba Branch. (Wool stores, fuel depots, cannery, power house, cement works, bulk sugar, wharf.) 
Brisbane Sawmills Ltd. Windsor.
Newmarket Plywood Co’s siding Newmarket.
Wunderlich Ltd Siding Gaythorne.
Rocla Co.’s Siding Keperra.
 
Commonwealth Dep. Of Works siding Whinstanes
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 
 
Hamilton Cold Stores Branch
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.   
 
C.O.D. Cannery. Bindha
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.
 
Foggitt, Jones and Co.’s Siding Oxley
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
 
Messrs. Bradford & Kendall Siding Runcorn.
Beenleigh Distillery Sgd. Beenleigh.
 
Queensland Industries Ltd (Scotts of Ipswich). Ipswich.
 
Commonwealth Stores Siding. Drayton.
C.O.D. Cold Stores Siding Glen Aplin.
 
Western Line
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.)   

Much like a Goods Shed, a local store in town has a building for receiving and storing goods. The siding book shows ownership as COD.

Charleville.

 
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.  
 

Looking at the line south of Warwick, there is a number of fruit loading stations including a couple of branch lines. Cottonvale a junction to the Amiens Branch had a large QFS Fruit Co-op with a siding.

The siding side of the building could be a low relief structure for the layout. 

Thulimbah 

The Summit

Stanthorpe

 

Warwick

Wallumbilla

Gayndah 

Cotton Ginnery 

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.

Maryborough Wharf Branch.
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.

Walker’s Bowen Street North siding.

Woongarra Branch (Bundaberg)

Port Curtis Dairy Assoc. Siding.
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.

Rockhampton Area.

Gavial Creek Wharf Branch

Shell Coy’s Siding.
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.

Wilson Hart’s Siding.
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  

Shell Coy.Siding.  (0 M .19 Ch.)
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) 

Bowen Jetty Branch.

Saltworks Siding.

Smelter’s Siding.

Coke Ovens Siding

Shell Coy. Of Aust. Ltd Siding.

Bowen (Goods)

Townsville Regional Electricity Board Siding.

Harbours and Rivers Department Siding.

Bowen Jetty.

Harbour Board’s Siding.

On top of these they were many siding that were provided off the Main Line on the outskirts of towns. 

Dalby. Glenmorgan Branch.

Barnes Milling Coy. Siding.
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.

 

Office was added to one end of the building to carry out the necessary paper work. Lighting was added using 4020 LED’s purchased from EBay. The forklift is an Infront Model 1970 Toyota, using an N20 motor/gear box available on EBay was hooked to a crank and the forklift moves in and out of the building. This is something I picked up watching Laurie McLean “ANIM8FX YouTube videos.   

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.

 

Yes, all good fun. Trust you find the information helpful and it can assist you in your model railway journeys.

 

Happy Easter to you all.

 

Arthur H.  

 

Acknowledgements.

Australian Model Railway Association Queensland Library.

QR Plans.

QR Siding book 1963

Historians and other modellers, John Armstrong, Keith McDonald, Rob Nesbitt, Laurie McLean MMR.

Queensland State Archives.

Australian Model Railway Magazine.