Until the mid-1980’s, Queensland Railways was a common carrier. In short they were required to provide a service to everyone and carry goods to all locations on the network.
The railways did this in two ways. Smaller parcels/packages and some freight types was carried on Passenger Trains, known as Parcels Traffic and was covered by the “Coaching By- Laws”. These items were conveyed in Baggage Cars and Guards Vans. Most stations on the network accepted and received this traffic. A number of choices was available to the general public. One was required to take the item to the station and likewise at the other end pick up the item from the station. The cheapest means of payment of freight payment was to buy stamps. The item was put on the scales and using a chat for distance a charge was arrived. Back in the mid 1970’s a 1 kg parcel Brisbane to Cairns cost just .13c. Stamps were placed on the parcel. You could choose to send the item and the receiver would pay the freight charges, for our 1 kg parcel to Cairns that was .17c. You also send an item and recover your costs for the item and freight, this was known as COD. There was two types of service provided with COD’s. One could chose to receiving payment at the end of the month or on delivery for an extra fee. Regular customers could have a Ledger Account or run a Cash Deposit account. All these activities was manage by the Station Master, in larger location, clerical staff were employed. Each month a station balance was carried out and returns was sent to the Audit Office for verification.
These was some
restrictions, there was two types of stations, attended stations and unattended
stations. Stations with a Station Masters there was no limits. Gates could be unattended locations or there
was a Station Mistress or a Ported in Charge. Parcels going to Gates had to be
prepaid. The Coaching By-Law covered parcels, perishable parcels, small animals
including racing pigeons, bikes, milk & cream, bullion, gold, treasury
notes etc., cinematograph films, and corps. The By-Law also had the passenger
fares. This business was conducted at the railway station. Parcel Waybills were used to pay for the
freight cost and as records, the original copy travelled with the item and was
the receiving station record. Internally there was a “Value” Letter or Parcel,
registered post if you like, a signature was required when it left your hands.
Heaver items and wagon loads are “Goods” traffic and was covered in accordance with the “Goods” & Livestock By-Laws. Just about every item known to man had a classification, the goods was charge by weight over distance according to it class. All over the network there is sidings, in town, out in the bush in the middle of nowhere for wagons to be placed for loading or unloading. Most were departmental sidings, own and maintained by QR. Then were are the private sidings, fuel depots, butter factory’s etc. Most stations had a siding for the general public to consign or pick up goods. Goods shed were provided in most towns. Goods traffic was handled in two ways, wagon loads and less than wagon loads (LCL). Wagon loads were straight forward, a customer loads a wagon and wagon travels to his customer. Less than wagon loads was a very different story and this is where the Goods Shed has a role. The size of the Goods Shed related to the size of the town and what work was done. Bigger towns/cities had large sheds, many were run through type shed that could hold six or so wagons under cover where transhipping was performed, plus load and unload goods for their location. Down one end there would be a number of offices and amenities etc. The Good Shed was a place to stow goods until it was delivered. Larger sheds generally had clerical staff as to the smaller sheds in a small towns it was up to the Station Master.
Small quantities of goods was loaded into road wagons. These wagons were generally placed on the guards van and conveyed goods for stations along the line. This was called “Roadside”, other rail operators called it “Out Ofs”. There could be more than one road wagon on the train. On the Mt Isa were would a number of wagons. At the rear of the train was a large composite guards van, a composite sleeper and the following road wagons, Townsville – Mt Isa Road for general goods, Townsville – Mt Isa Road for perishable goods, Roma Street – Mt Isa Road for general goods, Roma Street – Mt Isa Road for perishable goods, Roma Street – Mt Isa Road fruit, Roma Street – Mt Isa Road poison wagon, Garbutt – Mt Isa milk wagon. After the train departed, there was six or seven piles of goods down the main line and you would spend the next hour carting this goods back to the office for delivery or storage. Some road wagon were detached in route, one end would be a roadside for other station with the other end containing freight for a location. I.E. Palmwoods Road would have goods for Mooloolah and Eudlo in one end and the other end would have Palmwoods loading, the wagon was detached off the train at Palmwoods.
How did the goods system of freight come together and work. QR had four divisions, South Eastern Division known as the SED with a General Manager at Roma Street (Helidon to Avondale). South Western Division known as SWD, with the General Manager in Toowoomba (Helidon west). Central Division, or the CD with a General Manager in Rockhampton, (Avondale to Bloomsbury). And the Northern Division, ND with a General Manager in Townsville (Bloomsbury north). Largely, each division run their own trains to serve their division. Trains from Brisbane (Roma Street) provided a feeder service from the state capital to the country divisions and major cities.
Each of the divisional
headquarters had large goods shed that were set up to tranship freight.
Toowoomba Goods Shed.
Smaller regional towns where there were
branch lines there was smaller sheds.
Dalby
Small amounts of freight arriving for the branches would be transhipped into road wagons for the next train on the branch. Glenmorgan, Bell, Jandowae Branches.
Ipswich
Charleville.
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Local goods plus road wagons for Quilpie and Cunnamulla Lines
Cunnamulla.
In
later years covered areas allowed for forklifts and pallets to be used to
manage goods.
Plans suggest that some of these regional shed were around 250 ft. long.
Warwick
Something very different, a
stone building. Again, a junction.
Longreach
A number of
smaller locations had run through shed, this one is at Wyandra.
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Two doors for
deliveries, one a platform, the other was a dock under cover with crane
Many were a bit smaller and were weatherboard. Beenleigh, Petrie, Beaudesert, Mt Perry and Dugandan to name a few. Plans show most of them were 40ft. long and 30ft wide with a platform that was 40 or 50 ft. long on one end. The high of the build did vary a bit as well the pitch in the roof.
Alpha shed, a
bit different with the open sides.
This shed may
of been modified to accommodate containers on wagons.
Bundaberg
This was a
newer shed, brick construction and offices on a second level.
There are standard drawings for Goods Shed, but it was hard to find two the same. Some were weatherboard, others corrugated iron. Sheds could be one bay, two bay and three days long.
Morven.
A three
door shed with platforms both sides.
Mitchell.
Delivery doors are at ground level, back in loading dock??
Mitchell the goods yard has an extra siding where trucks can be placed next to the wagon for unloading/loading. In later years, QLX wagons were used for wool traffic on the return to Brisbane. Could well be a side bank as well on the road.
Ballandean
A plan for this shed is in Australian Model Railway Magazine Issue # 72, May 1975
Cooroy.
Many goods shed
had crane on an extended platform.
Bungunya
Ilfracombe.
Sliding timber door has been replaced with roller doors.
A small shed
has been added to garage a forklift.
Gayndah
A concrete platform has been added to the shed.
Quilpie
Mundubbera with a two level platform and concrete extension.
Coorparoo
Rocklea
Yandina, the good shed siding was a loop behind the station.
Laidley
When you think
you have seen it all, Kilkivan comes up with something very different.
Glen Aplin must
be the only goods shed with a shingle roof.
Wynnum shed is still standing today.
If the platform awning on the plan don’t match the prototype photos, some were cut back and reduced for clearance.
Thulimbah
Some smaller shed are placed on the main line, so trains can do roadside
At some locations the Goods Shed is beside the station. If the station was unattended for the train conveying the roadside. The Guard will place the goods in the shed from the road wagon and next morning the “Office in Charge” will deliver the goods to the consignee.
Toobeah
Thallon
Cotton Vale
Mungallala
Note the roof line on this shed and ventilation on the front wall.
Smaller sheds can be found trackside to provide a secure storage for midsection cattle/sheep properties. All goods travelling to these location must have the freight chargers per paid.
Plans for smaller roadside shed have a heading “Shed for Storing Goods”.
Lurnea.
A roadside shed
for goods for a sheep station, bridge girders support the added platform. The
Westlander also stopped at this location with mail bags and supplies.
Nardoo
Nimaru
So, how does it all work?
Let’s say Rural Fires at Rocklea has 4 cartoon of hoses to send to the troops at Tara on the Downs, they are about 15 kg each. They would take them to the goods yard at Rocklea with a consignment note. On arrival at Rocklea a “Checker” receives the goods that is loaded into their Roma Street Tranship wagon. The tranship wagon can be any box wagon, most of the time it’s a wagon that arrived the previous day loaded and the freight has been delivered. It could well be a wagon from Roma Street with several consignments arriving for locals in the area. The consignment note ends up the Assistance Station Master table, he rate the goods and enters charges to the consignment notes. These details on the consignment notes are entered onto an Invoice which will travel with the goods to it destination, usual in an envelope with the guard to which the wagon is attached. Charges are entered to Rural Fires Ledger account which is paid at the end of the month.
That evening the wagon is
attached to a train for Roma Street, the next morning the wagon is placed at
Roma Street goods yard. Roma Street had 24 roads for receiving and loading
unloading of goods. Roads were allocated to various parts of the state. I.e.
Townsville north, Central division, South West division, etc.
This Courier Mail Photos show how busy Roma Street was in its hay days. The shed on the left was for far north loading, the centre shed with officers above was 7 road and was the transhipping shed. I think the doors on 7 shed were down on the ground after being hit by a wagon more than being up and closed, the shed on the right was central division loading, something like roads 10, 11 & 12.
Wagons were placed for most major locations in destination blocks in station order to reduce shunting for marshalling trains at the end of the day, this would include any customer orders for a wagon. Some days of the week additional wagons would be included to connect with branch line trains. Our Rocklea wagon has consignment for various stations on the network. Tranship Porter would arrange the movement of this goods to other wagons. Our Tara cartons could be loaded into the Glenmorgan Road wagon. If there was no road wagon the cartons would be loaded into a Dalby wagon. At Dalby the cartons would be loaded into a Tara wagon or a road wagon.
Sometimes there could be consignments for two stations in the one wagon. We had 5 ton of steel for Roma and 4 ton of steel for Morven. The Morven loading went in first on the floor and the Roma loading on top. The wagon would be sent to Roma and then forward to Morven.
If there was a number of consignments for a division, they were loaded into one wagon and sent to the division for transhipping. Back at Rocklea Sims Metal has the following steel consignments to send. 5 ton for Roma, 2 ton for Miles, 1 ton for Oakey and 1 ton for Warwick. Instead of sending 4 partly loaded wagons to 4 destinations, the 4 consignment were loaded into one wagon and sent to Toowoomba. The 5 ton for Roma makes the floor load and the other destinations on top. At Toowoomba the Miles, Oakey and Warwick loading is move to other wagons. The wagon now become the general Roma wagon for that day from Toowoomba, in other words, goods arriving for Roma will be loaded into that wagon
This photo taken by G. Mol
at Stanthorpe in 1968 highlights a few things, on the guards van is the road
wagon for small consignment in route. In the yard is a number of box wagons for
fruit and other consignments. The three on the right down near the station with
the doors open could be for fruit and general loading, one wagon for Toowoomba
Tranship, another wagon for Roma Street Tranship and other wagon for the
Brisbane Markets fruit.
Unloading goods from Road Wagon known as roadside.
Some sheds live on in the
community today. Hear at Morven it the information centre. This shed is not the
local shed, it’s still in the original location standing beside the tracks and
is much larger.
Models.
Most layouts don’t have of lot real estate for a large shed. Smaller sheds can be added without to many issues. Over the years I have built a number of Goods Sheds, all have been made with styrene. A small shed is on the layout at Wyandra.
The latest one is for the shunting
layout, a run through shed is something I have been thinking about for some
time and it would not fit on the layout. I did make some modifications.
The shed was made with a removable roof to allow for detail to be added later on if required. On the shunting layout inside detail will not be visible, even lights may serve no purpose in a well-lit room.
The plan indicates the weatherboard is a
7 inches board with a 2 inch overlap. Evergreen Scale Models has a # 4061
Clapboard siding sheet .060” spacing x .040” (1mm) thick. At the time I was not
able to purchase this and used what I had which was the next size up .080”
spacing.
Trucks can load and unload straight from the wagon trackside as well.
The model was painted using SMS acrylic lacquer paints. Some light weathering and additional detail will be added once on the layout.
A smaller shed is on the layout at Wyandra.
This shed has a crane plus some detail added, highlighting some action in the area.
Much of the
detail has been scratch built.
The yard crane
is a NSWR Peter Boormans Workshop etch brass kit.
For realistic operations instructions can outline what is to be placed where. The box wagon on the shed platform and the tarp wagon next to the crane. Open and box wagons can be placed in the open area away from platform for unloading as well. A truck can be used as a marker as to where the wagon has to be placed.
Modelling the Queensland Railway Scene book by John Armstrong contains a couple of plans for Goods Sheds, 30ft x 20 ft. weatherboard and 14 ft. x 22 ft. galvanised iron sheds are included. The books has just been reprinted and is available from Queensland Scale Models. https://queenslandscalemodels.com.au/. I don’t see it listed on their website; they will be at the Pine Rivers Train & Hobby exhibition on the 7th & 8th of December at Brendale.
Most Goods Shed had a
crane, they were hand operated and there was various type with lifting capacity
arranging from 1 ton to 5 tons. In the early 1960’s QR started using mobile
tractor cranes, some were attached to shunt tractors.
By the mid 1980’s QR went up market and
started using pallets and forklifts to handle freight. At the end of October 1991, Roma Street goods
yard closed, 28th of October was the first Q-Link train out of
Acacia Ridge. This was the start of a door to door method of operations, Goods
traffic and Parcels operation became one. Many local goods yard were shut
down. As Q-Link advanced, more and more
road transport expanded taking over from rail. Today, I think the only freight
operation on rail is the weekly train from Rockhampton to Winton.
Some additional sheds can be found on the internet www.stationpast.net/queensland.
It has been a busy month with a number of visitors calling in to view the layout, which including one from the US. On top of this there has been video interviews and filming of the layout, this has been in the pipe line for some time, not sure when this will be available. It’s not my project, and is in part with another project that has been ongoing for some time. Plus there has been a couple of articles written for magazines. Thus, not a lot of modelling has been achieved.
Just one event left for the year.
As above, the North Pine Train & Hobby Exhibition 7th & 8th of December at Brendale.
Until next time, have fun and enjoy this great hobby.
Arthur H.
Acknowledgements.
Australian Model Railway
Association Queensland Library
QR Plans
QR Weekly Notices
Queensland State
Archives
Various Author for their
photos.