Westgate

Westgate

 

The “South Western Railway” is a freelance HO scale railway operating both QR and NSWR trains. Currently where is four stations on the layout, two on the Queensland Railways narrow gauge (H0n42) network and two on the NSWR standard gauge network. If I alter my workshop arrangements, a third QR station is possible.

Westgate is the main QR station on the layout. I was born, grew up and started work at Charleville, approximately 483 miles west of Brisbane. The nearest junction to Charleville is Westgate, this is where the Quilpie line branches off the Cunnamulla line.  The other QR station on the layout is Wyandra. Stations on the NSWR network are Wallal and Winbin. Wanko is reserved for the third QR station when built. All five stations can be found on the Quilpie and Cunnamulla lines west of Charleville. These locations are all located in what was known as the South Western Division (SWD) of Queensland Railway.

For many years I have modelled both Queensland and New South Wales Railways in H0 scale. The QR rollingstock runs on Peco H0m track for the 3 foot 6 inch gauge track (H0n42 or H0n3½). The NSWR rollingstock run on Peco code 100 H0 track. I wanted both systems on the layout as both were the same scale. There was a couple locations in Queensland where both systems come together and goods/freight was transhipped between the two. Using some of the facilities at one of these location gave me the purpose to have both on the layout.  

 Westgate on the layout is a junction, currently the branch is being used as a head shunt.  Within the yard limits on the branch is a siding for loading coal. This is just a timber ramp where trucks can back out and tip there load into wagons. 7 Road is the tranship road adjacent to the NSWR standard track. Clapham near Moorooka station on Brisbane southside has a similar arrangement. Four different facilities are located in the road, a gravel loading bank to tranship wheeled vehicles, overhead crane across both roads, a tranship shed for produce and a stock race.  A crossover between 7 and 6 Roads gives access to both ends of the tranship shed.

 

Coal Ramp

Tranship Shed and Stock Race

Transhipping.

 

 The station main line platform can accommodate an 8 car train and the dock platform has access to both the main line and the branch. The station building was built from styrene using photos of the original Charleville station which was burnt down in 1954.

Charleville 1927. Photo State Library Qld

Charleville 1927. Photo State Library 1908

 

 

The engine shed is styrene and built off photos of the Charleville shed which came crashing down around locos during a willy-willy (dust twister) in 2005. Much like Charleville, the track around the side of the engine shed leads to cattle and sheep yards. The yards on the layout were modelled from photos of the private trucking yards at Sommariva about 30 miles east of Charleville. Also located on this siding is a district track maintenance camp with portable buildings.

Charleville Engine Shed 1967

 On Westgate 2017

The loop will hold a train equal to 80 F, just 10 F short of a full length train for a diesel electric locomotive in the 60’s. F wagons were used as the unit for train lengths which equalled 15 feet. Roads 3/4/5/6 are marshalling roads used for making up or breaking down trains. These roads vary in length and hold equal to 30/40 F. Crossover are located near the middle of each road to divide each road into two.    

 

District Track Gang Camp

 

Cattle Yards

Sheep Yards.

 

To control train movements on the western end of the yard a small signal cabin was built from styrene. Plans for this structure (Dalby) were drawn up by Jim Hutchinson and can be found in the 2002 Modelling the Railways of Queensland Convention handbook.

 

A label/card system is used to make up trains, one system used can be found in the February 2017 edition of the Australian Model Railway Magazine (Issue 322 Vol.28).

The layout is powered by 12 volts DC wired to operate two controllers. This allows for one train to run the main line with another shunting, or two shunting.   

  

 

GM Fan Club

GM Fan Club.

This week we had some visiting locos in town.

It's time for a line-up of QR/QRN GM's across the decades.

S Wagon

“S” Wagons.

Various railways around the world have/had platform/flat top wagons fitted with bolsters which used stanchions/pegs to keep the load on the wagon. Chains are generally used to secure the load during transit.    

The plans for these wagons on Queensland Railways called the wagons, timber wagons. At first QR had 3 types, “Q” class wagon – 4 wheeled, “R” class wagon – 6 wheeled, and “S” class wagon – 8 wheeled. All having a 5 ton axle load. By the early 60’s only “S” wagon remained on the network. These wagon were all timber construction with bar frame bogies. Steel plates were added to the top of the bolster to assist with ware. Stanchions were steel and could be removed from the bolster, but not from the wagon. A short length of chain attached the stanchion to the bolster. All bolsters also had chain with a screw turn buckle to secure the load.    

 

The table below gives an overview of the “S” class wagon.

Class	Wheels	Size	# Bolsters	Tare	Carry	Bogies	QR Plan
SG	4	20’ x 8’	3	5T 17c	10T 3c	Grover	192
S	8	19’ x6’ 4”	2	7T 9c	12T 11c	4’ BF
S	8	19’7” x 7’6”	3	6T 3c	13T 17c	4’ BF
S	8	26’ x 6’ 4”	3	6T	13T	4” BF	191
S	8	26’ x 7’6”	3	7T	13T	4’ BF
S	8	30’ x 7’6”	4	7T 15c	12T 5c	4’ BF	190/188
S	8	30’ x 6’ 4”	3	6T 15c	13T 5c	4’ BF
S	8	30’ x 7’ 6”	4	7T	13T	4’ BF
S	8	30’ x 6’ 6”	3	6T 17c	13T 3c	4’ BF
S	8	30’ x 6’6”	3	7T 2c	12T 18c	4’ BF
S	8	32’ x 8’	4	8T 15c	11T 5c	4’ BF	·         189
S	8	32’ x 7’6”	3	7T 8c	12T 12c	4’ BF
SJ	8	27’ x 7’6”	3	7T 9c	24T 11c	5’ BF (a)
SJ	8	32’ x 7’ 9”	4	10.5T	21.5 T	5’ BF (b)	193
SR	8	42’ x 7’ 9”	4	11.5 T	20.5T	5’ BF (a)	194

·         Plan 189 shows Class S. 1924 Standard.

5’Bar Frame (BF) bogies had 8’ x 4” journals (8 ton axle load), some were fitted with 2’ 2” wheels (a), and others had 2’ 9½” wheels (b).  

“Q” class 4 wheeled timber wagon were 14’ x 6’6” and carried about 6T 14cwt

“R” class mainly 6 wheeled timber wagons some 30’ x 6’ 6” with 2 bolsters, others were 20’ x 7’ 6‘ fitted with 3 bolsters. The wagons carried between 8½ -10 T with a gross of 15 T. 

Loads:- As the title suggests the wagons carried timber. Most wagons I observed carried logs to sawmills, generally the logs were free of bark. The wagons were also used to carry departmental materials for bridges, piles, girders, braces etc.  Other long items were also carried on the wagons, poles, steel beams etc. The Goods and Livestock Rates Book allowed a 1½ ton over load on these wagons. There was also a minimum charge for timber/logs subject to length of the product. Most wagons carrying timber/logs were weight on wagon weight bridges in transit so charges could be added to invoices.  If the wagons could not be weighted, the logs were measured and an estimated weight was worked out using Hoppus measurements.  SR wagons were mainly used to convey 40’ lengths of rail.

Conversions:-

“S” wagons were modified to carry water “SW” class, pineapples “SP” class, sleepers “SS” class, motor vehicles, cars, caravans, trailers etc, “SM”, “SMC”,“SMS”, “SML”, later around 1978 these wagons were changed to “M” class. Some “S” wagons had tanks fitted for molasses and kept their “S” classification. The tanks varied in size and shape with capacity between 1850 and 2000 gallons.   

Some “SJ” wagons carried 5T cement bins and were classed “SBC” wagons.

 

A couple had tanks fitted to convey water, class “SJW”.  Most SJ modifications were for molasses keeping their “SJ” classification. Tanks of various size and shape were fixed to the wagon, capacity of the tanks were between 1920 and 3279 gallons. Many had the timber floors removed to allow more product to be carried.

Some of these wagons worked around the Brisbane area conveying molasses to Beenleigh and Normanby distilleries. The Beenleigh distillery was a couple miles south of the station, loaded wagons were placed in the morning and the empty were picked up early evening. On the evening shunt it was quite common for the crew to sample the overproof product. From stories I heard sitting in the Gabba boardroom at night, not all drivers came home on the footplate. These wagons are marked “Beenleigh Rum – that’s the spirit”.

 

The Normanby distillery was at Strathpine on the western banks of the South Pine River behind the current site of the Westfield Shopping centre. A small branch line left Strathpine station, crossed over Gympie Road and ran along the side of Mecklem Street. That is just out the front of where Railway Modellers of Queensland Club hold their exhibitions. Before the line was strengthened in 1942 to take locomotives, horses, bullocks, and later tractors would pull the wagons across Gympie Road. Both distillery’s ceased using rail in the mid to late 60’s. S and SJ wagons were also used to carry molasses from sugar mills in the Townsville area, it was difficult to find any two wagons the same. HJ wagons minus sides/floors fitted with tanks were used in the Mackay area, these tanks were much more uniform than the Townsville bunch.     

Models:- All up I have five “S” wagons on the layout, 2 by 26’ long, 2 by 30’ long and one at 32’ long. The wagons are all scratch build using styrene and run on “Caintode Flats” CFB 2 bogies. An article on building timber framed wagons for the 2008 Modelling the Railways of Queensland Convention is on the MRQC website www.qldrailheritage.com/mrqc. It contains various photos of S wagons and an underframe plan. Of late I don’t have a lot of detail under a wagon, I’m only added detail that you can see when the wagon is on the track, not when it is upside down. I like to add a bit of plumber’s lead sheet between the sole bars on platform wagons. Thus brake cylinder is glued into the lead sheeting. Given I shunt a lot which involves pushing and pulling strings of wagons, I like my 8 wheeled wagons to be about 50 grams. 

Two wagons are loaded with logs. The logs were from branches cut from a tree overhanging the back fence. The bark was removed before being cut to size.

 

S 10097

S 18528

 

 

A 26’ wagon is loaded with timber. The timber load was made from 1 mm thick balsa cut into strips and loaded onto the wagon. A breeze free area is recommended for this exercise, don’t sneeze or you will start over again??.

 

The other 26’ wagon is loaded with four 18’ bridge girders made from 5mm dowel.

 

 

The final wagon is conveying a bondwood hut. These hut were made to be transported from site to site and consisted of 2 side, 2 ends, 2 floor sections, and 2 roof/ceiling sections. The hut parts were made from styrene.