Episode description
There were two events in the 1960s and early 1970s that led to a massive change in South East Queensland's passenger railways. The first was the replacement of steam with diesel-electric locomotives by 1969. This inevitably led to faster and cleaner trains. The next big step forward was the introduction of modern electric trains for the suburban system in Brisbane with the first services in November, 1979.
On 8 May 1979, the first section of the new system was energised, from Roma Street to permit testing and driver training. On 17 November the same year, the Darra to Ferny Grove sections were officially opened. Today, in Queensland the suburban passenger services in South East Queensland are operated by Queensland Rail electric multiple units, as well as electric tilt train services as far as Rockhampton. The Queensland network is the largest in Australia with over 2,000 kilometres under wires.
Today we look at how these electrifying times began for Queensland Rail. We also chat with Neil, he's a Maintenance Group Leader working in our electric train depot at Mayne Yard.
If you have a question about the history of our railways in Queensland, send an email to our Historian, Greg Hallam. He would love to hear from you! email:
history@qr.com.au.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Good day and welcome to another episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast. I'm Annette, and as always, it's great to have you along with us today as we dive back in to the Queensland Rail history vaults. In today's episode, we'll be talking about a major milestone in our railway, the electrification of the network in South East Queensland, and the introduction of electric trains in late 1979.
Greg: They were able to incorporate a lot of good ideas from overseas, incorporate developments from Britain, the 25-kilovolt system, the signalling system, to incorporate those into making what were very modern electric trains. And in Australia, at the time, definitely they were probably the best electrics, they called them, when they were first introduced as well.
Annette: We'll also chat with today's special guest and hear what it takes to keep these services maintained and running.
Neil: So, we'll have someone here all the time, working. You're checking brakes, air conditioning, door functions, safety functions. The first electrics, well, exactly the same now, but shinier and newer. Nothing has changed on them. That technology is still working now, 40 years on.
Male: Be that as it may, we, in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland.
Female: An old woman in our carriage was very proud of this little bit of railroad.
Annette: Now Greg, we're in Toowoomba again today for another episode of our Queensland Rail History podcast. Thank you for joining me again, and putting up with me again.
Electric Multiple Units and others
Greg: Thank you very much, Annette. Today we're going to talk about electrifying times. We've had quite a bit of interest with our podcast and people will know a bit of the background history to the electrification of the Brisbane suburban system, or the suburban network, about how it came to be. And we've also had some enquiries over the while about a bit of background about the current EMUs, IMUs and SMUs and other anachronistic trains that happen to run on the Brisbane or the city network. So, that's what we'll talk about today, how electrification came to be in Brisbane, how it did move into other parts of Queensland, of course, and also about building that modern world-class railway as well that Queensland Rail is so proud to have. Hopefully we'll spark some interest as we go.
Annette: Oh dear, Greg. I have started calling these trains the 'Mooss', the M-Us, because they all seem to be MUs.
Background to electrification
Greg: Indeed they do, multiple units, that's right. We'll talk about those classifications a bit further down. But well, we have to go back really half a century when we start looking now at the story of the electrification, especially in South East Queensland. So there were two events in the 1960s and the early 70s that led to a massive change in South East Queensland's passenger railways. The first – we've spoken about this before – was the replacement of steam locomotives with diesel electric locomotives by 1969. And that was throughout Queensland, actually, by December of that year.
That was the first step because actually, it led to faster and cleaner trains with diesel electric locomotives on the front. And actually, in 1972 the Federal Labor Government was elected and they committed themselves to funding urban public transport. And they also offered money to the states to assist with this. Now, at the time the Queensland State Government actually decided to accept this funding. And it was to actually electrify the current suburban system because at that stage – and we're looking back half a century now – the population projections said that the current rail system of that era, it wouldn't be able to cope with the growth that was going to be predicted.
So, over time the Federal funding did decrease, but after 1975, Queensland actually continued to fund and build a new suburban, and then an inter-urban rail network which actually centred on the South East.
Annette: Okay, Greg, sorry can I just interrupt?
Greg: Of course.
Annette: So, we know the Federal Government put in some money. How much, percentage wise, did it – 50%, 70% of the total cost in the end?
Greg: I'd have to go back and check on that for you, Annette, of course, but I think it was almost going to a dollar/dollar funding and things like that. One of the interesting things was at that stage in the early part of the 1970s, mid 1970s, they actually designed what they called an Australian urban transport train design. So it was actually going to be one that could be modelled throughout Australia for the different suburban systems. And they were all going to look similar in design. But it was actually all – it was virtually an Australia-wide concept for suburban systems for electric trains.
So they'd all look very similar, and they'd also incorporate very much similar things. So it'd be powered doors, air conditioning. That was part of the strategy that they were building on as well too. And that's what we took as our inspiration for the first generation of EMUs.
Annette: Okay, so now I want to know how many of the states actually used this plan?
Greg: Okay, Queensland. Queensland actually went with it. And as I said, that in the 1970s really provided that basis for what became our first EMUs. Electrification is nothing new in Australia, of course. It was pioneered in the early 20th century in Melbourne, Sydney. They had systems that they built in the early part of the 20th century. Ours was actually – that was developed in the 1970s. It was completely different – and we'll talk about that as we go through this episode – but there's a lot of Queensland design and Queensland initiative in this; although drawing on that Australian design concept, it was very much a lot of Queensland innovations that went into the first generation of EMUs, or electric multiple units, we'll talk about throughout this episode.
Annette: Yes, we always do it our own way, don't we, Greg?
Greg: Yes, it's very much the story of Queensland, Annette, very much so. So the trains that operate on the urban and inter-urban systems, they're EMUs as we said, the electrical multiple units. They're operated in over three- or six-car formations. They're powered from a 25-kilovolt alternating current overhead power line, 25 kV. The majority use alternating current drive, and, importantly enough, they're all air conditioned. And that was going to be a big thing in the 1970s when they introduced the EMUs. The carriages, or the cars, on the EMUs were actually much longer than the carriages that were introduced in the steam era.
And also, even the stainless steel SX cars that were introduced in the 1960s, they're longer, but they're actually slightly narrower than the previous loco-hauled carriages that operated on the Queensland Railways.
Annette: Do we know why they made them narrower?
Greg: I'm not sure if it was to do with the gauge at the time or anything like that.
Annette: Just to me, I'm wondering if it's because of the increased volume and all the existing tunnels and everything, whether they had to have them narrower so they could go through together. That's just what makes sense in my brain.
Greg: It's quite possible, yes. As I said, there was so much rebuilding of the Brisbane suburban system that had to go with it, including tunnel floors and that, so they could fit in all the catenary for the 25 kilovolt systems and everything like that. Interestingly enough, the only diesel-hauled trains that we actually see now in the SEQ area is the Westlander that goes from Roma Street to Charleville, and the Spirit of the Outback that runs out from Roma Street to Longreach. Otherwise, most Queensland Rail trains that you see in the South East are electric trains.
Annette: So, what about the Spirit of Queensland?
Greg: We do have the electric tilt trains which run Brisbane–Rockhampton–Bundaberg. Spirit of Queensland, of course, it is their own diesel hydraulic system, so it is actually – it's not quite the loco-hauled train itself, where you've actually got a separate locomotive. When you look at how the railways used to be, locomotive and carriages and things like that, the Westlander and Spirit of the Outback, that's representative of that era, very much so.
The other thing, Annette, was timetables. Now, when they were first introduced, EMUs, they followed a diesel timetable, but when they first came in, there was a regular 30- or 60-minute service became the norm. I think we might have talked previously how, when they integrated the north and south suburban systems of the Brisbane railways, the Merivale Bridge opened in November of 1978, it was the first time in Brisbane they had to introduce what was a regular clock face timetable. So that meant 10 to the hour or 20 to the hour, your train would be running at that station, or whatever it was. That was the first time; otherwise, there could have been an hour and a half gap in the middle of the day for a train, which was part of the old timetabling.
So they came in – so we had a regular 30- or 60-minute service. An allowable speed or maximum speed was 100 kilometres an hour with the electric trains. Previously with the diesel services, it was 80 kilometres an hour. The trains were much quicker, they had faster acceleration, and they were actually faster, even stopping, than previous trains. And of course, more recently in Brisbane, they introduced a 15-minute off peak service at stations; and in other places it's still that 30 minutes being the norm to the outer suburban areas. But as you know from your experience with Queensland Rail, timetables are always being tweaked, to get the best service and everything like that.
Annette: What did Queensland Rail need to upgrade for the wider introduction?
Longer and faster trains with electrification
Greg: To operate longer and faster trains, and then make provision for that 25 kilovolt AC overhead, the catenary, that required clearance from structures nearby. So, what we're talking about is a lot more overhead, literally, and it required, basically, proper clearances because as we know, with rail track safety and everything like that, exclusion zones, and then about areas to steer clear of with a 25-kilovolt system and everything like that. Basically, the whole existing system at that stage, which is Gympie North down to Brisbane, and eventually out to Rosewood, and then eventually on the South Coast line, but all the lines to Shorncliffe and that, they had to have a whole – there was so much work that had to done to actually bring that system up to be able to cope with the new system.
One of the big things was overhead bridges on the footbridges. They had to be lifted, or tracks lowered in many places. You probably see a lot of stations down in Brisbane – they've got big concrete steps underneath some of the footbridges and things like that that survived. That's where they had to raise the footbridges, the timber bridges above a certain level, so they could run the wires through and everything like that. Big thing was the lowering of tunnels in inner-city Brisbane. They had to widen out cuttings. Another big innovation was the timber bridges; they were replaced with pre-stressed concrete. They introduced heavier rail, and I mentioned concrete sleepers as well.
Another thing was the automatic colour light signalling. Previously, they had what they called the old mechanical interlocking system, semaphore signals and those things. Eventually bi-directional signalling, where up and down became up, up, down, down; or up, down, up, down on different lines and things like that. That was installed on your passenger lines, and then on different sections.
Annette: Did they have to close the network at any stage? Like, was the Cleveland line closed for a month while they did this work? Was this closed for that time while they did this work? Was there any major shutdowns?
Engineering work in inner city Brisbane
Greg: Not really, Annette, because the service wasn't as intense at that stage, of course. We are talking about nearly half a century ago, when you start thinking about it. But a lot of the lines, they didn't have to actually go for closing entire sections. A lot of the tunnelling work that they did in inner city Brisbane was done during the night and everything like that as well. And they do it over nights, and they take possession and things like that; they close the tunnels off and everything like that. I think the main thing was, because Brisbane was nowhere near as large as it is now, the large population, with the intensive service, they were more or less able to work more around it.
One of the interesting things is, the platforms were raised. They were modified to accommodate those longer cars, and a part of the thing was, eventually many of the old timber railway station buildings were replaced. Another big thing was, a lot of the sidings were removed, because in the Brisbane suburban system there was a lot of goods traffic for many decades. On the old Ferny Grove branch, for instance, there used to be sidings there for sawmills. There was lots of goods sidings in places like that. But as the system transitioned and they moved into the electrification, eventually a lot of those sidings were removed and there's no longer goods traffic in that Brisbane system, as there used to be prior to electrification.
There were new lines built – we'll talk a bit more about that – to the airport; there's Varsity Lakes, Springfield and Kippa-Ring. And they were built to a higher standard eventually, and they had wider radius curves, 60 kilograms to the metre rails, and then the concrete sleepers as well.
Annette: So, we swapped to concrete sleepers at this time, or was that started earlier? Also, what happened to the old station buildings?
Greg: Well, the concrete sleepers started to be used pretty much more coming into the 1990s, although they had done some earlier work. So again, it was all part of that ongoing upgrading of the entire suburban system. The old timber station buildings, well, quite a number of those did survive through, although as the system grew, there was more investment. And again, as it got more and more purpose-built for large commuter traffic and things like that, in the beginning there, you're looking at – it was pre-heritage legislation, I suppose you'd say, so a lot of the station buildings were removed. Some have survived, of course, and you still see those on a number of the lines. I'm thinking of places like – thinking about Newmarket Station or Gaythorne Station. They're just some of the ones that you think of that date back from the early part of the 20th century.
Our guest on this episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast
Annette: Our guest for today's episode has seen a lot of change that has taken place during the electrification across South East Queensland's rail network.
Neil: My first day in rail started at Ipswich Workshops, 10th of January 1972.
Annette: I love the way you remember the date. So if we do our math, 15-and-a-quarter, and you've been here for 51 years, but we won't go there.
That's Neil. Neil's currently the Maintenance Group Leader at the Electric Train Depot, Mayne Yard, Brisbane's main stabling area located in Bowen Hills. Neil took me for a tour around the facility at Mayne and described the work involved in maintaining our SEQ electric train fleet.
Neil: At the moment we've got three trains full of short roads. They're numbered across, same as all the yards, starts at one from the western side and comes through. This is 30 road, 31, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, jacking road, underfloor wheel lathes. That's just how we lay out the plan. So we can fit four trains in the short roads, we can fit eight trains in the long roads, one in the jacking road, and we've just built a new section on the other side of the jacking road, under the dome, where they're going to be putting a lot of the off-car work. So I'll take you over and show you.
Annette: Does a lot of the maintenance happen at night time?
Neil: We work three shifts, so we'll have someone here all the time, working. From 1:00 o'clock to 4:00 o'clock, when no trains are working, drivers are prepping the units, so we still have to have people on site to do the work on them. Any of the faults that are found. So yes, we're still working three shifts, seven days a week.
Annette: So, when you say maintenance, what do you actually do to the trains?
Neil: We do scheduling maintenance; they're kilometre-based and time-based. So when they're due for an inspection, planning coordinators work out when to bring them into the shed, we allocate people to it and do that particular inspection. We have four types of inspection: A, B, C and D. Your A and B, of course, are your smaller ones. C, we have to do pantographs, that's why it comes into short roads a lot. And the Ds are the longest. So, it depends on what we find. A straight-out inspection could take, say, four shifts. If we find anything wrong that could take longer, we add that on.
Annette: Wow! So that's pretty substantive then, really. If it takes four shifts, that's a long time to go through, and that's just checking it, that's not even repairing it.
Neil: No, that's going through all the checks. You're checking brakes, air conditioning, door functions, safety functions; to actually pick up an inspection sheet, it's probably 15, 20 pages. That's each trade. So you'll have a mechanic and an electrical usually working together as a team, but can work individually.
Annette: What's been the biggest change you've seen while you've worked here at Mayne Yard?
Neil: I came down here in '75 as a third-year apprentice. Now, there was no electrics. This shed over here was actually where the red trains were worked on.
Annette: The red trains?
Neil: The red trains, the old red rattlers. Can't you remember them?
Annette: Oh, the red rattlers, yes, yes.
Neil: Across the yard here, there were raised railway lines, where a lot of the red sets were stored and stationed. Of course, it was all flattened and rebuilt when the electrics first came. Down here, on the right-hand side of those brick buildings, was the diesel shed. The first electrics, well, exactly the same now, but shinier and newer. Nothing has changed on them. That technology is still working now, 40 years on. We've done probably three, four hundred mods to them to keep them going through the years, what we've found, but the actual base technology is still the same. So, they were an amazing bit of kit when they first came out.
Annette: When that amazing bit of kit first arrived in the late 70s, it revolutionised train travel. Our historian shares with me about that first significant milestone.
The first EMU arrives in Brisbane
Greg: The first EMU, electric multiple unit, it arrived in Brisbane on the 18th of July 1979. It travelled down from Maryborough. It was hauled down, actually, by diesel, diesel hydraulic. It formally entered service in September of 1979, and the official inauguration of those electric trains was on the first section. That was from Ferny Grove to Darra, and it began on the 17th of November 1979. The first timetable services, they began on Monday, 19th of November 1979.
Annette: Okay, so I want know, what took so long to get it moving? So, we got it delivered in July but we didn't actually start running it until November. Was there lots of compliance testing, like we did with the NGRs, or what was going on during that time?
Greg: When they came in July, they had to go through driver training, of course. And the interesting thing was, at that stage a lot of the senior drivers, as they were – the inspectors, as they called them – a lot of the older drivers were actually trained on those first EMUs that came in. Initially, there were four that came into service, EMU 01 to 04. So they came in July, but they had to go through – compliance testing is a very good term – so they had to go through all the things, basically, about being trained on them, and then they could train the next set of drivers and things like that, to drive them as well.
There was also the route knowledge and the newer signalling systems that we mentioned before, that coloured aspect lights, the automatic light signals and that, replacing the older semaphores. They all had to become proficient in that. So it was a staged introduction and everything like that. And getting the crews familiar with this entirely new form of, well, electric traction, it required a lot of training as well too. The EMUs, or electric multiple units, they came in a three-car configuration, which was – there was a driving motor, they had an intermediate motor car, or motor car unit or carriage, and they had a driving trailer.
They've got those numbers, which is like 1XX. XX was the set number, so 02, 03, 04. The intermediate motor car was like 2XX, 203, 204. The driving trailer was 3XX, and that'd be like 02, 03, or 04. So, for the technically minded and the motor power minded, so that gave you eight motors per set; and in all, 88 sets were built. 20 sets, which were from 60 to 79 – that was originally 61 to 80 – and number 80 was renumbered 60. They were single ended, and they didn't have the driver and the guard compartment in them. They were single ended and had to operate with another three-car set. The trailer cars were numbered in a four number, that's XX, 460 to 479, they were their numbers.
They also had only six traction motors, so that was six driving motors and they only had one powered bogey instead of two. Now, the interesting thing is, the initial idea they'd operate with an eight-motor set, they operated with one of their own kind, meaning they were a bit underpowered, especially if one unit lost power. That happened once or twice when I was traveling on them, or sometimes you might have even felt that during wet weather or something like that; sometimes they get that bit of a surge or a bit of rrr-rrr sort of thing, so there was a bit of loss of – underpowered, yes.
Annette: So, Greg, when you say underpowered, do you mean slow?
Greg: Actually, no, they're not slow; they're very quick off the mark and their acceleration was quite remarkable. Underpowered is probably more a case of driving for the traction motors and things like that. As I said a bit of slippage and that during wet weather. During the life of all the cars, they came in originally with curved glass windscreens at each side of the cab. Over time, they were replaced with two sections of straight glass. There was an old stylised QR logo on the front, and that was on a moulded fibreglass front. That was also replaced with new, more modern logos, of course. Instead of the moulding it was actually replaced using a decal.
The other big thing was the door handles were replaced with push buttons on the sides – that was both inside and out. So it wasn't the old turn handle ones that they were introduced with; they became the ones that we're more familiar with, which is the push button ones.
Annette: So, were the original ones modelled off the rail motors then? Because in my head I always see a split windscreen in a rail motor.
Suburban Multiple Units SMUs
Greg: That's a really good one. Actually, when they were being introduced in the 1970s, the concepts were being spoken about. For people who weren't really familiar with that sort of electrification, with the stainless steel and things like that, yes, the rail motors provide a bit of inspiration, I guess, for people. The EMUs, of course, were in that period, late 1970s and into the 1980s. So, up until about – the last that was introduced in 1988 with the units – the next big change was the SMUs or the 'Smoos', suburban multiple units. They were the next to come into service; that was between August of 1994 March of 1995.
They represented another change in the technology; another generation, I suppose you'd say. They had three-phase air alternating current drive improved rectifiers. The alternating current motors were smaller than the direct current ones. They were actually mounted differently on their bogeys as well. They had air cooled main converters and that starts up once the trains begin moving. And as one colleague said to me at one point, they're noisier on the outside than the inside, anyway, when they were they travelling in them.
Annette: Yes, we definitely want to make it more comfortable for the commuters and our passengers.
Greg: Yes, that was the big thing with the electrification. You're bang on the money about the comfort, because when they designed them in the mid to late 70s there, Annette, they put a lot of emphasis on that. The big things were the interior design; you had carpet for a start – never had that on a suburban train. The other thing was the seating, where originally had woollen seating as well, woollen cloth seating; really big, large windows, that was something new as well, tinted, of course; air conditioning was the big one. There was a lot of thought went into how to air condition trains for those Brisbane humid summers; running between stations, you open the doors and then close the doors; and how you could keep the trains comfortable and air conditioned between stops and everything like that.
There was a there's a lot of thought that went into that, basically, how they could actually make an improved passenger experience, because that was the big thing. And the big change from open windows on the suburban system; steam locomotives we mentioned earlier on; diesel. And then, actually you're in an enclosed environment. And the lighting, all the fluorescent lighting and things like that. They put a lot of thought into how to make it safe, a very, very comfortable experience for people traveling on those trains in suburban Brisbane. So the SMUs, they built on that.
There were 33 car sets in a second batch of SMUs. They call them the 220 series but you probably could call them a B series or SMB. They were delivered between October of 1999 and May of 2001. Similar bodies to the SMU, with minor changes to the front, so they had that flat shovel nose on the front. They had a trailer car in between two driving motors, and the car numbers, for those who like to – when they keep an eye on these things on the suburban system and network – they were 521, 5221 to 5250; 7221 to 7250; and 8221 to 8250.
Annette: Do we still have the SMUs on the network? I think we would, because I've seen a few nose-to-nose ones.
Greg: Oh yes, very much so, Annette. They are still running around, yes; the SMUs are still very much in evidence in Brisbane. As I said, you've got those different generations within the SMU system as well, but yes, you still see them very much in Brisbane still running around, still doing good service. They're coming up to nearly 30 years on as well, which is testament to all the work they've been doing, and also about the designs that went into them as well.
Annette: Quick question – and I'm sorry, this is probably outside your knowledge base – but do we know the expected lifespan of them?
Greg: I think, again – well, you look at the EMUs, I think they're designed for about a 30- to 40-year lifespan, and in some cases they're getting towards that. So I think with the electrics, they're working around about a 30-year lifespan on those ones, Annette, so not going back to those many decades of the steam locomotives, but working to about 30 to 40 years was what they're working around. Pretty impressive stuff.
Our Queensland Rail History podcast guest Neil
Annette: A 30- to 40-year lifespan. That wouldn't be possible without regular inspections, maintenance, and upgrades on those trains over the years. While walking through the train depot here at Mayne Yard, Neil shared how they keep these electric trains running thousands of kilometres year after year.
Neil: So an EMU, one of our founding units, I believe they just changed some wheels on it, so we bring them over here, check, make sure the brakes are all okay. If we've changed bogeys, we've got a particular work that we do; we'll have to give it a brake test run. We have different criteria, so if we do more than two bogeys, it has to have another brake test run to make sure it stops within the criteria that's set. Same with brake cylinders, same with quite a few things. If we work on the brakes on the train, we actually have to take it back out and retest it.
Annette: Where do you do your testing runs?
Neil: The electronics room do the testing runs; normally they like the Shorncliffe line because it's nice and flat, but they also do a lot of it on the Springfield line. So, somewhere where you haven't got a hill, because it will affect your braking rates and it'll not be accurate. They get her up to 100 clicks, put the brakes on full pelt, and I think it's from 80 to 20 has to be – the de-acceleration rate has to be within particular tolerances.
Annette: So I imagine you're not only maintenance on the trains, you'd have to do maintenance on the equipment to work on the train.
Neil: Yes, which is site services and facilities; they actually maintain it. That's the underfloor wheel lathe. So we run the train over it, it's got a lathe built into the floor that machines the wheels. So if we've got enough meat on the wheels, we can do about three turns for the life of a wheel. So we'll get about 300,000 kilometres out of a set of wheels before we have to turn it.
Annette: I wish my car had that.
Neil: Yes, but your wheel sets aren't worth 1.2 million.
Annette: Wowie! So, what was your job when you first started then?
Neil: I was an apprentice fitter. I was introduced to the foreman who took me over to a tradesman and said, “Here, look after this lad," and then walked away. That was my induction into the railways. So we've come a long way and changed a lot since then, thank goodness.
Annette: I was going to say, even to come to site today to talk to you, I had more of an induction than that.
Neil: Yes. You talk about funny things – I can vividly remember working under a rail motor, and they broke off a two-inch section of candle and put it into a half-inch Whitworth nut and lit it; and that was our light underneath the rail car. [laughs] There was no such thing as torches!
Annette: [laughs] I'm sorry, but I see Flintstones in my head.
Neil: It was like that. It was it was very, very primitive, but they could make anything. It was unbelievable; there was nothing – nothing was thrown away in rail in those days. You had a valve that was knocked off, hit something on the track and broke it; they would take that off, send it to Ipswich; it would get welded up, go to the marking off tables; they'd mark it out; go to the machine shop; get machined; go to the Westinghouse Shop; get rebuilt. Nothing was thrown away. It was unbelievable what they could build. I can vividly remember my first day there. Two and a half thousand people working in Ipswich Workshops, all of them men – the only women in the entire place worked in the canteen.
Annette: Wow!
Neil: Very scary, dark, cold place for a 15-year-old boy straight out of high school. And when the siren went, knock-off siren – because they used to have sirens for smoko, lunch – when the knock-off siren went, don't stand in front of anyone because there'll be a mad stampede for the gate; two and a half thousand people trying to get out first.
Annette: Oh, wow!
Neil: I did my apprenticeship, a four-year apprenticeship at Ipswich Workshops. During that time, I spent six months at Redbank as an apprentice, and I did six months down here at Mayne in the AC trains as an apprentice. I went back and worked for 12 months in the air conditioning section, Ipswich Workshops, and a job came up at Redbank for a fitter, so I moved to Redbank, worked there for 10 years in the Western House on diesels. So I was relieving down here at the diesel shed for quite a few years at Mayne, and then in '84 I started relieving here in the electric shed.
In those days you used to have to do a course, it was a two-week course, just on the EMUs, to give you a background basis of how to actually maintain them. And for four years I relieved there, on and off, probably more than six months of the year. And then in '88 I was given the chance to be full-time, which I took up. Very early '88, so I was here for Expo.
Annette: Wow! That was a big year that year.
Neil: Oh, huge, huge. The amount of passengers we transported was phenomenal.
Expo 88
Annette: Well, it would have been the first time most people caught a train. It's my first memory of a train, is going to Expo '88.
Greg: There was a third batch of 36 three-car sets, they called them the C series. They were again with the SMs, a suburban multiple, the SMU but these were SMCs. They were 261 to 296. They have SMC on the outside. These came into service from August of 2008 to May of 2011, so about a three-year delivery. They were mechanically similar. They had different body design within the same dimensions, and interestingly enough, they were designed and based around the Perth – when Perth electrified, they had a very similar design to the SMUs. When they come from the same factory, of course they would.
These were what they called the B series. They were actually a lower height and width, but they were built by a joint venture between Downer Bombardier up in Maryborough in Queensland and the old Walkers Limited. Styling was different too; there were no doors between the cars, they were just open. So there was no push or pull any door push buttons, no turn a handle to get between the cars; it was all open and everything like that.
Annette: I love sitting on those trains. And you can literally watch it snake along. It's quite cool watching it as it goes around a bend.
Inter City Multiple Units IMUs
Greg: With the concertina – yes, those concertinas, yes, it's quite – and you look and see, “Oh, there's a passenger I didn't see before. Oh, there's someone." Yes, so that was it. The wind protectors either side of the doors were also reduced, and near the doors, they took out two of the four parallel seats that ran alongside the side of the car as well. So that was the SMUs. The next one were the IMUs, which are the inter-urban multiple units. Now, they were built for the Gold Coast line, from Helensvale down to Nerang and that area. They entered service from April of 1996. That was sets 101 to 104 of the IMUs.
They were followed by six more, 105 to 110; they came in 1997 with the line down to Nerang. The bodies, they were similar to that earlier SMB series, same configuration. You had a driving motor at the front; you had a motor; you had a driving trailer. They had high-back seats. They had luggage racks, which was very important for the longer distance train. They had different doors, and they were designed for a higher speed running on the Gold Coast line. So that's 140 kilometres an hour. They had slightly less seating in these units. The line to Helensvale, it opened in February of 1996.
So the EMUs and those SMs, the SM units, they had to run services until all those 10 cars, the new IMUs, were in service, July of 1997. And I think it was the IMUs had that glass etching as well, of the surfer and the surf scenes and everything they introduced, along with those luggage racks as well too.
Annette: Oh, yes.
Greg: Yes, that's right, the famous surfers and everything like that. So, give you an idea you're on a train for the Gold Coast, Annette.
Annette: Yes, well, I've definitely seen some of those on the Cleveland line as well, as they've come through. So I'm interested, we've been producing different trains in approximately the same years. Why were we making different models?
Greg: Well, I think that thing, it's the improvement, the 88 first EMUs. Always tinkering with design, learning, always that thing about improving the experience of passengers. And I guess the other thing too with it, Annette, is basically, just the adapting to the changes of the suburban network and also the fact that it got larger. So, from the initial suburban system started in 1979, and gradually expanded, more lines have been added over time. Lines have been rebuilt; Cleveland, of course, the South Coast being a big one, Airtrain, and all the other – with the duplication, lines to Springfield and that. So basically, it's that passenger need has increased. I think the idea has been working with a basic design, but always adding those improvements, improving the power and things like that.
So four more, 121 to 124, came into service in 2001. They were partly funded by Airtrain, who built the elevated line with the famous whale tails underneath, to the Brisbane domestic and international airport terminals. They had that SMB configuration, which was the driving motor, the trailer and the driving motor. A further 28 sets, which was number 161 to 188, they were built between 2006 and 2011. They're similar to those SMC cars, and they were all constructed simultaneously. And since the entry into service of the NGR trains, which is the six-car sets, many IMCs, those inter-urban multiple unit ones, now they're used on Nambour trains that came from Ipswich and Springfield, within the SMC set as well. And that was to provide one toilet on the trains, for the longer journeys and things like that.
Our Queensland Rail History podcast guest Neil
Neil: So we've got an IMU, one of the – well, the first batch of IMUs, the 110, you can see we've got the external disc brakes on these.
Annette: That looks like a big air cushion.
Neil: That is a big air cushion.
Annette: Under the train. So what is that there for?
Neil: That is a part of the suspension and braking system. So that weighs the train. It lifts it to a certain height by the levelling arm, and that's compensated – every person you put in the train will put a bit more pressure on the airbag and it will lift it back up. So it'll increase the pressure in the airbag, which goes to a computer, which works out the weight of the truck, the train itself; so, the weight of the car. And that will increase the braking the more people you put in.
Annette: Oh, wow!
Neil: So it's a self-compensating – it's weighing the train, simply. It's also part of the suspension. So, you're actually riding on a bed of air.
Annette: Wow! That's pretty cool.
Neil: And all of our trains have airbag suspension, even the EMUs. And that's your pick-up for your MCB, main circuit breaker – I should not use acronyms. We do it so much in rail, and you say it without thinking, and of course, people do not know what you're talking about.
Annette: No. I'm good at asking Greg, “What does that stand for?"
Neil: Yes, you should always use it first. So, a main circuit breaker is what's up on the roof that clicks off. And even though we have different types of main circuit breakers, we call them ECBs and VCBs. They're all a main circuit breaker. So the function is the same, turn the power off.
Annette: Now that's a battery, right? Look at the size of them.
Neil: The trains have eight batteries, 12-volt, 110-volt, roughly to start the train. And people say, what do you need batteries in a train for? Well, it pumps up the auxiliary compressor to put air in the auxiliary system, to bring the pantograph up to touch the overhead. Once you've touched the overhead, of course then you've got 25 kV, which runs your main compressor and runs everything else. But you initially have to get it up there; hence batteries. Also in emergencies, if you lose overhead, you've got emergency lighting in the cab, emergency fresh air fans in the air conditioners. And the carbons are what sits on top of the pantograph, which sits on top of the overhead line, picks up your 25 kV, which comes down to your transformers, gets split up and then used into the train.
Annette: Yes. And that bang noise you hear coming into Park Road each time.
Neil: That'll be going through a neutral section. It's too hard to synchronise the frequencies of different sections, hence you have a neutral section. We have magnets on the side that actually pick up – I should say a head that picks up the magnet in the track, which knocks out the main circuit breaker, and then the magnet, after it goes through to put it back in. So it knocks the overhead out when it goes through from the neutral section from one side to another. And that's the bang. Some worse than others. The original air blast on the EMUs were very, very loud. We don't use them anymore; we use vacuum circuit breakers or electrical circuit breakers, which are a lot quieter. So, just as well you weren't around the original EMUs. They'd give you a real start if you were sitting right underneath them.
Annette: Yes. I've moved where I sit on the train now, and I don't hear it as much.
The Merivale Bridge
Greg: With the electrification, the big thing you've got to remember, of course, apart from the introduction of 25 kilovolt systems, re-signalling. The suburban system was a huge part of the electrification project. That began with the first prep work in 1975. And when they actually worked on that, the Brisbane network was still divided into two halves. You didn't have the Merivale Bridge there, so there was no connection between the south side and the north side; you had to go through Sherwood, Tennyson, the Yeerongpilly loop.
And then what happened was, the first Cross River Rail project involved construction on the Merivale Bridge, and that started around Roma Street. You had a viaduct that had to be built. You had the new tunnel works there as well, around Roma Street. And that started, actually, in August of '74. The first pole for the bridge was actually driven in August of 1975 for the Merivale Bridge, and it was finally completed between South Brisbane and Roma Street. That was on the 18th of November 1978. So, with the electrification, you had this entire thing trying to bring the two halves, and basically to unify the Brisbane suburban system.
So it was a massive project at the time, and it was an ongoing one throughout the 1970s as well. It was just – it was an ongoing project and ongoing exercise towards electrification.
Annette: So much change, and quite quickly, as far as we've looked back with Queensland Rail being how old it is, it's a lot of change, really quickly.
Greg: It was, actually, Annette, yes. And it was – as I said, well, when you think about it, you're looking at the early 1970s, say '74 you started, and yes, well basically, when you think about the entire electrification project in the suburban area, that was completed about 1988. So you're looking at about 14, 15 years of continual working and everything like that. It's a big project. The other thing too here was recognition for our people in our Rail Management Centre in Brisbane, around Bowen Hills. A new signalling system was brought in, in the Mayne area. They built an entire new control centre and that was for the first section of electrified lines, and that was brought into operation just before electrification officially, 26th of August 1979. So that was a really big change there as well too, signalling that went with it, very important. Train control as well, very important part of the entire project.
The Multiple Units in review
Annette: Okay, Greg, so you've given us a lot of information. Can you sum up all of the MUs for me? We've got EMU, SMU, IMUs. I have a feeling we might be missing a train though, somewhere in there.
Greg: You're very correct, and well observed there, Annette. So again, as I said, for those who've been asking for all the – our podcast about the electrification, hopefully we are delivering. And the same way, the delivery of the first EMUs took place in 1979. Those deliveries continued until 1986 and the final number – when the final set was delivered, 1994 the first SMU, number 201, it entered service. So that's what – 15 years later. 1996, we had the first city train IMU. In 1999, we had the first of the 222 series, they come into service. 2001, the first Airtrain IMU enters service. 2006, we have the 161 series IMUs. And with the 26, or the 260 class IMUs, they come in 2008. A lot. So that's pretty much, when you look at it, that's over nearly – what's that – I'll do a quick thing – that's over nearly 20 years anyway. So you're seeing from EMUs through to IMUs.
Annette: Okay. So we haven't left any out at all?
The ICE trains
Greg: Actually, we have, and that's the ICE trains. Now, the ICE trains are a bit different. They were introduced originally for an electrified service. The extended one was to go through to Gympie, Gympie North, they built a new railway station there in 1988/89. But those ICE trains, as we call them, the inner-city electrics, they were also built for an electric service between Brisbane and Rockhampton. And it entered service in 1989. It was the Spirit of Capricorn, and they operated two electric services between Brisbane and Rockhampton, pre-electric tilt train.
And so they were also introduced originally to do that service to Nambour and then to Gympie North. And they were the ICE trains, but they actually were the long-distance travel trains. So they were the first electric ones. They entered service in 1989. After the introduction of the tilt train in 1998, they were then used on the Brisbane suburban system as well, and became better known on the services to Nambour and to Gympie North and those areas.
Our Queensland Rail History podcast guest Neil
Annette: EMUs, SMUs, IMUs. Are you still following? Working in the railway, we do love our acronyms. Neil shares about the confusion around abbreviations for our electric trains.
Neil: I always laugh because when the ICE trains arrived, the inter-city electrics, we called them ICE straight away, and someone said, “Stop calling them acronyms." And they said, “The next one will stop you, with the SMUs." And we said, “The Smoos?" And they frowned at us. When I first got here in '84, we probably would have had 30, maybe 40-odd units. And they were slowly arriving, probably one a month from there on in. I can remember prepping the 280 series units that drove down and opened Beenleigh station. Me and an electrician had to go over with a fine-tooth comb because Sir Bjelke-Petersen actually drove the train into the station the last 20 metres to break the ribbon.
Annette: He drove the train?
Neil: With the driver standing over his shoulder. Yes, he could do just about anything he wanted to in those days; they let him. I think it was a lot more comfortable, a lot quicker. That's one thing, that happened instantly once the electrification came in. It turned from an hour-and-a-quarter trip from Ipswich to Brisbane to about 55 minutes. And that made a lot of difference to people, and people really enjoyed it. And the air conditioning helped a lot too.
Annette: I can imagine. I think of Ipswich and I think hot, sticky.
Neil: Yes, very hot.
Annette: So the fact that you could jump on board a train, you've taken 20 minutes off your travel time and you get to sit there, nice, cool and relaxed on your way to town, way to work for the day, would make a big difference for people.
Neil: It did. And I know, I travel a lot.
Annette: Yes. Well, you said you used to commute from Ipswich. Did you ever commute on the diesels and then move to –
Neil: When I first started, it was diesels. So it was either a silver setter or the red rattler with a diesel coming here to Mayne, walking straight across the front, straight across Mayne line. As I say, times have changed.
Annette: Very much so.
Neil: My father was a lifetime railway employee all his life. He started off in Ipswich Workshops himself, in a clerical role; ended up at RCT in finance, retired at 65. So he worked all his life in rail. Probably one of the reasons why I came in. When I came out of school, he said, “Sit for the apprentice's exam," which I did. I had one of the first choices, so I picked fitter.
Annette: You picked fitter.
Neil: I picked fitter. It was something that a lot of people did in the Ipswich area in those days. You come out of your time and you wanted a trade, I think the intake was something like 50-odd apprentices that year, all at Ipswich Workshops. And my father, being a railway worker, advised me to get into that. He said, “Once you have a trade, it's a lifetime trade." And I've proved it is; I've been here all my life.
Annette: Definitely. Smart man, your dad must've been.
Neil: He was. My brother still works as a train controller just up here at Mayne, Mayne control. He's been there for, well, 38 years in rail that I know of, and he's been a train controller for well over 20.
Annette: So, what's made you stay in the rail for 51 years?
Neil: I think it's been the diversity of the job. I've changed every – well, 10 years at least, to somewhere different within rail. There's always somewhere you can go within rail. It's slightly different if you're getting bored in the one position. But I've made some great friends in this place over the last 20 years. Being in charge of the team and looking after them, trying to keep them safe, that's a highlight for me.
Annette: It's nice to know you're looking out for your mates, and it makes it happy to come to work every day.
Neil: It does. And I say that with all sincerity.
Annette: Thank you so much for your time today, Neil. It's been great learning about all the different trains and hearing about your career with Queensland Rail.
Neil: No worries at all, my pleasure.
Conclusion and the future
Annette: So do we see any of the EMUs on the network today?
Greg: Yes. Well, I think it's a testament to a good design and still working hard. And yes, there are still quite a number of them operating on the Brisbane suburban system. And I think they'll still be there, still giving some service for a number of years to come. But definitely, they're still around. And some of the old drivers, as I said, they're getting to that stage of their life now where they've also attracted their own sense of history as well; been around for a good number of decades and represent the changes that have come with Brisbane and the suburban system over the years.
Annette: So, with the electrification of the network, did it grow? Did we expand? Did we spread out? Did we patch ourselves together?
Greg: Well, I think that expansion, really, when you look at it, since the 1980s into the 1990s into the 21st century, it's just been one of continual change and continual growth and everything like that. So we go back, we had – a lot later, Thorneside opened in what – it was 1979 to start with, but then it went through to Wellington Point in 1986. So that was an electrified line. Over to Cleveland in 1987, electrified again, although it only went as far as the old Raby Bay Station because of the suburban development that had gone on since the line closed in 1960.
I mentioned before the electrification was completed in 1988. They extended to Nambour in 1988, and then to Gympie, or to Gympie North, as we know it today, in 1989. And the South Coast line, well, it was opened progressively. It went from Helensvale to Beenleigh in 1996; to Robina in 1997, and the Varsity Lakes extension was in 2009. 30 years ago now, but electrification was completed from Ipswich to Rosewood in 1993. Within the Brisbane area there'd been a lot of changes in that inner city area, continuing on now Cross River Rail, of course. In December of 1995 we had two new platforms that were brought into service at Bowen Hills; that was number three and four.
The inner city quadruplication with the new tunnels and that, that was actually commissioned in 1996. And then there was also a dual gauge section between Yeerongpilly and South Brisbane. So what was the dual gauge? It was originally standard gauge through to Roma Street from South Brisbane, used for the trains that used to come up like the XPT and that from Sydney. It was actually – became a dual gauge section so it could be used between Yeerongpilly and South Brisbane by electric trains to the South Coast services. So that came in 1996. The big one down in Brisbane at that stage, complete redevelopment of Roma Street Station, and included adding a whole number of new platforms out to number 10. That was completed in 1995.
And then, other things have been added, as I said, apart from lines to Springfield in 2011. There was a third line that was added to Petrie, and that was part of the construction for the Redcliffe Peninsula line, and that opened in October of 2016.
Annette: Wow! That seems like so much, so quick, compared to the very beginnings to today.
Greg: Oh, it's a continual change. And I imagine that as time develops and with Cross River Rail coming on, and all the new modern trains that they're planning beyond that point as well too, when you look back, well, that's nearly half a century of development. And that's since electrification. But I guess one benefit about coming fairly late to the piece, the 1970s, they were able to incorporate a lot of good ideas from overseas, developments from Britain, 25 kilovolt system, signalling system, enabled with those electric trains, the electric units working with Swedish companies like ASEA.
And they were able to work on so many things from around the world to incorporate those into making what were very modern – in Australia at the time, definitely they were probably the best electrics, they called them, when they were first introduced as well. But that electrification, of course, it was part of our biggest story in Queensland, took in the central Queensland, the 1980s and that for the coal fields, that big thing of electrification from Brisbane to Rockhampton, that introduced the Spirit of Capricorn train. And in another podcast coming up in the very near future, we'll be talking about the introduction of the tilt trains, of course, anyway, on the North Coast line, running to places like Brisbane, Bundaberg and Rockhampton.
Annette: Thank you so much for listening to Episode 17, Electrifying Times. A big thank you to our guest interviewee today, Neil, Maintenance Group Leader at Mayne Yard. As Greg mentioned, our next episode is all about the electric tilt trains. So, make sure you're following and subscribe to the podcast, so you know when a new episode drops. If you have any questions about our rail history, please email Greg. He'd love to hear from you: history@qr.com.au. And if you're enjoying what you're hearing, please leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you what you love about the podcast and what you'd like us to feature on a future episode. You've been listening to the Queensland Rail History podcast hosted by our historian, Greg Hallam and myself, Annette.