Episode description
1953 was one of the truly revolutionary years for the Queensland Railways, with the introduction of air conditioned trains on our long distance services in Queensland. The Sunlander commenced service on the 4th June 1953. This new air conditioned train was hauled by a diesel locomotive and by eliminating steam locomotive servicing stops, the transit time from Brisbane to Cairns was reduced from 45 to 41¼ hours.
In this episode we’ll chat about how these air conditioned trains and their steel bodies coaches, with showers, hot and cold running water and special dining cars revolutionised travel for many people regionally, allowing passengers to keep their cool during Queensland’s summers. We’ll discuss where the ‘Lander’ name for our travel trains originated from and also the marketing campaigns the Railways used to promote these luxury tourist services.
We’ll also chat with special guest, Jen Cahill, and hear about how her career has progressed into becoming a regional train driver. We chat about her time at Queensland Rail, and hear what it’s like driving the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Spirit of Queensland between Townsville and Cairns.
Listen to the episode
Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Thank you for tuning in 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 into the Queensland Rail history vaults. Today, we’ll chat about how the air-conditioned trains and their steel-bodied coaches, showers, hot and cold running water, and special dining cars revolutionised travel for many people in regional Queensland.
Greg: The latest Queensland trains were on par with the best in the world. The Sunlander was like a mobile first-class hotel. It incorporated every modern comfort, enthusiastic crowds everywhere. Everyone turned out, basically, to see this brand-new train.
Annette: We’ll also be joined by a regional train driver. We chat to her about her time at Queensland Rail and what it’s like driving both the long distance and tourist trains.
Female 1: Coming up here, everything is just so green. Cassowaries run in front of me; creeks and rivers that we go over, sometimes there’s crocodiles sort of in there. When you’ve got that view, it is absolutely fantastic.
Male 1: Be that as it may, we, in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland.
Female 2: An old woman in our carriage was very proud of this little bit of railroad.
Keeping your cool on the Queensland Railways- the introduction of air-conditioned trains in the 1950s
Annette: Welcome, Greg. Today we’re going to talk about –
Greg: The introduction of air-conditioned trains in Queensland and why they came about, Annette. That’s what we’re talking about today.
Annette: And we’re all very thankful they did, Greg.
Greg: It’s a case of keeping you cool or keeping you warm. Either or, it was a great innovation.
Annette: Can you tell me, when did we first introduce air-conditioned trains? Was there a process to go with that?
Greg: Like all the stories of Queensland Railways and Queensland Rail, Annette, it does have a long lead-in time with it. We’ll go back, I guess, to the very beginning. The first air-conditioned train that was placed in service in Australia, it was the Silver City Comet. It was a self-propelled diesel rail car set, and that was in New South Wales. And that was actually introduced in 1935. And at the same time, it was actually promoted as the first air-conditioned train in the British Empire. They called it the British Empire, but that was at that stage. Queensland Railways, in the mid-1930s, we were introducing the Sunshine Express train, which was the tourist service between Brisbane and Cairns running three times a week.
Annette: So a dedicated tourist one?
Greg: Very much so, yes. The Queensland Railways, with the introduction of the Sunshine Express, they actually looked at air-conditioning carriages, and the carriages were the varnished timber ones and open windows, which was pretty much Queensland Railways. They decided not to do it, because they deemed at that stage it was the expense. Also, actually, the air-conditioning system itself was literally probably not up to scratch, because the system we eventually adopted here in Queensland was what they call having a power car and things like that, so its own separate generator.
There was also a comment made that they didn’t really require it, because if you were in a sleeper train – most overnight trains in Queensland were sleeper trains – and they said, well, because you’ve got working fans and an open window, you really don’t need air-conditioning anyway. So they didn’t go with that idea. So that was in the 1930s. However, the post-war period was the important era. That was that great rebuilding of the Queensland Railways, which we’ve spoken about before, post-Second World War, and that was actually when they started looking at the introduction of an air-conditioned train.
Annette: Okay. So post-Second World War, they started to look. When did they actually get one on the rails?
Greg: We go back to 1949, and they were looking at the construction of a luxury train to run between Brisbane and Cairns, like a luxury tourist service.
Annette: Okay. What makes it a luxury service, Greg?
Greg: First class.
Annette: First class. But what does that mean in 1949?
A luxurious dream for a luxurious train on the Queensland Railways
Greg: Dining car on the train, first-class service, sleepers. It was basically a luxury tourist service between Brisbane and Cairns, and that’s where they touched on the idea of the air-conditioning again. They drew up plans for that, and it was going to be a 13-car length train. It was going to have 71 first class, but they were also going to include second-class passengers as well, economies, 77 of those. And they drew up the plans for that single train. That was up until 1949. And the interesting thing, Annette, I mentioned before about what they call the head-end power, for want of a better term. But the thing was, the power for that was going to be supplied by a separate generator, a generator car, a power car, and that’d would provide the electric power to every carriage on the train. That was an innovation in itself, very, very much so, yes.
Annette: I’m picturing this, and when I think of a power car, I think of something the size of a shipping container. How big was it?
Greg: Yes, well, that’s exactly right. We still have the power cars today on the travel trains, the Inlander, the Westlander, and also the Spirit of the Outback. It’s that separate car generally behind the diesel locomotive, diesel electric, and that supplies the generator power throughout the train. That’s why you’ve got the electric power. And it also supplies the power for the air conditioning on the train as well. So it’s very much, yes, if you go camping, you take your generator with you; the same principle there that goes with you as well there, Annette. So that was 1949, but they actually reneged on the luxury single one-off train, and they actually started looking at all the services, the big mail train services throughout Queensland.
So I’m talking about the one that went out to Charleville and Cunnamulla, which is the Western Mail. There was the Longreach Mail Train that used to run out to Longreach and to Winton. There was also the Mount Isa mail train that used to run out from Townsville to Mount Isa. And they also looked on the North Coast line as well. So that was the train like the Sunshine Express, Brisbane to Cairns. So they were pretty much the ones that they identified, the major – like the backbone of the service – they’re the ones that they identified would be revamped, renewed, and really, basically given a whole new look and a whole new feel, literally, Annette.
Annette: So those services were mail services. Did they then transfer to become dedicated tourist services?
Greg: Not really. That was one thing about the trains in Queensland, they always earned their keep. But no, the mail trains continued that service. So they were still carrying the mail and things like that. The tourist service was sort of blended onto it. And no, they were still very much like the working trains. They were still doing what they should be doing, supplying that service throughout country and regional Queensland, Annette.
Annette: Fantastic. Do we know what the patronage was like when they transitioned to have both?
Greg: It was identified a need for it. And it was basically that post-war period there was competition coming in from airlines, from buses and things like that. So there was a recognised need, basically, especially for long distance train travel in Queensland. They needed to actually have new rolling stock, but actually looking for people’s comfort. What could have been there before the Second World War wasn’t good for the post-Second World people. People did have higher expectations in passenger comfort and things like that.
Commonwealth Engineering, which was Comeng, they were awarded a contract to build at Rocklea eight separate air-conditioned trains. So that was going to be one for the Western services. You had what became the Inlander, what became the Midlander, what became the Westlander. And then you had those three. And then they were going to have four or five what became Sunlander Services to operate up and down between Brisbane and Cairns.
Annette: Five trains to go between Brisbane and Cairns?
Greg: Mmm.
Annette: How long did it take to get up there, that we needed five different trains?
Commonwealth Engineering gets the contract to build the air-conditioned trains
Greg: Well, you’ve got to think about when they’re travelling – when they’re coming from – one’s coming from Cairns, one’s coming from Brisbane. There’s probably one on the way. And then you’ve got the turnaround with the different trains being serviced and things like that. So, it was still about the two-day travel to get up there. And the period of the – it was around the period of the introduction of diesel electric locomotives, so that was the other big thing that was going to come with it, especially on the North Coast line. The other important part of that in the early 50s was going to be the introduction of the diesel electric locomotives.
So, the total order was about 49 vehicles. That was the initial order that was given to the Commonwealth Engineering. It was a really – the work was undertaken by Comeng, Commonwealth Engineering staff, but actually, Queensland Railways, it was a really good working relationship on the project. Comeng still came up with a lot of ideas, and Queensland Railways said that’s a really good idea too. But surprisingly enough, there was a lot of sharing that was going on. And as I said, the design process between Comeng and Queensland Railways was a lot of – there was a lot of going back and forth. There was some really good ideas that they were trying to tease out all the time and everything like that. So, it was actually a really good working relationship.
Annette: Did they introduce anything that we’d requested in our luxury trains that we’d scrapped in 1949?
Greg: Well, actually, yes. I’ll talk a little bit further down about some of those things that did come in. But the big thing with it too, Annette, was steel-bodied carriages. They weren’t the timber carriages that had served the Queensland Railways since the 1860s. These were specially constructed steel-bodied vehicles. And they were limited to an axle load of about 9.5 tonnes so they could operate on the western lines, out to places like Charleville, out to Longreach, Winton and to Mount Isa. They weren’t heavy carriages, so they had to take that into account as well too.
Annette: Nine and a half tonne wasn’t a heavy carriage?
Greg: Well, that’s per axle load, on each axle there. So, not a heavy axle loading there.
Annette: Sorry, one more question. Was there generally two axles per carriage?
A high standard of comfort for country travellers in Queensland
Greg: Well, it’s got two sets of bogies, so it’s four axles per car there, Annette. Now, the interesting thing was the sleeping cars. Now, specially dedicated sleeping cars with their own compartments, of course, and a side entrance, pull-down bunks. And the sleeping cars were the first air-conditioned examples of their kind in Australia. So, we had the first air-conditioned sleeping carriages in Australia, which was good for us. They had hot and cold water supplied in each carriage, which was a real blessing for a lot of people as well too. And they actually were going to introduce this for all the western services that came.
You mentioned before about that luxury train idea. The original colour scheme for the proposed luxury train that followed the scrapping of the design, they actually adopted that for use on the new air-conditioned Comeng trains. It was a white and grey colour shade. You had the blue and tangerine bands. And that became the standard colour scheme for the air-conditioned trains. And that was until the introduction of stainless steel carriages, the L-series carriages, in the 1980s. And they actually took that colour scheme and put it on the diesel electric locomotives that were introduced in the early 1950s.
Now, one thing is, that colour scheme, the earlier incarnation for the luxury service, that one-off luxury train, Annette, they were actually going to have a maroon and silver paint scheme. So, for people around State of Origin time would have been very excited by that, I’m quite sure. But they actually used – it was going to be a maroon colour scheme. They scrapped that idea, although the paint was available, and they actually used that maroon colour scheme for the Beyer-Garrett steam locomotives that came in from England and also from France in the early 1950s. They actually used that paint to repaint the engines later on. So, nothing went to waste with it or anything like that.
An early form of corporate colours
Annette: So, that colour scheme with the maroon, was that when Queensland Rail, Queensland Railways first adopted the maroon as our colours?
Greg: No, no, no, no. We were blue back then. Well, probably black and blue. But no, the maroon came in the 1990s, the corporate colours and things like that. But yes, it was just those maroon coloured Beyer-Garretts. So, the paint wasn’t wasted. And people from the 1950s onwards, really, until the end of the 1990s, remember, they called them the white trains. Even though it was definitely not a white colour scheme, but they were always called the white trains. And they became – that and the colour scheme of the diesel locomotives, it was a very attractive colour scheme. I think there was a dove grey colour involved in it as well too.
Annette: I wanted to ask, Greg, can we see an example of these white trains anywhere now with the original paint colours?
Greg: Yes, you can actually, Annette. Or the dove grey and, the various shades of grey and things like that. Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway Group at Swanbank actually have a number of the carriages, the old M-series carriages, as they’re properly called. They do have those in the original colour scheme as well. And you do see actually other examples around the place. Queensland Rail donated a lot of the carriages to local community and heritage groups and that. So, you can see some examples of those earlier series cars still around the place, yes.
Annette: So the first steel ones are in museums and different places around?
Greg: Exactly. And as I said, there’s lots of very lovely colour photographs taken of them as well over many decades.
Podcast interviewee Jen
Annette: Well, thanks, Jen, for joining us today on the Queensland Rail History podcast.
Jen: Yes, I’m sitting in our office in the Cairns Depot. It’s a rainy day up here. It’s not the usual sunny day that everyone expects when they come up to Far North Queensland. But at least the heat’s not with us.
Annette: So, what year did you start with Queensland Rail?
Jen: 2011 I started.
Annette: Wow. So your career’s evolved a lot in the last 12 years, really.
Jen: Mmm. And I’ve got to say, when I was in high school, being a train driver was never on my list of things to do.
Annette: You’re originally from Far North Queensland, then you’ve moved down to South East Queensland. What was that move like, and was it better going back up?
Jen: I moved down after school to complete university down there. When I was five, my mum went back to Brisbane to study for a year to get back into teaching after her maternity leave. And ever since then, I always wanted to return to the big city. So it was really exciting going down, and I never wanted to leave Brisbane. And then I actually spent seven years in London.
Annette: You didn’t really have a spark moment that said, I want to drive a train, I want to come work for Queensland Rail. It was out of necessity with the floods?
Jen: Yes. When I first came back to Australia and I was looking for a job, I went into the City Cats. I was on the City Cats for two weeks before the floods hit. And because I was casual, they suggested we go out and find another job because they weren’t sure when they were going to be back up and running. So that’s when I found on SEEK, QR were looking for casual station staff. I applied for that. I got a part-time role down at Ormiston. That was a permanent role that I went into at stations. So with my background in exercise science, I still wanted to do something with exercise. So I did a Pilates diploma and was teaching Pilates in the afternoon and doing QR in the morning.
And then eventually, I wanted to purchase a property and I couldn’t – well, the bank wouldn’t give me a loan based on that. So I had to go full time and that’s when the guards position came up. And that’s why I took that position; it was more so, so I could secure a future for myself.
Annette: Yes, it’s funny how the – to me, I look at the shifts at the stations and go, there’s no way I want to start work at 4:55 in the morning. But for you, you’ve looked at it and gone, “4:55 in the morning, that lets me wrap this up. And then I can go do what I like over the side", which is teaching Pilates.
Jen: When I was in Brisbane, you’d work either really early morning or late afternoon. And the work-life balance you could get – you’d go down to the Gold Coast Centre, there were a couple of guys that I’d go paddle boarding with. And we’d go down before afternoon shift and there’d be nobody at the beach. It would be perfect. So you don’t have to fight the crowds on the Saturday, Sunday; you’d go down during the week and it was just awesome. So it does have its benefits.
So I started off as a casual porter at stations and was told by one of the guards coming through on the train that they were going to open up the guards position again to internal staff. So I was a guard for about four or five years, and then they were looking for more drivers and I put my hand up for that and got through. And yes, eventually just decided to return back. I actually grew up in Far North Queensland, so my family’s still up here. And I always put down for Cairns when it became available. But it’s quite a popular place to come for a lot of the more senior drivers. And it wasn’t until 2020 that I was advised I was successful and I was coming up to start a job up here with Regional. So yes, that was quite an experience, I guess, in the whole moving through the company like that.
I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve been able to move around like that. But it’s just been from one point to another, and I’m now – actually, I had my niece on the train a few weeks ago. So, driving my family around, which I’ve never really expected to do because they were up here and I was always down in Brisbane. So that was fun.
Annette: That would be good. So which trains are you qualified to drive now? Because I know you need to have different qualifications for all different kinds. So what are you qualified in?
Jen: Yes. So, qualified in the diesel. Up here we have the 1720s. And also qualified in the diesel tilt. So I have the electric tilt from Brisbane up to Rockhampton. I’d need to go through and do a little bit of training in that one before we can drive it.
Annette: And obviously, the SEQ trains, all the standard ones? Yes.
Jen: I was – after 12 months of not running over the routes, you lose your competency. So yes, been up here now for almost two years. The SEQ trains are a lot easier to drive than the diesel ones. You’d still need to go down and just go over your routes again and make sure that you’re all good to get signed off there. It’s the same up here. I’m qualified to Townsville. Even though the diesel tilt goes all the way to Brisbane, I’m only qualified on the route to go as far as Townsville.
Annette: Do they ever have one driver do the whole way? It’s such a long trip; do they – you always swap out at certain places?
Jen: All of Cairns are qualified to go to Townsville only, and then Townsville take over to Mackay, and then it’s Bundaberg actually that come up to Mackay and go all the way down to Brisbane.
Annette: Well, that’s good to know that you have three drivers over that period. It’s a really long trip.
Jen: Six drivers actually, because it’s two drivers. Routes are – even going to Kuranda, we still have to have two drivers in the cab.
Annette: Can I ask why they have two?
Jen: It’s the safety side of things. So, to ensure that we’ve got – if you see a signal, or if you’re coming up to your limit of authority, you’ve got somebody to go back and forwards with so you’re both confirming the correct authority. Also, you’ll find that the viewing, especially on the tilt, they’ve got really thick side panels, so when we’re coming across level crossings, one driver will be able to see in one direction and the other driver will be able to see the level crossing from the other direction. So it’s more of a safety thing to make sure that both drivers are alert, everything can be seen. And yes, also for the fact that our trip down to Townsville is about seven hours. So it’s to make sure that we swap over at the appropriate time and we’re not driving and having fatigued drivers. We get a little bit of a break in between.
Annette: Yes, that’s a long trip to be alert for.
Okay, so we know in 1949 we said we want a train; we need to upgrade; we need to give our customers something special. When did the first one hit the rails?
The inaugural journey of the Sunlander
Greg: Well, the big one was of course the Sunlander. Now, that commenced service on the 4th of June of 1953, which is just around in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. That replaced the Sunshine Express. So I’ll go with the big one first, even though the Inlander was the very first one. It was introduced in February of 1953. That made really good sense. If you’ve got an air conditioned train, probably the best place you could put it is probably on some of the hottest train services in Queensland, and was going from Townsville to Mount Isa. So the Inlander was actually February of 1953. It was a progressive rollout between ‘53 and ‘54 of the trains themselves.
So 4th of June ‘53 was the Sunlander, replacing the Sunshine Express. It was hauled throughout generally by a diesel electric locomotive. That was a very important thing. So, try not to get steam locomotives near them. It was all part of this look and everything like that. You mentioned before about reduction in travel times. Well, by taking the steam locomotive out straight, it was reduced from 45 hours to 41 and a quarter hours. So that’s the travel time by taking steam locomotives out. And it was progressively speeded up. In December of 2014 when the Sunlander was withdrawn, the timetable was back to 31 hours.
And that was because of the mode of power, but also the track. The line had had so many infrastructure upgrades over the following decades and things like that. So you can see they cut out 10 hours on the journey there. As more rolling stock came from Comeng and North Ipswich workshops as well, they started adding extra services and things like that. And 9th of December 1955, the five trains were delivered for operation on the North Coast line.
Annette: The five trains or the eight trains?
Greg: Five trains. That’s for the North Coast Line. We’ll get to those other three shortly, Annette, anyway.
Annette: You had me interested. I’m like, “You know we were talking about eight."
Greg: Thank you very much. I’m glad I got you interested, anyway, Annette. That’s good. My job is done. Thank you so much. We’ll see you later. Anyhow, Comeng were doing train sets but North Ipswich workshops also got to build ones as well too, just for the demand and that. So they built one and it was commissioned, although that didn’t come into service until May of 1961. But that shows you the demand on the train services and that. So they were built up. The Sunlander’s first trip to Cairns – now, we’re talking June of 1953 there – enthusiastic crowds everywhere. Everyone turned out, basically, to see this brand new train.
Marketing the new trains
There’d been a big marketing campaign in advance and everything like that. When the air-conditioned carriages started to be delivered into service for trials and that, that was about November, December of 1952, they actually did trial runs with them. There was a huge marketing push to welcome the air-conditioned trains. Here in Toowoomba they ran a couple of special trips up. Railway employees were actually invited on these trains to trial them out. My dad actually came up on one back in the early 50s. He remembers it well, coming up here. But there was this huge push saying, well, this wonderful, innovative air-conditioned trains for Queensland. It was very much like, here is the train, travel on it, basically.
I think it was in Mackay, there were 500 people got onto the station platform to get a glimpse of the Sunlander, to see it come through. But the train wasn’t even open for an inspection. It wasn’t one of those inspection trains, people come on it. But they turned out just to see it, looking through the windows and everything like that. So it was pretty remarkable. When it finally got to Cairns, there were 3,000 people turned out in Cairns to walk through the Sunlander. The Railways were very good at doing the marketing and everything like that, of course.
Annette: So you’re talking about the advertising of this train coming through. How did they do that? Did they put on radio ads, newspaper ads? Because obviously they didn’t have social media like we do today. How did the news spread so rapidly, and why?
Greg: Media events; there was news stories that were put out; there was a lot of stuff in newspapers, photographs of the new train. So, it was pretty much – it was newspapers of the day and everything like that, so it was pretty much everywhere. And there was a real sell campaign on it as well. There’s another terrific photograph that actually shows in various places in Queensland, like a float. It was actually built on a truck chassis or something like that. And it was actually to advertise the Sunlander. [laughs] So, it was a float that could be run around, to do country shows and things like that, to advertise the Sunlander as well too. And we’ll have – it’s a really good photo, it’s quite remarkable. It does look a little bit – when you see some of the advertising now – but again, it was getting the message out to people. And newspapers really, really pushed it.
There’s that photograph that we’ll be seeing very shortly. And it was actually taken down at Roma Street. They actually used to get models, modelling lovely 1950s fashions and things like that. And then they’d have the obligatory suitcases and that with them at Roma Street, beside the Sunlander. So there was actually model fashion shoots that were done. The thing I love about it is there’s – standing next door to diesel electric locomotives, and there’s a driver hanging out of the engine, who obviously hadn’t been to model school or something like that as well anyway. But that was the sort of thing that went behind, all that big marketing push that went with it.
Annette: Yes, I’m really looking forward to seeing the photo of the float. So that will be fun to see.
Greg: You will love it. You will love it. That was it. Yes, so I mentioned before, there were 3,000 people turning out at Cairns to see the Sunlander come in. They actually opened the train up when it got there. And the other thing was, it wasn’t an on-time arrival. That first run of the Sunlander, on-time running, it did slip, primarily because of the amount of public interest in the train and everything like that.
Annette: So Greg, I’m excited because I get to go on the travel train, going on the Spirit of Queensland up to Cairns soon.
Greg: Oh, great.
What was so exciting about the new air-conditioned trains?
Annette: What were people excited about with the introduction of these new luxury or air-conditioned trains?
Greg: Well, it’s very simple. The travelling conditions. And that compared, as I said, very favourably against the older steam trains. Firstly, no more coal dust, no more soot, no more cinders. And of course, that’s because of the new diesel electric locomotive that was up the front. We had the air conditioning in the carriages; adjustable seats that you could actually recline and move in; you had individual lighting, which is – you think of airlines and things like that, even buses, heaven forbid, but you had your own little light switches and that for reading lights and things like that; carpet, carpet was a really big one.
Annette: Carpet? People were excited to have carpet? Did we really not have carpet in any of our timber trains?
Greg: Not really. No, it used to be vinyl and lino and things like that. So it was carpet. Again, that was great for keeping the noise down. A high level of comfort; hot and cold water in the carriages, very big indeed.
Annette: Was that a shower or was it literally just hot water?
Greg: Yes, that was the other thing they introduced, individual showers – well, showers in each carriage. That was a huge innovation as well. Previous to that, you used to have places like Mackay and that, when you’re travelling north on the trains, you’d stop and you could get a shower there at the station. You paid, so you got your showers and things like that. And to quote the old thing, if you’re travelling on a soot buster for two days, the old steam trains as they called them, you get pretty grubby in the process. So, having a shower in the carriages, that was really big for a lot of people as well. Venetian blinds, that was another big one. And the gleaming dining car, which was air conditioned and things like that. Stainless steel, all stainless steel and formica and things like that. This was all – it was this whole brand new look, and for people it meant a whole lot. We’d been spending decades travelling behind steam locomotives with open windows and things like that.
Annette: Okay, so we’ve got a kitchen or a dining area on board now. What happened to all our rail side kitchens?
Greg: Well, the ref rooms still continued. They continued until the 1980s. But because the dining car’s been introduced, they were gas and electric. So you had that on board dining experience still there. The old dining carriages, of course, you had a coal fired range in them for many a year and things like that. And they were open windows as well. So there’s absolutely no comparison. This was a real decent dining experience and that. And for the surcharge, you got to enjoy that as well. So for people, being able to eat on the move, that was a huge thing indeed, Annette, huge thing.
Annette: Oh, fantastic. Because we spoke with Tony, didn’t we? And listening to him talk about it, I’m really excited for my trip as well, to be able to eat some of his cuisine.
Greg: Oh, glad to hear that too. Similar fashion to – going back to 70 years ago when those Lander trains were introduced. There was actually a passenger who travelled on one of the services, who said – they’d actually travelled the world – they thought the latest Queensland trains were on par with the best in the world. And he said, the big thing again was the hot and cold water on the train, it was a revelation and a special delight as well, anyhow. So don’t knock running hot or cold water in there. The same person said, “Look, the Sunlander is like a mobile first class hotel. It incorporated every modern comfort. And an almost incredible improvement on the old fashioned trains." And we’re talking steam trains, old fashioned trains in the 50s, which includes practically all of our Queensland trains at that stage. So that’s early 1950s.
Podcast interviewee Jen
Annette: What do you love about your job at Queensland Rail?
Jen: Coming up here, it’s just the environment. As I said, I love the outdoors, and up here, everything – I’m sure it is in Brisbane, but you don’t see as much of the environment, it’s more city wise buildings and that sort of thing – but up here, everything is just so green. And then I’ve had cassowaries run in front of me. The moment when we go across Cattle Creek, there’s a crocodile sort of holed up in the corner that we sort of try and see every time we go over. There’s a couple of creeks and rivers that we go over, and sometimes there’s crocodiles sort of in there. Just all the stuff that you see up here. Just amazing.
Annette: Sounds like a stunning office. It’d be hard to have a bad day, right?
Jen: Sometimes. And when you’ve got that view, it is absolutely fantastic. It changes all through the year. In rainy season, the waterfalls and that just become so much bigger. Unfortunately, next week, there’s probably not going to be enough rain for you to see just how massive Barron Falls can get, but when it’s at its peak and the amount of water flowing over it, it’s just – you just can’t believe that so much water can come out of that mountain and not destroy anything further down. That’s just powerful.
Annette: What routes do you currently drive? And what are the conditions like on them?
Jen: We do the KSR up to Kuranda; maximum speed there is 45-ish. It’s pretty bumpy. Then when we get onto the range, the maximum speed is 20. So it feels really odd sometimes going at that speed. And then when we get to the lookouts and that, we slow down to about five to 10 kilometres an hour. So it’s a pretty slow trip for us, but it also gives us a chance to look around and get a good view and enjoy the scenery. So that’s always nice. Down to Townsville, well, for us it’s quite bumpy, but for the passengers, they’ve got the tilt. So it takes a lot of the bumps that the drivers feel, out of the equation. It’s actually a really nice, comfortable trip. Well, from Townsville to Cairns, it is. I’m not too sure after Townsville, because they do go faster. So we’ve got a maximum of 80 kilometres an hour.
But yes, I’ve been a passenger on the tilts a couple of times. If you go up into first class, it’s pretty nice. You’ve got your TV, you’ve got your recliner chair, air conditioned. Just nice and comfortable for the passengers; not so much for the drivers, we do tend to feel most of the bumps. And then, particularly in Brisbane, you’ve got some really good team members down there that are really supportive. I had, on my 12th drive up here, I actually hit a car that came through a level crossing, and I had all my friends from Brisbane calling up and just making sure that I was okay. So the support factor there, everyone’s in the same boat. They all know how that’s going to feel. And that in itself is just a really nice family feeling, and knowing that you’re supported in those tough situations.
Annette: Yes, that must have been a bit of a shock on your 12th drive up there.
Jen: It was told to us before we came up, that – expect to hit a car, I guess, when you’re driving these trains up here, because the level crossings aren’t as common as what they are in Brisbane. And the trains also aren’t as regular. So growing up as a kid, when we’d come down from Atherton as a family, we never thought about trains. So I can understand how the mentality here in Cairns and that, is that they don’t expect trains, which is unfortunate. But that’s when the accidents tend to happen.
What is in a name – where did the ‘Lander names come from?
Annette: Obviously, we keep calling this the Sunlander. And today’s service is the Spirit of Queensland. Where did the names come from, and why was Sunlander picked?
Greg: That’s a good one. Well, they put the names out – they did use to do a lot of things in competition within the Queensland Railways themselves, coming up with names and things like that. And it was literally – I think it was a stationmaster or someone like that in Queensland Railways came up with the Lander names. It was sort of like, well, the Sunlander, it was travel to the land of the sun and everything like that. And it also came with the Lander names. So going out to Charleville and Cunnamulla, it became the Westlander. Going from Rockhampton through to Longreach and to Winton, the Midlander, because it travelled on the – well, basically mid-central Queensland. And Mount Isa was the Inlander anyway; it travelled inland.
I’m fairly sure it was a stationmaster in the Queensland Railways got that. And I think he got £5 – £5 for the suggestion and things like that. That’s where the name came from with Landers.
Annette: Okay. And we still have the Gulflander today.
Greg: Well, the Gulflander was an addition. Yes, well, yes. It’s a 1970s name that was affixed to a wagon that used to travel on the Normanton-Croydon line. It’s a bit of a Queensland Railways joke. But yes, the service is now called the Gulflander as well too. So it was adopted for those other services as well. Going back, Inlander, February 1953. Then we had Sunlander in June of 1953. Midlander running out to Longreach and to Winton in May of 1954. The last of them all was the Westlander, and that was in August of 1954. And there’s a nice difference, February 1953 going to Mount Isa, outback, mid-summer. And then at the other end of the extreme, you’ve got August 1954 running out to Charleville and Cunnamulla. You’re thinking cold at that time of year as well. So all climactic conditions were taken care of in that process, Annette.
Annette: So Greg, I’m interested. Back then we signed the contract, what, 1949-ish?
Greg: Yes, around there.
Annette: Then we get our first train in 1953, and the last of the eight was in 1954. That’s a really quick turnaround, really.
Greg: That’s why I said it was a really good working relationship between Comeng and Queensland Railways. It was a really good project, the way they worked through going through it. So yes, it was a very good quick delivery, and the design and everything like that that went into it. So yes, it was quite impressive. I mentioned before that – I mean, these services were incredibly popular. Those Commonwealth Engineering trains were all in service by 1956. The services were also popular, these air-conditioned trains. There were only enough carriages initially for four Sunlanders; Brisbane-Cairns, Cairns-Brisbane, to run that service.
They were still able to do five services a week with four trains anyway. Thank heavens for rolling stock planners and people like that. And I mentioned Ipswich Workshops, they constructed those new carriages and new train to make the sixth Sunlander. That came in May of 1961. So it was really over that 10-year period they brought all those new trains in. Remarkable. They were so incredibly popular.
Annette: You just said there was four, and then the sixth one came in. When did the fifth one come in?
Greg: There were four Sunlander trains, but they did five services a week, okay, with the rolling stock. And then you had like a sixth train service could be provided by the Ipswich Workshops constructed ones that came in May of 1961. So it relates to services and availability of rolling stock and things like that.
Annette: Okay, so it wasn’t a sixth train, it was a sixth service.
Steam locomotives on air-conditioned trains
Greg: That’s exactly right, anyway. Now the Sunlander, it was hauled throughout by the new diesel electric locomotives. That was – some of our listeners will remember the American 1150 Classes we spoke about in one of our previous podcasts, when the diesels were introduced. And then English Electric streamliners, the 1200 Classes, which gave it all that modern look and everything like that. However, that was on Brisbane to Cairns, diesels throughout. Not for the western services, thank you very much. So, what would happen was that the air-conditioned trains would be worked by diesel electric locomotives; initially it was from Townsville to Charters Towers, then it was from Rockhampton through to Emerald; and I think it was through from Brisbane-Toowoomba through to Roma. For the rest of the west, steam locomotives were still employed because the diesel locomotives hadn’t been introduced for those sorts of services yet. So, yes, beyond Roma, Emerald and Charters Towers, steam locomotives took on the duties.
For those who are really interested in that, it was C17 Class steam locomotives used to operate those. Double-headed, two steam engines on the one train, because the diesel was more powerful for that. From 1957 in central Queensland, the Beyer-Garratts, the big maroon steam locomotives, they took the Midlander from Emerald to the west. And in central Queensland, again, Alpha Locomotive Depot, the AC16, the American steam locomotives, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they used to take the Midlander train out to Longreach and then out to Winton as well. So that’s how they used to work.
And as I say, it was two steam locomotives on the one train. And some of the old engine drivers and that from those depots, the ones such as Charters Towers, the ones at Roma, and also from central Queensland and Emerald and those places, and Alpha, the engines that used to go out especially were always polished up. They’d always have – they’d try and allocate the best steam locomotives to operate the Lander service, of course. And they were all – they were very well polished and everything like that. There was a prestige attached to it, Annette, very much.
Annette: Now, I’m interested to know, so we’ve talked about how a diesel train, loco, has always pulled these luxury carriages. But on the Westlander and those lines, we’re saying now it’s a steam train. Did they still have the big generator attached for the air conditioning and everything?
Greg: Ah, yes, that was the beauty of them. It didn’t matter so much what was hauling your train because you had your generator and things like that, the power car as they called them, that provided everything. You’ll be seeing some photographs in the collection. You will see the two steam locomotives on the one train. Yes, it’s a remarkable sight, as you’d appreciate. Modern train, steam locomotives. Hmm, you tell the difference.
A faster journey between Brisbane and Cairns
Annette: Now, I’m also interested – so we know that introducing the diesel locos for the trip to Cairns remarkably reduced the timeframes, from when it was first going, from 45 hours, then down to 41 and a half hours, then down to 31 hours by the time it had wrapped up with upgrades to the track. Was it almost faster to go to Cairns than it was to go out west?
Greg: It probably was. There’s no two ways about timetables. Introduction of the diesels and the air-conditioned trains. One thing with the air-conditioned trains on the western services with the dining car, that did spell the long-term decline of the railway refreshment rooms. Because getting off at places, you got the dining car on the train, so that went with it. It wasn’t quite so speeded up, with the great changes in the timetables on the western services to the same extent on the north coast line. But, north coast line was by far the more heavily trafficked one and much more passengers travelling on that.
Annette: Yes, well they had six services a week.
Greg: They did.
Annette: That’s pretty busy.
Greg: They did too.
Podcast interviewee Jen
Annette: Have you been on any of the older diesel trains that are still lacking in that, or experienced the difference between the new and the old with them?
Jen: I actually haven’t travelled on the KSR in a capacity as a passenger, and I do know that that in itself, the windows are basically the only thing. Yes, those ones there, because of the heritage listing, I don’t think they’re ever going to get air-con. But in terms of the tilt services, we’re actually quite fortunate that we’ve got air-con in our loco when driving up. But going through the rainforest is actually cool, that I generally don’t like using the air-con. I prefer to have the windows open and getting that wind through is nice. Just those really hot summer days – so December, January, the air-con’s quite nice.
Annette: What do you think the conditions would have been like driving trains regionally back in the 50s?
Jen: There used to be a 30 kilometre speed limit on the range. I don’t think I would have driven anywhere near that range had the 30 kilometres stayed there. And then the brakes that they tell me about on the sugar trains, with the mass amount of weight that they were carrying there on the sugar trains, yes, it’s something that I don’t even want to imagine myself doing because it’s just too scary. But they’ve definitely made things safer by slowing the trains down. We’ve only got a maximum of 15 carriages now, so we don’t have excessive weights on the Kuranda train coming down.
Yes, I don’t even want to imagine; it’s just too scary. You see the drops sometimes on the jump up and that sort of thing. And it’s just like, how could people go faster? It’s just crazy. Tilt-wise, they’ve actually done quite well, I think, with fixing up the line in terms of taking out as many bumps as they possibly can, and cutting out sections that had quite steep bends and trying to make it a little bit straighter and nicer that way.
New rollingstock for the air-conditioned long-distance services in the 1980s
Greg: We got to the 1980s and actually, the Sunlanders and the Lander trains had been going for about 30 years at that stage, 35 years. So they actually introduced a new series of stainless steel carriages. They built 20 of those. They became the L series, and on the travel trains today, they’re the ones that do the work. So they’re the sitting cars and the Spirit of the Outback cars, with their little sleeping compartments and things like that. Commonwealth Engineering came to it again. They were approached in early 1980 to design – what would you say, NGR travel train cars. Well, sort of like next generation, but to introduce new carriages for the Lander services and that.
Ten of these were sitting cars. There were five first cars. Five of those were economy. Showers, of course, thank you very much. And there was also another series of ten cars that were built as roomette sleeping cars. And the roomettes were actually another innovation. They were your own little single sleeper and things like that as well that were introduced. So you didn’t have compartment style with the bunks and everything like that. The roomette was just for one person. Your seat would come down at night, you’d have a sleeping compartment for one person and everything like that. So that was another innovation in the 1980s that came in.
So the underframes and stainless steel shelves were constructed at Comeng down at Granville in New South Wales. It was all fitted out and kitted out at their Rocklea plant. They also built five new dining cars at the same time as well, Annette. And they were built for the long services. And the dining cars themselves were based pretty much upon the standard design. Now, we were mentioning before about the interior of the dining cars. Well, this is it. Mid-1960s, it’s still based around that old – the dining car designed for the Sunshine Express that we’re familiar with.
So you’ve got seating for four on one side, seating for two on the other. Fluorescent lights, very important, fluorescent lights, recessed ceiling, venetian blinds there. You’ve got the lovely stainless steel and vinyl. I do love the recessed lights and the fluorescents. You’ve also got the rolled down venetian blinds. Very important, those things, keeping out the western sun and those things, the northern sun. And of course, we’ve got our wonderfully – shall we say, incredibly busy and, dare I say, very authoritative looking dining car attendants there. Although it’s black and white, Annette, hot pink outfits. They’re lovely pink outfits that you see them there.
The thing I do love, if you have a look on the table though, you can see the actual, shall we say, the cutlery and crockery hadn’t changed much from the steam era. So you’ve got the old railway refreshment room jugs and everything like that sitting out looking at you.
Annette: I just love that if you didn’t know this was on board a train, you would just think it’s a narrow little restaurant somewhere. It doesn’t look like it’s a train.
Greg: Well, it’s funny you should say that, Annette. It’s a Pullman Diner idea; that’s what they call them in the United States. But yes, it’s very much that. It’s the diner arrangement, dining car on a train or the 1950s or 1960s there, Happy Days there. You’ve got the same diner arrangement look and everything like that.
Annette: So, looking at this photo that’s in our link, the table and chairs, do they literally move as well? They don’t look like they’re fixed there.
Greg: They weren’t, no. They can move them around for cleaning, for cleaning the carpet and things like that, and cleaning everything down. So, yes, that was it. But you paid a surcharge, you might be able to dine and everything like that. And it was very important. And you used to come through, you get your tickets for whatever time you could get seating. I think they used to do three sittings in the dining cars, on the Lander trains and things like that when they were on. But anyway, yes, so that’s it. I still love that recessed ceiling. I still love the fluorescent lighting. It speaks so much of mid-1960s. I love it. I absolutely love it.
Bringing back an idea of luxury travel
Yes, so talking through the 80s and things like that, we had the new L series that were introduced. By the 1980s and 1990s there’d been the major changes coming through with the long-distance trains. There was the challenges from airlines; cheap airline flights when they came in, especially. Bus travel, rise of car ownership from the 1940s onwards, that really bit into a lot of the country train travel. Back in 1986, they went back to that luxury train idea. And from the 1940s, they introduced a service Brisbane to Cairns once a week, solely first class only, the Queenslander. So that was the Queenslander train that was introduced. Had your own piano bar car and things like that.
It was re-themed and relaunched in April of 1992. And they had specially themed carriage interiors, reflecting travelling through Queensland and that. I do remember it was in the 1980s and that 1990s, they were described as creating an elegant atmosphere.
Annette: So what would have been the difference between the Sunlander and the Queenslander?
Greg: Well, first of all, first class; first class all the way, once a week. But one thing they did have with the Queenslander, I do remember, was you had your own special, shall we say, fluffy robe and things like that; scuffs; you used to have your own toiletry set and everything that was put aside. And one other thing about Queenslander class and even the Queenslander, they also had Cooktown orchids that were supplied, representing Queensland and that. So yes, it was – and the Sunlander, of course, was still first class passengers; your economy or second class passengers, it was much more – it was a train basically, to do the service.
The Queenslander was specifically a tourist service. And the specially themed carriage interiors, they’re named after personages or places along the way. I think they had the cane cutters bar, I think that was one of them. There were some other changes they had. There was the Queenslander class was introduced in 2003 on the Sunlander. So it was its own first class high-end experience. That was when they brought in the tilt trains for North Queensland, the first of the Cairns tilts, in 2003. So they started reducing the Sunlander services with the introduction of the – what became the Spirit of Queensland trains. But what they did to keep that first class thing was, they had Queenslander class on the Sunlander. So that’s a couple of carriages which was dedicated to its own high-end passengers; that idea of luxury train travel, it was still a high-end market.
The last run of the Sunlander in 2014
It was progressively reduced, the Sunlander services, over the years, as I said, with the introduction of the Cairns tilt trains. It was actually in December of 2014, so it’s nearly a decade now. With the introductions of the extra diesel tilt, they were able actually to replace pretty much all the Sunlander services on the North Coast line with the Spirit of Queensland trains. October of 2014, weekly services on the Sunlander were then reduced back from three just to one. And the very last Sunlander train operated in Queensland on 31st of December 2014. I do remember that well, yes.
Annette: So do we know where the Sunlander train is now?
Greg: Well, the M series carriages, they’re in various collections around the place. A lot of them went to heritage groups and things like that, Annette.
Annette: Was there much of a travel time difference when they went from the Sunlander to the SoQ?
Greg: So down to 26 hours now for the Spirit of Queensland train; so it dropped back again from that 31 hours and that. Going back, Sunshine Express, when first introduced in the ‘50s, was about 51 hours. So we’ve seen a huge reduction, 20 hours, over those ensuing decades and that. The last trips of the Sunlander were quite emotional, actually. I remember being involved with some of them and some of the staff were signing their names on panels and things like that. A lot of people were sad to see the old Sunlander go. But its final trip, it really went out with a bang, I’m glad to say, not a whimper or anything like that. But they have been replaced by the Spirit of Queensland trains and things like that. I like to think that the Sunlander spirit is still very much alive and well in the Spirit of Queensland trains today.
Podcast interviewee Jen
Annette: Now, I think this is a good question to ask, because we’ve seen your career do a full transformation, from coming in from a casual porter, to now you’re driving the trains in FNQ. So, how has Queensland Rail supported your career?
Jen: QR is really good in that anything that we are required to do in our job, they will put those courses on, and there will be a lot of time to get in and do that. So, we’ve had First Aid and whatever else as a guard that we’re required to do. The training from station staff into guard, and then from guard to driver, the tutors that they’ve got, some of them are absolutely amazing with the experience that they have, the stories they can tell you, the support that they give you. We’ve got one guy down there who, regardless of what time of day, if you have a question, he’s available 24-7.
Annette: What do you think your future career looks like?
Jen: They were asking for route mentors here to train the new drivers that come up. So there’s always a possibility to go down that route, and then into tutor. So with my background in exercise science, I was always teaching people in terms of how to improve their diet or their exercise and that. So the teaching side of things does come into it a little bit. I am interested in that. So that’s one possible route. The other one, I am a little bit more of a logical person with that. So going into train movements, so potentially control. There’s still many possibilities for movement within QR or it could just be, you know what, I get over Cairns one day and I want to go try a different depot. I guess that’s one of the good things about working for a company like QR, is there’s always just so many possibilities.
Conclusion
Annette: Yes, definitely, the opportunities are endless here.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode on the revolution of our long-distance services, the Landers. And also, a special thanks to our guest, Jen Cahill, loco driver, Cairns. What a journey she has been on so far. I love hearing about how people’s careers have evolved. 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, with a new episode every month.