Episode description
Today we are looking into design and standardisation of the railway. Be it early prefabricated buildings brought over on ships, the choice for narrow gauge or the adapting and tweaking of designs, to give a local solution to problems faced when building a railway in Queensland’s climate and landscape. We’ll also hear from Andrea Kriss, a Senior Design Manager here at Queensland Rail and hear how the process for building train stations has changed over time.
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Podcast transcript
Introduction
Annette: Hi, I'm Annette and I'm so glad you've joined us again for the fourth episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast. Our podcast is all about discovering the rich story of the railways across our state and how they evolved, and the hard-working people who created them. Today we are looking into design and standardisation of the railway, be it early prefabricated buildings brought over on ships, to choice for narrow gauge, or adapting and tweaking of designs, to give a local solution to problems faced when building a railway in Queensland's climate and landscape. We'll also hear from a senior design manager here at Queensland Rail and learn how the process for building train stations has changed over time.
“If you can clearly define the business need or the client need for the project, then you can set project aims and objectives and start to turn that into a physical space."
“Be that as it may, we in common with the whole community, hail with pleasure the inauguration of the railway in Queensland."
“An old woman in our carriage was very proud of this little bit of railroad."
With me as usual, is our historian, Mr Greg Hallam. Good day Greg.
Greg: Well, thank you very much, Annette, lovely day to you as well.
What made Queensland Railways different in the early days?
Annette: Just as we start off on our journey today, can you give a quick overview of what made things different, or what made Queensland Railways different in those early days?
Greg: Oh Annette, well apart from the early station buildings imported from England, everything about the Queensland Railways was scaled down and not just the track formation. The rails were lighter, the rolling stock or railway vehicles, locomotives, were smaller, the axle loads were much less, the bridges, they were much lighter, they were supported on timber piers or even completely built just out of timber. Speeds were lower on the railways in Queensland than they were in the other colonies at the time, but they were not actually that much slower, when you actually look at the timetables and that. In a way, Queensland led a railway approach for economy, and trying to make more with less, where possible that is, in many ways. The other colonies and states after Federation, they also built their far-flung railway and mineral lines to a much lower standard, or a pioneer line.
The narrow gauge
Annette: We've had quite a few questions et cetera come in about our choice of gauge for Queensland, but would I be right in saying that the choice of our Queensland gauge meant that we were also doing other things differently as well?
Greg: Annette, I'd say, maybe a bit guardedly, that Queensland Railways led railway technology in the choice of the narrow gauge – that's 1,067mm in the modern currency – in the 1860s and really for the next two decades later. It was not initially a home-grown technology, as we've discussed in the past there, but it was imported. Now, making the technology workable and economical was entirely in the hands of the Queensland Railways. Now, once the initial construction period was over in the 1860s and then into the 1870s, and using the staff and equipment that was actually imported from Britain. So, it really began at that point to become very much a local enterprise.
And the developments of the distinctive Queensland Railway look of identity, the locomotives being imported from overseas, they actually came up for local adaptations as well. For instance – we might talk about that at some other time anyhow. Look, when you read accounts from the period of time, there was a sense of self-satisfaction and encouragement that in choosing the narrow gauge here in Queensland and adopting a cheaper method of construction, Queensland had made the right decision and that was at the right time, Annette.
A local approach
Annette: We hear so much these days about innovation and about changing and adapting, looking for economies. If we look back at the late part of the 19th century, what did the driving force behind it all? That is, taking a local approach to the problem rather than importing it?
Greg: Well, Queensland, with adopting a 1,067mm gauge, we also looked at the other economies that would come with it. So I mentioned before, the example of bridgeworks, of lightweight construction. Now, this would mean that you'd have to constrain or rather scale down rolling stock dimensions, the weight and even the locomotive design. Sacrifices had to be made in that case. Now, the combined result was that the Queensland Railways were somewhat limited, especially in the steam locomotive for its engine power. This became a problem when loads began to grow and trains actually began to grow heavier and longer and ultimately faster as well.
Annette: Listening here, it does sound like we might have been setting ourselves up, in a way, for some choices made earlier on, hamstringing us later on?
Greg: In a way, Annette, in a way. If we go back to the beginning, the problem was reinforced by the long, steep grades on the main range railways and things had to be adopted to save construction costs. Now, in the less difficult country, say, out in the west and out in the country and heading towards the outback even, cheaper construction was achieved by introducing curves to avoid obstacles. Now, on narrow gauge, sharp curves can be negotiated as fast or even faster than on a broader gauge track, but when you look at it, low maximum speeds were permitted on the straight track, so really the curves were much less of an impediment. It was all about sacrifice and economy, again, Annette.
Bogies
Annette: So, we can see that there was an impact on the engineering ideas. Does that also mean that we had a knock-on effect on trains themselves, like the locomotives, et cetera?
Greg: Yes, Annette, again, very good question. Look, after being very much a British railway in the 1860s and into the 1870s, Queensland looked further afield. We looked to the United States actually, for many ideas with their developmental approach to the railway, or what the Americans call railroad building. Now, one example of an innovation was using bogies. A bogie is not an alien spacecraft, nor is it an aircraft that's picked up on a radar scanner or anything like that. But, yes, just to expand on a bogie, thinking about what you might have, like a large flatbed truck or something like that, where you've got a couple of axles that are fixed, and if you go around a corner or a curve, they can't negotiate.
A bogie is actually a pivot point, and you're going to have two axles with wheels on them, and they're pivoted to the flat part of the carriage or the wagon, that allows then actually for the entire wheel assembly with the wheels and also the axles, and that means the train can go around a tighter curve. They were actually widely used on the American railroads long before they became common in Britain, and because of their tolerance to light track work et cetera, that's what Queensland started adopting as well; and that was very early in the piece, Annette.
The homegrown approach
Annette: The homegrown approach. This was something that was always being tinkered with, including the tracks and the rails as well?
Greg: Very, very much so. It's sort of like a work in progress in a lot of ways, Annette. Now, besides adopting that narrow gauge, Queensland used lighter track than on standard or broad gauge lines in the other colonies at that stage. Now, gauge and bridge strength both limited the load ultimately. So that could be the load that could be carried, so it made sense to achieve further savings by reducing rail weight as well too, believe it or not. So that, I think when it was introduced here in Queensland, might have been about 42 pound per yard. That's the iron rail weight and things like that. So further cost cutting, further savings.
So the first lines from Ipswich to Toowoomba, Dalby and Warwick, plus that line out to Westwood from Rockhampton, they were laid at, yes, an iron rail that weighed 40 pounds per yard, or 20 kilograms in the modern currency, whereas a 60 pound or 30 kilogram per meter rail that would have been laid on a standard gauge line of similar construction at that stage. Now, steel rail was actually adopted as the norm during the 1870s because of basically the extra resistance to wear was greatly outweighing the extra cost. Iron rails were brittle and steel was far more flexible to use. So again, another innovation that was imported overseas and another innovation that was very quickly taken up by the Queensland Railways.
Annette: Okay, I'm going to throw something completely left field at you now. What do we use today? How heavy is it and what's it made of now?
Greg: That depends what line you're on basically, Annette. There's still places in Queensland that have the old 30 kilogram, 60 pound per yard per metre section of line. There's 45 kilograms, and the Brisbane network, I think there could be 90 kilograms or something like that. The coalfields and the railways in central Queensland are even heavier. Basically, Annette, the bigger, the heavier, the faster the train, the heavier the traffic, you need the heavier rails. So, lightweight rails – and lots of very early lightweight rails you still see around the place in cattle grids and fence posts and everything like that through country Queensland, they're very rare in this day and age, but again, it shows the development, the innovation and the adoption of changing technology. Trains get bigger, trains get faster, trains get heavier. The weight of the rails goes up with them as well too, and heavier sleepers, of course.
Annette: We're talking about steel here. So the iron rails, et cetera, that people talk about, or rather wrote songs about, sounds like a bit of poetic licence.
Greg: Very true, Annette. Yep. Working on the railroad and everything like that. Well, as we mentioned before, the usual weight in Queensland was around about that 40 pound per yard, 60 and 61 pound steel rail. That started to come in the 1880s. Now, first re-laying of the main range railway up here at Toowoomba and the duplications from Brisbane to Ipswich and for those lines that are deemed to be what we call mainlines in this day and age, Annette, like the north coast line. 41 and a quarter or 42 pound rail that remained the standard for the branch lines in Queensland, with few exceptions. I'm just thinking about places that are no longer there, of course. The Brisbane Valley line, the Brisbane Valley rail trail. There's quite a number of country branch lines that are no longer with us, but that lightweight rail, that was very much a hallmark of the developmental line, Annette.
Railway innovations
Annette: What would you think is an idea of this local thinking or local innovation being practiced at the time?
Greg: One of the persons that jumps to mind is Robert Ballard– not the fellow who found the Titanic or the Bismarck or anything like that. Our Robert Ballard was the engineer in charge of the heavy works on the main range railway up here. He'd really cut his teeth on the railway works in the main range in the 1860s. Now, he was engineer in charge of that central line going through the Gogango range and heading out towards Emerald. And he realised he needed to speed up construction of the line, but also keep within budget. We know how important budgets are, don't we, Annette? So, [Ballard] introduced numerous innovations, back to innovations again. He designed a new type of fishplate to connect the rails, which not only reduced the vibration, but actually made for a smoother train journey as well too. They were also less expensive to produce and also to fix.
Annette: Sorry, Greg. Just for me again, what's a fishplate?
Greg: Fishplate. It's not something you're going to have with some chips later on anyway, I know that. Fishplate is actually the – where rails end or sections of rail, and they're bolted together; and there's a gap that's left, an expansion gap. So the fishplate actually joins two sections of rail. You'll see them outside of here in Toowoomba and wherever you go. And then actually they're fixed to the sleepers. Now, the fishplates used in Queensland actually are between sleepers, not on the sleepers, because that was a way of reducing vibration as well. And that was one of Ballard's, introducing a new type of fishplate. Joins the rails, helps reduce vibration. So when the rails got hot, or they shrank in the cold, it allowed for expansion and contraction as well. So that's it. Oh, I suppose I'd better get back to Robert Ballard and Gogango. Thank you for that, Annette, as always.
Now, the terminus of the first section of the west from – the line west from Westwood, Ballard installed a railway triangle, turning triangle or a fork line as they called it, in place of a usual turntable. And the turntable, as you've probably seen the photographs of, was basically a bridge – almost like a bridge construction with a pit. Locomotives were driven onto it, pushed onto it, and then the turntable was swung around in the pit to reverse the direction of the steam locomotive. You've seen the photographs.
Annette: Anyone who's seen Thomas the Tank Engine has seen a turntable.
Greg: Thank heavens for Thomas the Tank Engine. What a wonderful interpreter of the railway story and engineering principles. The man – yes, I know – the great Reverend who created him, Awdry – well done and thank you. Okay, so away from Thomas, back to turntables. And he also actually introduced – this is Ballard, not Thomas the Tank Engine – a travelling platform that was adjacent to goods sheds which reduced the need for shunting. So, you know, moving rolling stock between goods sheds as well. So Ballard just didn't even stop there. He also introduced a policy of moving and reusing station buildings, including the passenger stations as the line progressed to each temporary terminus.
Similarly, Annette, when you go camping, you pick up your tent and you go to the next camping spot or something like that, but you still take it with you. Yeah, very much the same approach as well too. Here at Toowoomba, we look around us, the loft where I live and work from is very much a transplanted building. It's moved around the station here at Toowoomba in various forms as well. Many railway stations throughout Queensland spent their life starting off in one place and ending up in some place entirely different as well.
Annette: Yes, even going along the CBD on my way in to work, I can see old stations that have literally been put off to the side and are used for different equipment and storage now. I love seeing all the historical buildings that are still around, if not used for the station.
Greg: Well, that's very good, Annette. Yes, adaption, innovation, change, okay, economy. It's sort of like that great recipe. It's almost like, you know, the Sorcerer's Apprentice and that Disney car in Fantasia, you know, getting all the ingredients together and trying to make up something good anyway.
Local materials and standard designs
Annette: So, the concept of recycling, reusing and innovation was forced upon us back then, purely because we were Queensland?
Greg: In Queensland, it was that thing about making use of the local materials, the local timber, being able to understand what even – what you could do with the local timber and things like that. So, the Queensland approach seemed to be to make use of local materials. It really wasn't about, ultimately, about one railway fitting all. You had to make – you had to be able to build a system that was resilient and it had an ability to cope with whatever came with it. But mind you, I like the story of stations we were talking about before there, Annette. So, as the system grew, the Railway Department had hundreds of stations throughout the state. They varied from the smallest wayside stations to the big, busy stations, which we're all very familiar with, handling large volumes of passengers and freight, or goods as it was back then.
Now, many of the basic requirements were the same with the stations. Two stations hauling similar volumes of traffic could be served by similar facilities. Now, in many cases, the railway was built to promote settlement, and we've spoken about that before. So designers had to guess, and they actually had to guess at the likely traffic that was resulting after the railway had been built, and that was after a few years. So they're projecting into the future, how much tonnage will I see? How many passengers? How many trains will we see? Okay, let's plan for that, and let's adapt, let's adopt, let's construct, and let's look to the future from what we've got now anyway, Annette.
One way of trying to keep costs down and have a similar approach to similar needs over a far-flung system was then about coming back into that standard designs. The standard designs were needed for many things, station buildings, houses for stationmasters and gatekeepers and station mistresses, to the maintenance people, especially for facilities such as cattle and sheep yards, goods sheds, cream sheds, lamp rooms, where they used to store kerosene for lamps and signals and things like that, and basically even toilets as well, too, or ladies' and gentlemen's retiring rooms, as they were back then. So basically, yes, it goes back to that. There was a standardisation that was coming through and adopted in principle and transposed throughout the railway.
Annette: So, Greg, substantial savings were made in design costs, at least on most of the railways, by using standard designs?
Greg: Standard designs. They were designed for bridges, timber, steel or concrete, for track work, including complex track, as in point work; for station buildings as well, houses, quarters, stockyards, cranes even, and the whole box and dice. But it was very much a work in progress. New standards were adopted to use new materials, such as unit concrete constructions, that's concrete prefab. As you'd appreciate, there were numerous standards, new ones being added as old ones were discarded or modified.
Annette: When we talk about the early years in the railways in Queensland, it really seemed very English or British. But we're half a world away. What ideas were transported with the imported railway?
Greg: Okay, let's go back in time again. So, I think one very glaring example was in those early station buildings. They needed to be of a certain standard since the major stations, they housed the administrative offices as well as the basic facilities for passengers. But nevertheless, in the 1860s, you had two-storey station buildings built of imported materials that were put up at Ipswich, at Laidley, Rockhampton. It was planned for here in Toowoomba, but the colony went broke and it and never came to be. Now, John Kerr, in his book, which is really the great study, The Railways in Queensland, Triumph of Narrow Gauge, he commented that the lavishness of the early stations building surprised visitors, especially when compared with those that were being built in the United States at that time.
Annette: I imagine that this approach, and the lavishness – if we can use that word – really didn't last?
Greg: Nope. Like all good gardeners, the excess was soon pruned. It happened pretty early, even to the extent of not erecting, as we said, that magnificent station that was going to be imported for Toowoomba, even though most of the cost had already been incurred. Prior to World War II, most stations were built in timber and iron. The exceptions were few, pretty far between, Annette. In the Brisbane area, they included the Brisbane Roma Street Station of 1875, still there today, down there; the New Country Station, as they call it, which was put up in 1940; Brisbane Central, where you started out from today, rebuilt in 1899 to 1901; South Brisbane Station, that was 1891-1892, so another fairly substantial masonry station there as well.
South Brisbane station
Annette: South Brisbane station went through major upgrade in 2011 and is just one of 21 Heritage stations across the state. The challenge to maintain and protect the character of these structures from the past, while still ensuring their functionality in today's world, is part of the problem solving Andrea Kriss, does every day.
Andrea: My name's Andrea Kriss and I'm a Senior Design Manager in South East Queensland Asset Delivery. My team manages the production of designs for a variety of infrastructure upgrades within South East Queensland. A big part of the work that we do is the Station Accessibility Upgrade Program.
Annette: What has been your favourite project you have worked on, and a particular reason why?
Andrea: My favourite would have to be South Brisbane Station upgrade. I was able to be involved in the very early planning and scoping development, right through to finalisation of the project.
Annette: For people who haven't been to South Brisbane, or can't get to South Brisbane Station, can you give us a summary of what it's like, what it looks like?
Andrea: Sure. South Brisbane Station is predominantly a brick building with stone and concrete detailing around the trims. It's got three platforms, one island platform with two side platforms. It's got a steel awning structure. The biggest challenge at South Brisbane Station was that it was originally painted pink for Expo '88. So all the brickwork was painted. Painting bricks is not a great idea for maintaining healthy brickwork. So one of the biggest challenges was trying to understand how we could take the pink paint off the brickwork and repoint the brickwork for conservation reasons.
Annette: So they were heritage bricks, all of them?
Andrea: They were, yes, all of them. Yes, yes.
Annette: Wow!
Andrea: So when we removed the paint, we found all sorts of things as well. So, featured detailing of bricks over the years, infill sections of bricks where windows had been boarded up. And that's why I love doing heritage work because you take something down and you really – we found a whole staircase underneath the existing staircase, like supports that we didn't even know about. We found original wallpaper in behind one of the walls. So, yes, heritage work is really fascinating because you never know what you're going to find. It was a project that had everything. It's state heritage listed. It's a multidiscipline design team, construction challenges, program challenges, heritage restoration requirements, and a vast number of internal and external stakeholders. The thing I loved the most about it was how energised the broader team was to make it a success. The project won many awards for construction, project management and heritage. Personally, I learnt a lot through the process and was surrounded by an amazing team of people.
Annette: Yes, people really do make it. Is that when you first met our Greg?
Andrea: I think it was, actually. Greg assisted in putting together all the images that are now in the South Brisbane subway and on the walls of the buildings, the large imagery on the side of the lift shaft, up on Platform 2/3. And he put together the storyboards for us as well. So I think that was the first time I met our Greg.
Bridge construction
Annette: Stations and rollingstock are all very fine. But what about the big ticket item? I'm thinking about bridges, for instance.
Greg: Another good one. Bridge design remained actually in the offices of the Chief Engineer of the Queensland Railways. Queensland and its geography, it didn't require structures that were actually at the cutting edge of bridge technology. And you look overseas, places like the great steel and great concrete arch bridges and things like that, that they put to use in the railways in Europe and Britain and United States. But again, we go back to that thing about innovation was generally directed more towards economy and the cost savings. Now, we're Queensland, we became a leader actually in wooden bridge design, trestle bridges. We rapidly changed from the early elaborate structures that actually used an excessive amount of timber, into much more economical structures.
Again, doing more with less. And in this case, not so much seeing the bridge timbers for lack of forests or something like that. Timber construction proved by far the most suitable to Queensland. We were able to develop techniques for the renewal of structures, for strengthening of those bridges for heavier engines. They added things like extra girders, extra poles and extra timber, extra transoms. So the timber bridge proved far more adaptable than the early iron and steel structures, remarkably enough. Timber was a good thing to work with. So when the first railway was built, Queensland timber was largely – and I think I tapped on that before – it was an unknown quantity for engineering design. Little was used except for railway sleepers in those early periods. But bridges were largely built of iron with brick and stone culverts, and with all that was the iron work, the steel work, imported from Britain.
Timber was used in piles to save expensive cast iron cylinders and things like that. Now, with experience in railways that became designed by its own engineers, timber was increasingly used for bridges. It's local; you know how to work with it; it can be adapted; it can be used; and economy comes into it. Now, one thing that was typically Queensland was how many low level bridges were built. And that was another local adaptation in a lot of ways, which allowed for the flood waters in Queensland, not the bridge to stand up against it, but rather, the waters to flow over the top of the bridge. And when the waters came down again, the bridge would still be there. They had to clear off debris that might've gathered, but that's better than having to construct an entire new railway bridge that basically the flood had carried away.
Timber bridges
Annette: Quick question, timber bridges for those railway enthusiasts. Can we go see any today?
Greg: Of course you can. There's quite a number of bridges around, and some really good examples in an operational context on the heritage railway, on the Rattler, Mary Valley Rattler at Gympie, very good timber trestle bridges there. There are quite a number still around on some of the rail trails around the place as well too, Annette, and even on the Southern line, going down towards Wallangarra and places on main lines and that. They are starting to – there is a process of replacement of them, replacing the concrete and that, but there are very good examples around. There's even one up near – on the old Mount Perry line, Splitters Creek, I think it's called, a place called Sharon, up near Bundaberg. Lovely big timber trestle bridge up there as well too, Annette. They're still around. Lots of photographs of them, lots of bridge designs as well too, so it's quite remarkable what you could do with it. So yes, the opportunity is definitely there and I'm quite sure both you and our producer, Josh, you two should go out and look at a timber trestle bridge one day.
Annette: I'm looking at this and I'm thinking of something changing and evolving, almost like tinkering and experimenting as we go along. Consider the main lines, the import railways of the day and age. That seems to be much of the traffic.
Greg: They weren't built to present main line standards, Annette. A lot of engineering effort went into the gradual upgrading of the line. Now, that was actually as finances permitted. Bridges have been strengthened, rails have been re-laid and that's been – for heavier locomotives and rolling stock – that's been going on basically since the beginning.
Annette: The idea of renewing, recycling, adapting, was that carried over into the bridge work? And are we not talking about timber here? I was thinking about iron, steel. What about those engineering features?
Greg: Yes, again, it goes back to that thing about greater ingenuity required to make maximum use of the iron and steel spans and bridges. Now, the interesting thing is – we mentioned recycling before – the old spans weren't dispensed with once they're taken off those early bridges. They were actually reused and recycled elsewhere. Now, the reuse of bridge spans summed up much of what that original Queensland Railways philosophy was, and that was all about providing a serviceable railway for a lightly populated state, that was at a moderate cost. Now, since the end of the Second World War, there's been a continuous program of timber bridge elimination. And since the early 1960s, there's been little construction of steel bridges.
Now once pre-stressed concrete bridge girders were able to be used for rail use – that began in the 1960s – the design became almost universal. First widespread use was on the Mount Isa project back in the 1960s. That was where all the timber bridges west of Hughenden were replaced with concrete.
Annette: That's funny, you used the word universal and my brain goes, standardisation. That's our key word for today, I think.
Greg: Very good.
Stations outside of Brisbane
Annette: So, what about outside Brisbane? Were other station buildings being built that could rival what was built in the capital?
Greg: Another good one there, Annette. Got to put the old thinking cap on for this one. But I guess in the country, the brick, stone, concrete were principally used. Toowoomba here in 1874; there was Warwick in 1886/87; Wallangarra in 1887; Gympie when it was rebuilt in 1913; Mackay Station in 1924; there's that lovely, magnificent Townsville Station, that was 1913, actually, fully opened in 1914, it became the headquarters of the Great Northern Railway, centred on Townsville.
Annette: So, was there a common thread in all of this? Was everything different? Or did style ultimately matter? Standardisation?
Greg: Yes, except for a handful of stations at the important capital city and provincial stations, they were built to a small number of styles. Now, while the dimensions varied to meet the anticipated level of traffic, as we spoke about before, the internal layout varied. There was actually a standardisation that made station architecture instantly recognisable, instantly Queensland. Since the 1880s, stations have been built to standard designs and practices and that continues even to this day. And I guess at this point, we should be going back to our Senior Design Manager, Andrea, to explain a bit more about that.
Modern station upgrades
Annette: We mentioned the lavishness of the early stations built in Queensland. Is there any element of that wow factor considered when upgrading or building a new station today? Or is it more about efficiency?
Andrea: The lavishness created by the craftsman trades and scale of the grand old brick and stone buildings is something of the past. It reminds us why it's so very important to repurpose and retain such historic station buildings. Presently, a design response at an inner city station would consider an individual wow character on a greater scale to that of a small suburban station. A design response at a regional station would vary from that on the suburban network. All stations take into consideration their connection to the local context and function in the network.
Annette: Back in the day, Queensland prided itself on being built on timber and tin. What are our go-to types of materials used today?
Andrea: Definitely today, it's more like steel and concrete, I must admit. There's also a big push in the station world to prefabrication of components. Safety associated with constructability, adjacent operational stations and the overhead live wires is a massive consideration. Whole-of-life cost and safety associated with maintenance is also a big focus during the design process.
Annette: How do you go about preparing something like a station design?
Andrea: The process of design hasn't changed over time; however, the materials and tools have. The design process starts with a vision, an idea, perhaps a problem to be solved or an opportunity. Aims and objectives are set, and through a research and investigation stage, the idea is refined and a more detailed scope is established. Options are then explored at a concept level, which is basically, it's a basic design level, and evaluated back against the original aims and objectives of the project. Once a preferred concept is established, the design is progressively developed in further detail until literally all the nuts and bolts have been worked out. I like to think about it as a funnel. At the start there's an infinite amount of ideas, but as you work through the process, ideas and options are consolidated to arrive at an end product.
Precast concrete stations
Greg: During the 1920s there were a number of new railway branch lines that were actually provided with stations that were built from that precast concrete units, and not in timber. Again, cheaper innovation and Queensland was actually ahead of the game on this one. I'm thinking locally they included some of the stations out on the old Cecil Plains branch beyond Samford, places like Yugar and heading out to Kobble Creek, Armstrong Creek and out towards Dayboro and those areas. That's on the old now closed Dayboro line. Stations were rebuilt in the 1930s that commonly used precast concrete. There was also widespread usage in the workshop buildings, crew quarters, railway refreshment rooms. It really was remarkable what was being used, and how, and for what purposes. Concrete, one size, getting to fit all.
Annette: It's just interesting, you're saying precast or prefabricated. Effectively, we're transporting to site again and just putting it together.
Greg: Exactly, yep. That was really – Annette, well done again today anyway, full marks; you get a Mars bar at the end of this. The idea was, again, that even when they used those concrete preforms in the early part, they were actually almost set up like a timber building. Bits and pieces slotting together like timber. That was part of the design innovation that went with it as well too. They basically had to be done so a local building gang, settlers or someone like that, or local railway employees, could put it together without too many instructions. I just think in this day and age, a flat pack, wouldn't that be a good thing?
Annette: With all the standards and constraints that are put onto you, do you still have room for innovation?
Andrea: Innovation is really being driven through use of products and form, and driven by safety in many cases. One of the fantastic innovation components that came out of our recent station upgrades was the construction of the precast concrete lift shafts. In this particular instance they were able to pre-fabricate the lift shafts off-site, and then they go together like Lego bricks. They get stacked on top of each other, and they go up really, really quickly. So that's an innovation that's been driven from both a constructability constraint, but also a safety constraint of working in and around an operational railway.
Annette: So really, you can introduce that and still stay within your standards and everything else that is required?
Andrea: Correct. Correct. And that's a real challenge, and that's one of the areas why I really like these projects because you've got so many constraints when it comes to the standards and when it comes to safety requirements and operational requirements and operational safety and customer safety. It's, well, how do we combine all that and make it better and still consider whole of life? It's not just about getting it built and on the day. It's about how we maintain this stuff to ensure when something does break down – and stuff in the built environment does break down – it's about how do we get in there and maintain it as fast as possible and get it back to operational safety for the customer? And how can you introduce innovation with all those components sitting over you? It's a challenge, and it's great, and that's why I do it.
Annette: So today we've had a look at some of those distinctive elements that made the Queensland Railways different, if not unique in some cases.
Summary
What can we say about standardisation beyond the state borders or the colonies, as they were in the 19th century?
Greg: Oh, Annette, here we go. Big wrap-up statements and things like that. We must be getting near the end of the podcast, I'd say. All right, here we go. Thinking hard. Now, each state relied heavily on standardisation, each to its own design. Each colonial system, and later the state-built railway facilities were clearly recognisable as each in their own as such. It wasn't all done in isolation. The Railway Commissioners, as they were in those days, and their senior staff, our CEO today, they met regularly. There was substantial technical cooperation. In the facilities most visible to the public, the station buildings, things such as locomotives and rolling stock and bridge design, each system still developed its own style, its own sense of identity.
Even though they shared knowledge about engineering principles, you could still look at something and say, that's Queensland, that's New South Wales, that's Victoria, sort of thing. But Queensland's successful adoption of a substantially narrower gauge, that changed the whole face of rail construction, as we discussed earlier. Tasmania actually followed suit. It regauged a small section that was built to the broad Victorian gauge of 1,600 mm, to our gauge as they expanded the railways in Tasmania. South Australia, it built to both the broad and narrow gauge. In Western Australia, it started last. It was built to the 3 foot 6 or 1,067 millimetre gauge. And that was all within 20 years or so of the opening of the line through here to Toowoomba in 1867.
Melbourne and Sydney, they both had large urban areas where substantial brick station buildings, double track main lines, good alignments, fully signalled. They were interlocked, mechanically interlocked at that. Even the Brisbane area. But that's where we were different again, Annette, and we've spoken before about it – it was the bush came to Brisbane on the railways, not Brisbane going to the bush. The Brisbane area was served by lines that were really – in the beginning they were basically country in character.
Conclusion
Annette: So Greg, in summary, where would you say Queensland would have sat in the rankings of railway things? Where would we have been on a podium, or rather on a railway platform, in the ideas of innovation, adaptation and making do with what we had within our resources?
Greg: Is it a make-and-mend or a make-it railway? Oh, Annette. Oh dear. That's a good one. I think we did well in providing something that was identifiably Queensland in the approach. Yes, we did do those things that did hold us up well as well too. In rankings, okay, Queensland, we'd sit in the middle, I reckon, Annette. That's in track standards, bridges, station buildings. Everything was definitely less substantial than those of the narrow standard gauge in New South Wales or the broad gauges in parts of South Australia and throughout Victoria. It was more substantial, especially where we were was in sheer distance. The railway was so far flung in Queensland. So, especially in the sheer distance that was covered by railway lines, then the narrowest gauge systems are South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and even in Western Australia.
Annette: So, we talk about Queensland being middle of the road.
Greg: Yes, that's what I mean.
Annette: But obviously, we had a lot more track than the other states or colonies. Did we have more stations as well?
Greg: Yes. In the old railway timetables, Annette – good point – Queensland actually had the highest number of stations of anywhere in Australia and even in parts of the British Empire as it was. Mind you, Annette, some of what we called stations were basically just a loop in the – you know, a station name board and a shelter shed, but still classed as a station. So, yes, more track, more stations and it's been fun. Adaption, innovation, change. It'll be interesting to see in years to come, your descendants and see what things they can look back in the early 21st century that have actually been adapted, innovated and changed and still in use on what the railway has become in the latter part of the 21st century.
Questions and answers
The project prior to the introduction of the first electrical trains or the EMUs?
Annette: Thank you for sending in your questions for Greg to answer. If you're enjoying the podcast or have any topic requests regarding our railways history, please message us. Jeff Lockett on Facebook has asked about the project prior to the introduction of the first electrical trains or the EMUs that involved the conversion of SX carriages run as standalone sets of seven cars from locomotive hauled carriages that were originally built as –
Greg: Oh, I think I know what Jeff's asking about here, Annette. It'd be about the early electrification before the 1970s project. If we look at electrification in Brisbane, it actually goes back to the early 20th century. There are suggestions about doing that, but electric tramways actually, they actually got ahead of any sense of an early electrified railway in Queensland. After the Second World War, there was plans that were actually investigated to electrify the Brisbane network using 1,500 volt DC, direct current, similar to Sydney and Melbourne at that stage. Things progressed in the 1950s and there were things such as the quadruplication that you saw out to Corinda and those areas. That was built in advance of an electrification project.
It actually came to an end by the late 1950s, 1960s. It was never really progressed by the Railway Department electrification at that stage and that's probably a good thing. But what happened in about 1960/61, they ordered in from Comeng, Commonwealth Engineering, Granville in Sydney, they actually ordered in stainless steel carriages that could be run as an early form of EMU but they were supplied without motors to operate them and they were the SX carriages. They were introduced in 1961. They were outfitted here at Rocklea by Commonwealth Engineering, and after their introduction they actually ran on the Brisbane suburban network, on the north side that was, because the south side had very low level platforms and there was no Merivale Bridge of course.
So the SX carriage, there were seven of them and they had the guards vans that were in them. People would probably see them – would have seen them running around until 1999 on the Brisbane network. And they actually had glass at the end where the guards' compartments were. And so they were stainless steel; they were introduced as a form of – could have been an EMU – but they were never converted. They were locomotive hauled and actually Queensland and Brisbane had a very unique status in the world, having modern stainless steel rolling stock still being hauled by steam locomotives until the end of the 1960s, which was another one of those uniquely Queensland things.
If you had a look at the SX carriages they actually had an area where they could have put a destination board up the top and also a headlight and even a console area but fortunately, we never went down that path, and what we did get in the 1970s and late 1970s was the 25 kilovolt system we have in here. It was so much better, and of course that would allow for the introduction of EMUs in 1979, air-conditioned trains as well. So we're very fortunate, I think, in some ways that that generation never came to pass or anything like that.
But there's some really good examples still around of surviving carriages and that. North Ipswich Railway Museum, the workshops up there, they've got some surviving examples as well. So yes [Jeff], basically it was electrification progress but it was never fully completed or followed through. They were imported, they were built and used – could have been used –for electrification, but it never took place.
Annette: Sorry Greg, this is just an interest for me. Did the SX carriages look like the rail motors?
Greg: Yes, stainless steel design, that's right. Yes, exactly the same, the 2000 class rail motors, Annette. Bang on it, well done.
The history of the Wallangarra line through New South Wales and the significance said line had to troop supply movements during World War II?
Annette: Amanda Hooper has asked on Facebook: I would love to know about the history of the Wallangarra line through New South Wales and the significance said line had to troop supply movements during World War II.
Greg: Well, that's a good one Amanda. There's a fair amount of work done on it and actually a good place to – if the real historical interest is there as well – in 2000/2001 there was a heritage centre that was opened at Wallan-garra Railway Station and it actually tells the story of Wallan-garra during the Second World War when it was a major transhipment site and everything like that. And it was a major logistics base as well because of the break of gauge. It was very busy, it was 24 hours a day so there was lots of troop movements up and down the Southern Line as they called it, or the Great Northern Railway in New South Wales. A lot of logistics and movement and that was because it was an inland route. Here in Toowoomba, this was 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This was a major rail hub. And quite often the troop movements would come through on the Southern Line, they'd go down to Wallangarra. So, there was a very, very big logistics base down there as well.
But other places, Scots College down at Warwick. It actually had – there was a hospital in Warwick, and they used to run ambulance trains through here. And even here through to Toowoomba, there was trains that'd go up to the Cooyar branch when it was open, because that linked in with the inland defence road which ran up through central Queensland, which was a major supply line for moving war material, troops, whatever you have up and down through Queensland to the Northern Territory. It was an extremely busy line here during the Second World War and it was very much – not so much the troop movements – but it tended to be a lot of things like war material, ammunition supplies and things like that moved through there.
But yes, for Amanda, if she ever is very interested and wants to reach out through us, through the Community Partnerships inbox or something like that, we'd be able to supply even more material about that because guess what, over 20 years ago I was very much involved in providing a lot of heritage research on the Exhibition Centre down there at Wallangarra. We did a lot of work on the railways during the Second World War and the importance of Wallangarra and the Southern Line. But that's not only in the Second World War, also in the First World War, the Great War. It was another important supply line as well.
Next episode
Annette: Thanks, Greg. In the next episode of the Queensland Rail History podcast, we delve into the crossing of the main range from the present day township of Murphy's Creek to Toowoomba, and what truly was a marvellous feat of Victorian era engineering.
Greg: Yes, it'll be a story of ginger beer, of innovation again, of strikes, and also of building the first railway in Australia to go across the Great Dividing Range as well.
Annette: We just want to thank you for listening to today's episode. A huge thanks to our special guest, Andrea. If you have any questions about our rail history, please message us on the Queensland Rail Instagram or Facebook accounts. You can also email the team at communitypartnerships@qr.com.au. 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 Greg and myself, Annette, with a new episode, every month.