The Gulflander Normanton Queensland Australia
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- Опубликовано: 22 окт 2024
- The Normanton to Croydon railway in the Gulf Country of North Queensland Australia.
In the late 1800s after copper was discovered in the Cloncurry area the solution to the transportation problem was to build a railway to Normanton on the Norman River which would give access to the Gulf of Carpentaria for shipping. The government had a policy at the time, of extensive railway building; surveys were completed and contracts for rails and steel sleepers for the proposed line were let.
Rail and sleepers were landed at Normanton, but about this time, gold was dicovered at Croydon, some 93 miles to the east of Normanton. Plans were quickly changed and the railway was hastily rerouted towards Croydon; and plans for the line to Cloncurry were put aside. The line between Croydon and Nomanton was opened by the middle of 1891.
Steam locomotives provided all the original power until the first railmotor that worked on the line, arrived in 1922 from Townsville. It had been converted from a Panhard Levassor road wagon at Ipswich railway workshops in 1918, it weighed nearly four tons, and was fitted with a 20-24 horsepower petrol engine and could carry ten passengers.
Railmotors replaced steam hauled trains which were expensive to run. The last steam train ran to Croydon in February 1929 hauled by B13 161 with twenty tons of goods.
RM32 worked on the line between 1945 and 1960. RM32 was transferred from the Cooktown to Laura line when that line closed and was nicknamed 'Endeavour' after Captain Cook's sailing vessel. The chassis frame of Rail Motor 32 is on dislay near Normanton station.
RM60, was in service on the line 1960-1964. RM60 is a 45 horsepower petrol powered AEC, built Ipswich Railway Workshops 1931. After falling into disrepair while RM74 was in use, it has now been restored to running order for special occasions.
RM74 arrived at Normanton in 1964 and remained in service until 1982 when it was replaced by the present RM93. RM94 was originally a 100 horsepower AEC railmotor. It was built at Ipswich workshops in 1934 and was later fitted with a 102 horsepower Gardner diesel engine similar to that in RM93.
Don't they do the full 150 km anymore?
It used to bring the mail and vangoods to the people living on the line, not sure about now. Years ago a bus company wanted to buy everything but QR said they’d have to operate the whole 150km, not just the 20k they wanted to keep.
Reminds me of the Cairns to Kuranda line. When I first visited Cairns in 1964 and again in 1965, , the railways were running a train to Kuranda and back - leaving about 9:AM and arriving back about 1:PM; and another train usually a 2000 class rail motor to Mareeba followed. Passengers could go to Kuranda on that and return on the first train mentioned above. The return fare to Kuranda was about $2:50 Some few years later when I visited, there were two Kuranda trains running. One was by the railways and the other was run by a company that used the second train to carry bus loads of tourists. These two trains were much the same except that the privately run one had a hostess and a public address system and the fare charge started at some $17:50 while the government run train was still about $2:50. Obviously, big profits for privateers at the expense of QGR. and Qld taxpayers.
Does this train serve any legitimate purpose?? Railway from nowhere to nowhere and back
When I first saw the line - back in 1969, it was an operating service that ran once a week being then, a single rail motor and a flat wagon for goods. Back then, the road was gravel and dirt and in the wet season when the road was often closed, the train was the means of transport between Croydon and Normanton. I have a video posted of this train taken in 1972 -- By the time the rod was made, and partly because of the road being made, tourists were attracted to the area and one of the attractions was a ride the rail motor. The track has been straightened and aligned better since those earlier times although it is over 100 years old and laid on the earth on steel sleepers, but the rail motor now remains for tourists and has been upgraded although the two large cars the motor now has to pull are perhaps straining the rail motor to the limit.
And also im one of the poor cunts that ripped up the hughenden to winton line
Tourism. People come and spend money in a region, they might well not ever visit otherwise.
This line has no future in isolation It is time it was scrappedand the rail cars put in service somewhere where they can be more useful than going from nowhere to nowhere and back Every trip is hosting them money