Article by Rod Milne in ARH, October 2008 p 337

John Knowles comments on this article, especially about B17s, the volume of traffic on the Warwick to Wallan-garra line, the watering stations along it, and the crossing loop at Omoral. the article is very much a repeat of a letter by the same author in ARH only five years before, that for November 2003, p 28. Comments on that letter appeared on this web site for some years, but have now been added to the end of these comments.

Rod Milne attempts to find some pattern in the use of B17s south of Warwick in the years 1948-49. In fact, they were by his own analysis used on any train - mail (passenger), mixed, livestock, through goods (train 125) and ballast.

B17s were used to Wallan-garra because they were among the small number of locomotives built to the QR main line, 12 tons axle load, standard, to which that section of line conformed. They were still doing main line work when well over 30 years old and still running on saturated steam. That is explained by the QR having insufficient capital to provide more modern locomotives, and in the period of postwar shortages, by its inability to obtain any more new locomotives than it did. It therefore had to keep repairing what were obsolete locomotives (C16s and B17s especially) to keep the railway running. On this see Chapter 1 of my book "Queensland Railways Steam Locomotives 1900 - 1969, Design and Operation". A B17 could haul 240 tons on through goods trains in both directions between Warwick and Wallan-garra, the same as a B18¼, and only 40 or 45 tons less than a C19, which had the highest loads of the engines available for and used on the section.

Rod Milne claims that it is not well known that B17s were used reasonably frequently on the Wallan-garra line during the 1940s, extending into the 1950s. So that it is known where they worked about 1949, I place on record that they then ran from Brisbane to Rockhampton, Roma and Wallan-garra, as well as locally around Brisbane, including to Dayboro'. They were still used on north side Brisbane suburban trains in 1949 (see Sunshine Express February and May 1989).

In 1948 the South Western Division of the QR had 36 main line engines, 9 B17, 12 C19 and CC19, and 15 B18¼. These operated from Toowoomba to Brisbane, Roma and Wallan-garra. Toowoomba provided about two-thirds of the main line power for the line to Brisbane, and all the main line power for the other two lines. It is not surprising that B17s were seen in good numbers on the Southern Line to Wallan-garra. Rod Milne claims "dominance" for them on the line in the late 1940s, but that is not the right word. They did not dominate, in the sense of operating most trains. I should expect that at most they would have operated one train in three or four.

Rod Milne claims "the late 1940s would have been the last years of this dominance on the Wallan-garra line, with their later workings of the 1950s more often than not confined to the Brisbane area" (the words "would have" indicate that this claim or remark is surmising).

B17s continued to work on main lines, including to Wallan-garra, well after 1948-49. They could be seen at Toowoomba on trains to and from the Southern Line up to the mid fifties, including trains proceeding all the way to Wallan-garra. On 1st May 1956, B17 690 was on an up goods at Kerrick when 37 down mail on which I was travelling passed through.

Nos 689 and 690 attached to Toowoomba continued in main line use longer than any others of the class, when, contrary to Rod Milne's surmising, those in use in the Brisbane area did no more than local goods work. According to the mileage returns, those two engines ran up to almost 4000 miles per month each to May 1957, and over 2000 and up to 3000 in busy months up to December 1958. They certainly ran on the Western Line. It would be surprising if they did not run to Wallan-garra as well. After that, when they ran at all, they shunted in Toowoomba, the last in September 1960. They were both written off on 19th November 1960.

It is worthy of mention in an article associating B17s and the Southern Line that the 21 engines of the B17 class were built as main line passenger engines, initially for the Sydney Mail between Brisbane and Wallan-garra. They were displaced from that use by the coming of the C18 engines in 1914.

It is said on p 337 that wartime traffic was very brisk. It was really only moderately brisk.

The number of trains each way per day between Warwick and Wallan-garra was 2.4 in 1939-40, 2.8 in 1940-41, 3.8 in 1941-42, 5.3 in 1942-43, 5.6 in 1943-44, and 4.3 in 1944-45. The numbers include the peaks for the cattle and fruit seasons, but, so long as these were much the same each year, the effect of the additional traffic induced by the war will be identifiable, as the addition to say 2.6. There were therefore about three additional trains each way per day in 1943-44 as the result of war traffic. (These numbers are based on traffic train miles, from QR Annual Reports, excluding the trains to and from the Amiens branch, and as traffic train miles, exclude the trains for the QR's own purposes, like moving ballast. The annual total was divided by 365 to give the daily figure, and by two to give the number each way. During all those years, except for a period in 1944, there was a mail train each way on six days per week; during that period in 1944, it ran on four days per week.)

These figures were prepared in response to an article in the ARHS Bulletin for July 2003, in which Patrick Hodgson drew attention to the questionable claim by the Border Highland Rail Company at its Heritage Centre at Wallan-garra that "During peak periods in 1944, up to 28 trains from NSW and 30 from Queensland were transhipped at Wallan-garra."

I analysed QR traffic data and found that the train numbers were those above, only a small fraction of the number claimed. I submitted an article to ARH in September 2004 saying so. It was not published. As answers to Patrick Hodgson's query were welcomed, that is surprising. The article has since been published in Sunshine Express for July 2006 page 204. It can also be found on this web site.

It is then said that "after the hostilities ended, there was still a steady stream of transhipped freight, meat, stock, wool, grain , fruit and fuel until the 1970s". It is correct that there was a reasonable quantity of freight, but the line was not especially busy. In 1951-52, a little after 1948-49, there was a daily average of 2.9 trains per day each way on the section, calculated on the same basis as above. The mail train, then four days per week, represented 0.57 per day each way.)

The considerable traffic in livestock ("stock" to Rod Milne) was moved by the QR to Wallan-garra to be killed at the works there and near Tenterfield, to be moved into NSW as meat or to Brisbane for export. But those works were poorly situated for the export trade, because the livestock from far western Queensland had to be hauled south from Toowoomba, then as meat north to Toowoomba again en route to Brisbane. Brisbane meatworks had a competitive advantage in such trade over those at and near Wallan-garra.

At the end of p 337, Rod Milne tells of days when three trains followed each other up the range south of Warwick. On occasions, he says that this would result in a train approaching Kerrick on ticket, a second taking water at Gorge Tank, and a third newly arrived at Omoral waiting for the two in front to clear. This makes it appear that the three southbound trains were kept apart by rules, seemingly that the second could not leave Gorge Tank until the first had arrived at Kerrick, and that the second could not leave Omoral until the first had cleared Gorge Tank.

This is not the way the QR worked single track sections on ordinary staff. It could not, because there were no officers at places like Gorge Tank, or for that matter, Omoral, where the Station Mistress was not involved in train working. Trains running in the same direction were kept apart by time interval. In daylight, this was ten minutes, at night twenty minutes. Should a train travelling on ticket have to stop in section, the guard had to go behind the stopped train with flags or lamp and detonators. There were signals at the siding Cherry Gully in the Omoral to Kerrick section to be placed at stop if a train on ticket had to stop there, but they were not lit at night. There were no signals to protect a train stopped to take water at Gorge Tank (see watering stations below).

[Where ordinary staff was the basis of safe working, and trains followed one another in the same direction, the last carried the staff. The driver(s) of any train(s) preceding it was shown the staff to indicate that no train could be moving in the section in the opposite direction, and was issued with a ticket authorising him to enter the section without the staff. The ticket came from a book kept in a box which could be unlocked only by the staff. The ticket in each case had a stub, on which details of the ticket issued were included. These details included train number and time.]

The statistics of the number of trains per day between Warwick and Wallan-garra show that three trains running so closely together must have been a rare happening. Another reason is that there were space restrictions at both Warwick and Wallan-garra. However closely they were despatched, the driver and guard of the trains concerned were provided with forms at Warwick advising them of the staff working they were to perform at the unattended crossing loop at Omoral, including crossings with any other trains. This included information on the time the previous up train left Warwick, and the intended departure time of any following train. At Omoral, the first train left advice in the ticket book about the time it was leaving, and the fireman of the second would check that time, so that his train could leave at the required interval, the same for the second and third trains. If proceeding at the minimum time interval, each would have approached Gorge Tank with great care, and whistling. If the preceding train was still watering there, it would whistle in return, this apart from the placing of detonators on the rails behind the train. The second and third would also approach Kerrick with great care, giving clear warning of their approach. The same would continue throughout the trip to Wallan-garra, especially at any unattended crossing (staff) stations.

The running times allowed for fully loaded up goods trains were: Warwick to Omoral 55 mintes, Omoral to Gorge Tank 7 minutes, Gorge Tank to Kerrick 21 minutes. So if the three trains happened to be spaced as Rod Milne says, they were properly spaced so far as the rules were concerned. Even at night, all three could have been in the Warwick to Omoral section at the same time.

Rod Milne says "steam locomotives took water at four places south of Warwick" (p 337). It is correct that locomotive water was available at four places south of Warwick, as well as Warwick itself. But water was not taken at all of them on each trip. Engines on up passenger trains took water at Warwick and Glen Niven, and on down passenger trains at Wallan-garra and Glen Niven. Gorge Tank was an emergency supply, and up goods trains were meant to water only at Glen Niven. No time was allowed at Gorge Tank for watering, and to make the point clear, a passing time was given there in the Working Timetable for all up trains. Warwick to Glen Niven was 33 miles 54 chains, however, and involved over 1500 feet of ascent. It was usual therefore for goods trains to top up their water supply at Gorge Tank, 14 miles 72 chains from Warwick. That was even more the case with engines working on saturated steam, like B17s.

Down goods trains did not take water at Wallan-garra, where the supply was used only by engines shunting there and leaving on passenger trains. Instead, down goods trains watered at Lyra, then at Glen Niven. This arrangement probably prevailed because the QR had to pay more for the Wallan-garra water than that at Lyra. Indeed, Wallan-garra was not shown as a watering station in the Working Timetables. The stops at Gorge Tank and Lyra were for water only; attention to fires had to wait until Glen Niven.

Omoral was opened as a crossing loop in 1920. It was worked by a Staff Officer until 1932, when, as Rod Milne says, the smash signals were installed and the two running lines made uni-directional, right hand running prevailing. There was no staff hut as Rod Milne mentions. Rather, the staves were thrown into a large box at each end, just after the entry to the loop, to be recovered and used by the next train in the opposite direction.

During the period when Omoral had smash signals, which covered the incident mentioned on p 338, there was no porter normally stationed at Omoral. There was no road access, as Rod Milne says, and no public traffic. There was a cottage or cottages for track maintenance staff. The wife of one of the track maintenance staff was the Station Mistress. She was needed, not to deal with public traffic, (no accounts were kept) but to lock up the staff if it was at the wrong end of the section for the desired train movements, so that a Line Clear Report could be issued, to allow a train to enter the section from the opposite end without seeing the staff or having it to carry. Far from the Station Mistress being off duty, for train working purposes the place was always unattended. The telephone at the cottage she occupied would have been the only QR telephone. It is also likely that the resident track maintenance staff could have provided some help (tools, muscle) with any defect in the smash signal mechanism.

It is of course possible that the Station Mistress and family were on holiday, and that the porter was occupying the cottage as relief, to be on hand to lock up the train staff when necessary (Rod Milne does say he was based there briefly).

Few of those resident at Omoral would have found the isolation attractive, as Rod Milne claims. The QR found it very difficult postwar to obtain staff who would live at isolated places, without an electricity supply, and miles from any shops and other facilities. Omoral ceased to be home for a track maintenance gang, or one of its members, when it ceased to be a crossing loop at the end of 1955 (replaced by Silverwood) and everything was removed. For over half a century, it has not existed, and no one has lived there to enjoy the quiet atmosphere Rod Milne claims for it.

Train crossings were allowed at Kerrick and Stanthorpe only when an officer was on duty, on account of high bridges at the southern end of each, preventing the guard of any down train reaching the station while the engine was at the down home signal. In any case, Kerrick probably had an officer to reduce the difficulties of working two unattended loops in succession.

On p 338, Rod Milne says that Kerrick seemed to be only a stone's throw from the NSW border. He has drawn attention to the wrong place with respect to closeness to the border. Kerrick was about four kilometres from the border. Cotton Vale and Thulimbah are the places on the line which are very close to the border, where it is running approximately north - south, in each case about a kilometre distant. Glen Niven is also closer to the border than was Kerrick.

Also on p 338, Rod Milne says that the mail trains, 26 and 37 ran daily in those days (1948-49). Until November 1948, they ran six days per week to Wallan-garra. From that month, they ran in both directions on that section on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (four days), to and from Toowoomba only on Wednesdays and to and from Warwick only on Fridays. As above, six days per week running was restored in 1949.

While facilities were provided at Morgan Park and Lyra to allow them to become crossing loops during the second world war, they were not opened as such. Kerrick was opened as a loop as the war started, in 1940. This contrasts with Rod Mine's statement that Lyra was briefly used as a crossing loop (see John Kerr's article on the centenary of the Southern Line in ARHS Bulletin 398, December 1970, p 261).

The photo on the rear cover of a train at Toowoomba is said to be of 26 mixed in 1963. Train 26 up was a passenger train, not a mixed (see working and public timetables of the day). It was not unusual, especially in the 1950s to 1980s, for passenger trains to include goods wagons which were authorised to run on such trains, that being indicated by a red diamond on a white plate on the side of the body of such wagons. Such a plate is just visible on the leading wagon. Both wagons are CJFP class, bogie louvred wagons for use on passenger trains. The date given, 7^th January 1963, was a Monday, on which day the train terminated at Warwick. With four passenger cars, it is unusually long for the days the train terminated at Warwick, but that might have been occasioned by Christmas - New Year holiday traffic. When I travelled to Wallan-garra on the same train on 29^th December 1959, there were two CJFP behind the locomotive just as in the photograph. They were heavily loaded. Both CJFP and one carriage were detached at Warwick.

On p 339, Rod Milne has it that the K cattle wagon was listed to carry 20 head of cattle. In fact, QR reference books state that the load for a K was 16 head. The QR charged for livestock movement by the vehicle (by the "van" in the livestock section of the Goods Rates Book), and it was up to the consignor to fit in as many head of livestock as possible. When I stood on the footbridge at Dalby, and watched cattle trains from the west (some bound for Wallan-garra) in the 1940s and 1950s, I often counted the number of cattle per wagon, and it was usually 18. Only if the animals were very thin, en route for fattening, would there be 20.

On p 338 Rod Milne says we are fortunate to have a number of QR documents (later referred to as ledgers) detailing train movements and rosterings on the line in 1948-49. Although not mentioned in his References, these seem to be his main source for the article. Use of "we" seems to indicate they are available to anyone interested. It would be valuable to know where they can be consulted.

The following are comments on the 2003 letter on much the same subject.

WHEN B17s CROSSED AT KERRICK

(ARHS Bulletin 793, November 2003, p 428)

Rod Milne’s letter on this subject was very interesting. I have some remarks about the register in which he found the information and what he said about the B17s.

In 1948-49, the period covered, the Station Master at Wallan-garra (so spelt by the QR at the time) was responsible for several aspects of operation of the line south of Warwick. He rostered the train crews based at his station, and in conjunction with the Station Master and Locomotive Foreman at Warwick arranged the crewing of trains between the two places. He signed off Driver’s Time and Occurrence Sheets (which were also the timesheets for the firemen and guards) of all crews who finished their shifts at his station.

When any of the eight crossing stations between Warwick and Wallan-garra were worked "unattended", ie by the train crew, without an officer qualified in staff working on duty at the station, the operation was supervised by a "controlling station" on each side. At this time, this was especially important because Train Control did not operate south of Warwick. Three of those crossing stations were unattended at all times, and crossing was then allowed at another two - Kerrick and Stanthorpe - only when an officer was on duty. Wallan-garra was controlling station for the crossing station immediately to its north, Glen Aplin, at all times, but when Stanthorpe was not on duty, Warwick and Wallan-garra were the controlling stations for the whole line.

The Station Master Wallan-garra therefore had an interest in the running of trains on the section south of Warwick for all of these activities. I think it likely that the ledger was kept by the Station Master’s clerk as a record of what took place on the Warwick to Wallan-garra section, so that the SM could check anything for which he was responsible. The notations about reasons for loss of time fit that.

B17s were used to Wallan-garra because they were among the small number of locomotives built to the QR main line, 12 tons axle load, standard, because the QR had insufficient capital to provide more modern locomotives, and in the period of postwar shortages could not obtain any more new locomotives than it did. It therefore had to keep repairing what were obsolete locomotives (C16s and B17s especially) to keep the railway running. On this see Chapter 1 of my book "Queensland Railways Steam Locomotives 1900 - 1969, Design and Operation".

B17s continued to work on main lines, including to Wallan-garra, well after 1948-49. Trains to and from the Southern Line hauled by them could be seen at Toowoomba up to the mid fifties, including 34 up, mixed, which was worked by the same engine all the way from there to Wallan-garra. On 1st May 1956, B17 690 was on an up goods at Kerrick when 37 down mail on which I was travelling passed through.

Nos 689 and 690 attached to Toowoomba continued in main line use longer than any others. According to the mileage returns, they ran up to almost 4000 miles per month each to May 1957, and over 2000 and up to 3000 in busy months up to December 1958. They certainly ran on the Western Line. It would be surprising if they did not run to Wallan-garra as well. After that, when they ran at all, they shunted in Toowoomba, the last in September 1960. They were both written off on 19th November 1960.

Rod Milne refers to them as unusual black sheep and old goliaths. He says they were support locos on the section south of Warwick, doing secondary work, running low priority trains, including 34 and 53, stock and ballast trains, and gives examples of them working the mail trains 26 and 37. This variety, including the mail trains, is such that it would be more correct to say that they worked a proportion of all trains on the section. Trains 34 and 53 were the mixeds, and 125 the daily through goods which left Wallan-garra at the end of the working (transhipment) day and did not shunt en route. What higher priority trains were there? Loads on the section were low, so use on a ballast train is not surprising. In any case, motive power was so short that the ballast train was probably arranged for a time when a locomotive of sufficient hauling capability was spare at either end of the section.

Rod Milne says that a regulator dome on the boiler was a notable feature of their design. The B17 was not unusual in that respect - almost every QR steam locomotive had its regulator located in the dome, indeed the vast majority of steam locomotives ever built on all railways. The exceptions on the QR were a few with the regulator located in the superheater header for some years, and the Australian Standard Garratt (not a QR design) - detail in the above book. Where the B17 was a partial exception on the QR was in not having the safety valves located on top of the dome. Instead they were located on a small platform in the boiler shell, and surrounded by a cover. The C18, B16½ and early C19 had the same arrangement, but the C18 (later CC19) and C19 eventually had them on the top of the dome.

Rod Milne also remarks that they were believed to be rough riding. For the same mechanical condition, the B17 rode better than the C17 or C19, but not as well as the B18¼, which benefited in that respect from having a rear truck.

There are several other references to the class in my letter in Bulletin 508, February 1980 p 41. This includes details of comprehensive tests to which one of the class were subjected in 1913. There is some explanation there, and in the above book, of why they were not popular engines, mostly that they operated on saturated steam and were very heavily loaded. A shift on a B17 from Chinchilla to Toowoomba with a full load was the hardest for a fireman on the system. They had an average life of 43 years, lengthened by the shortages mentioned, not bad for "black sheep", and rather better than the C19s.

Rod Milne says that the first scrapping of the class occurred in 1950. Nos 613, 676 and 677 of the class were written off or condemned in September of that year. I should be surprised if they were actually scrapped before the end of that year. The QR was so pressed for repairs at the time that written off locomotives were mostly sidelined after useful parts had been removed, and remained as derelict hulks until there were spare men and space for dismantling and cutting up, often much later. Some B17 tenders went to AC16s and were not scrapped until after those engines were withdrawn. Many sidelined engines were to be found at Ipswich, where the examination which led to their being condemned took place. Four B17s written off in April 1956, however, Nos 612, 683, 686 and 691, were stored derelict at Mayne locomotive depot in Brisbane as late as July 1958, and three of those (612, 686 and 691) were still there in the following November.

More generally, it should never be assumed that written off means scrapped. More than one written off locomotive was returned to service, and some were sold and restored to service by subsequent owners (these remarks apply to other classes).

8^th March 2009