It was good to see this almost forgotten short line recorded. I congratulate Mr Behan for finding people associated with the Mt Crosby tramway and the waterworks in tramway days, uncovering reports of local residents using the line, and reporting the current state of the roadbed. I was very pleased that he described the method for moving wagons down and up the steep banks of Brisbane River to the pumping station.

In his article, Mr Behan advised that the waterworks at Mt Crosby were established in 1892 (for the Brisbane Board of Waterworks, which became the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board in 1909, which was itself absorbed into the Brisbane City Council in 1928); that prior to the tramway coal was moved from Tivoli to Mt Crosby by three ton road wagons and punted across the river to the works; that the Board was authorised in October 1912 to build a tramway from Tivoli to Mt Crosby, and that this was completed to the weighbridge on the east side of the river on 10^th December 1913 (confirmed by Ref D). He further advised that the line ceased operation in 1945 and was closed in 1947.

The capacity of the Mt Crosby plant was considerably increased between 1909 and 1919 (Ref E). The Bill for an Act to authorise the tramway was introduced into parliament and passed in October 1912. The Act authorised the Board to construct, maintain and work a tramway 4½ miles from Tivoli to Mt Crosby and purposes incidental thereto. The Minister introducing the Bill said that the motive for its construction was to save the Board high transport costs on coal and plant, the savings forecast to be £14,795 over three years, £8174 in plant alone. Coal, costing the Board 5 shillings per ton at the pit head was costing six shillings per ton in transport.

The Minister went on to say that the line was expected to cost £30,841, including £1047 for haulage plant on the inclines each side of the river, and £1046 for lengthening the existing bridge over the river. Rolling stock, locomotive, engine house, wagons and water supply were expected to cost £3542, and land, clearing, forming, fencing and permanent way £24,815. Construction was to be to first class QR standards. It is interesting to see mention of water supply as an item in the requirements. At least the waterworks would have had plenty of water, but pipes and a hydrant would have been needed. The Board was permitted to be a public carrier on its tramway. The Bill received Royal Assent on 25^th. Construction commenced on 2^nd December.

The Board's 1913 report says that the line was built by day labour. Some of the rock encountered in cuttings was the equivalent of natural concrete, difficult to blast and drill. Of the loan of £30,500 granted for the line, £29,329 had been expended up to the end of the year. It could well be that the Board decided not to have its own locomotive and rolling stock because most of the loan had been absorbed by the construction.

Reference A states that the last traffic was moved in November 1945, and that in 1946 the coal was being carted by road. The traffic returns in the QR Annual Reports indicate that traffic fell off even earlier. In 1944-45, the tonnage was much the same as in the years since 1941-42. In 1945-46, practically no traffic was handled. Regular traffic therefore must have ceased about mid 1945, with the very last in November. The line remained open if unused, and the QR timetables for 1946 provided for trains if required (see below). QR Annual Reports up to that for 1946-47 list the line, so the closure must have occurred in 1947 after 30^th June.

It is plan 2 of 1911 in the article which shows a possible direct route for a ropeway from Tivoli to Mt Crosby, not plan 3. Presumably Waterstown colliery was added to that plan at Mr Behan's request to give some idea of the route of the ropeway from Waterstown to Mt Crosby, investigated in 1908.

Mr Behan thought that the line was a tramway because private railways were prohibited in Queensland. That is not so. It was a tramway because the Act gave the Board the power to build a tramway, probably at the choice of the Board (as Mr Oliver (p 259) believes). QR Annual Reports gave a list of private lines, and in that list, this line was always called the Mt Crosby Tramway. The line was more substantial than many QR lines (more below). There were several private railway lines in the State, called railways, of which the Chillagoe Railway was the longest. The several private lines to mines and crushing mills in Charters Towers were all termed railway in the Acts which permitted their construction.

The private line most recently authorised by an Act at the time the Mt Crosby line was authorised, the Invicta line near Bundaberg, was very definitely called a railway (it was authorised by the Invicta Branch Railway Act of 1910).

The Local Authorities Acts allowed local authorities to build tramways (and not railways), which is why the Beaudesert, Aramac, Mapleton and other local authority lines were called tramways. The Tramways Act allowed local authorities to authorise tramways to run along and cross their roads. It was under that Act that much of the tramways serving the sugar industry were built (their length is otherwise mostly on easements through private land). And the Mining Act allowed the construction of tramways for mining and the declaration of mining leases for their right-of-way.

Although the line was a private line open to public traffic, the traffic, staff and rolling stock statistics for the line were never reported in Statistics of Queensland, as were those of other private and local authority lines.

The Board chose not to operate the line itself, nor to own the necessary locomotive and rolling stock. According to a QR file (reference A), at the opening, the Board asked the QR to operate the line, trains to run at the request of the Board. The same happened with other private and local authority lines of 3ft 6ins gauge, such as Belmont, Invicta, Ayr, Collinsville, Woongarra, Tannymorel, Oolbun and Gore. In view of the shortness of the Mt Crosby line, a locomotive owned by the Board and its crew would have received so little use moving the modest tonnages which passed over the line that having the QR operate it as part of operating the lines to Tivoli and Abermain was an obvious economy. Plant would have been hauled from wharves or works in Brisbane on QR wagons in any case, as would coal from mines outside the Tivoli area. and as the run from Ipswich to Mt Crosby and return was so short, having QR locomotives operate the line saved the need to provide a locomotive water supply!

For the first year the line was open (1913-14) the QR Annual Report stated that the line was worked by the Commissioner's rolling stock and staff on behalf of the owner. For the three following years, the report says that the line was worked by the Commissioner on behalf of the owner. After that, no mention is made of this working, but the same then applied to other lines known to have been operated by the Commissioner (eg Tannymorel).

At the opening of the line, when the Board called tenders for the supply of steaming coal, it allowed tenders to be submitted on three bases: delivered to the coal shed at the pumping station (in which case the Board charged two shillings for each wagon winched across the river inclines); delivered to the Board’s yard on the right side of the river; or delivered to the Board’s siding at Tivoli (ref A). The second of these seems to have been the usual basis, but the third seems to have been used as well (see Traffic below).

As the Board had no locomotive, and the QR train stayed at Mt Crosby only 20 to 30 minutes on each trip, presumably the winch on the Tivoli side was used to move wagons from Mt Crosby yard to the weighbridge (p 273), and from the weighbridge to the top of the incline on the river bank, and when empty from the top of the incline to the sidings. Some pulleys might have been needed in the yard to allow those movements.

The QR charged the various collieries supplying the pumping station its rate for the mileage from the colliery to Mt Crosby, either the normal rate for coal or some special rate for coal on this movement, and credited the Board with a share of the revenue, probably on the proportion of mileage. It then charged the Board for each train run, whatever the load thereof, at a rate per mile. As every train ran the full length of the line, that meant a cost per round trip. The rate at the opening was 3/9 per train mile, or 33/9 per round trip. If the trains were to run on Sundays, 50% extra was charged. By 1924, the price per mile was decided on by taking all the costs of operating the Southern Division of the QR, deducting track maintenance (since the Board provided and maintained the line), and dividing by the train miles run on that Division, in the most recent year. After this 1924 determination, the rate per mile was increased in the same proportion as were goods rates on the QR. By December 1938, the round trip cost 80/2.

In 1917, consignment notes for goods traffic to Mt Crosby were handed by QR guards to the Board’s timekeeper there.

On 6^th July 1938, the 6.30 am from Ipswich to Mt Crosby was terminated at Abermain Junction on account of an obstruction on the tramway, the result of a drain opening up. The City Council was nevertheless charged the cost of the train.

The same charging arrangement probably applied to plant and materials hauled to the pumping station. In 1914, the QR informed the Board that it did not carry passengers between Ipswich and Tivoli. From returns in QR Annual Reports (see below), it seems that was soon relaxed. Passengers were certainly carried during the petrol rationing of the Second World War, as recorded by Mr Behan.

QR allowed goods traffic to be moved on and off the Board’s tramway for customers other than the Board. . In 1921, the timber millers Hancock Brothers asked the Board to be allowed to move 16 tons of logs over the line. They were charged the QR rate plus 10%. This was collected by the QR and the Board credited with its proportion.

From time to time the Board asked the QR for special rates for moving gravel from Mt Crosby to places in Brisbane where it was constructing sewers and associated works (Pinkenba, Newstead and Coorparoo were mentioned). It claimed that without a special rate, the traffic would move by punts. It is doubtful if punts of an economic size could move on the Brisbane River between Mt Crosby and the Bremer Junction. Presumably use of punts meant that the gravel would have been extracted from the bed of the river itself in the navigable reaches and carried to places in Brisbane by punts.

It is possible to deduce that in various years there was traffic in "other minerals" on the line (see below), so some such traffic moved.

The line was worked by trains conveying traffic to and from the QR Tivoli branch, principally coal moving towards Ipswich from collieries between Tivoli and Ipswich (see Working Time Tables - WTTs - and Ref B). This meant that the Board did not necessarily have full use of the capacity of the trains leaving and arriving Ipswich. .

The 1918 QR Suburban WTT showed No. 1 train from Ipswich at 5.30 am, first to Abermain (which was beyond Tivoli), then to Mt Crosby, then return to Ipswich (Tivoli Junction) (see p 110 of Ref B). WTTs in the 1920s and 1930s show that the train continued to run early in the morning, as required for the whole run from Ipswich to Mt Crosby, and further as required between Abermain Junction and Mt Crosby. The train ran to serve collieries between North Ipswich and Abermain Junction and at Tivoli, as well as to serve Mt Crosby.

In September 1942, when wagons were in very short supply, one train referred to in reference A was a full load leaving Ipswich, but this included empty wagons for the collieries, and only three H, four FG and one FF wagons loaded with coal for Mt Crosby. Two FG and one H for Mt Crosby had to be left at Ipswich. The Council objected to having to pay for another trip to convey only 56 tons gross. It was eventually decided that an extra train would be run for a minimum of 50 tons, but the reference is not absolutely clear whether that was at the Council’s expense. (All these wagons with coal for Mt Crosby were open type.)

The 1946 QR Suburban WTT quotes a train as required Mondays to Fridays, to be arranged by the Chief Station Master Ipswich when required by the Brisbane City Council: Ipswich depart 6.30 am, Abermain Junction 6.50 to 7.00, Mt Crosby 7.30 to 7.50, Abermain Jct 8.20 to 8.30, Ipswich arrive 9.00. On Tuesdays to Saturdays a train ran from Ipswich at 5 am, Abermain Jct 5.20 to 5.30 (to run round), then on return, Rothwell Haigh Colliery 5.38 to 6.05, Ipswich arrive 6.17. If this timetable was in force before June 1945, at least on Tuesdays to Fridays, the same engine, van and crew could be expected to have run both these trains. Unusually for the QR, none of these trains had a number, nor did the timetable give direction, ie up and down. This date is after the line was last used, but before it was closed.

Although passengers were carried, the line was never shown in QR public timetables, as were most private lines which carried passengers. Nor was the Tivoli line ever shown therein. The trains on the line were shown in the WTTs as running to and from Ipswich, but in practice, and in Mr Russell's memory, they ran to and from North Ipswich yard, between the Bremer River bridge on the south and the embankment over Wide Gully on the north, just south of Workshops Gate and Ipswich Locomotive Depot. Passengers would have had to walk to or from the centre of Ipswich, over the river, about half a mile.

The engine loads on the tramway were: B13 120 tons up or outbound, 70 down; PB15 145 up and 90 down; B15 Converted 155 up and 100 down. (Loads between Ipswich and Abermain Junction were higher). After a 15 tons brake van, a PB15 could haul open wagons with a net load of coal of about 85 tons outbound (cf page 271).

According to QR Weekly Notice 40/23 of 1923, 26 feet H wagons were not to go to Tivoli. In the 1925 General Appendix, this was clarified to 26 feet H wagons with steel underframes. After 1928, the 42 ft SR wagons (for rails and timber) were similarly restricted. It is presumed that these restrictions were the result of the severe vertical curves on the river crossing at Mt Crosby and the possibility of items under these wagons making contact with the road surface (26 ft was shorter than most H, so some feature of the steel framed version, of which there were eight, must have been much lower to rail than on the majority of the fleet of H wagons).

Abermain Junction to Tivoli, although a line owned by the Brisbane City Council, had a QR staff (authority to operate a single line), colour blue with a round head. The same applied to other private lines operated by the QR. I cannot say whether there was any signalling.

In the early years, the members of the MWSSB could well have travelled to the works on inspections by special trains, from Ipswich or even Brisbane. They, and members of local authorities, inspected the works under way at Mt Crosby on Saturday 6^th March 1915, but "The Queenslander" in which this was reported (13^th pp 10, 11 and 24) made no mention of a special train. (Photographs on p 24 show manually propelled hoppers on a 2ft gauge temporary tramway at Holts Hill, as well as the ropeway to that location).

The Board's reports until the last one of 1927 show amounts of £700 to £1100 spent on maintenance of the line each year. About 1500 sleepers were replaced in 1922 (costing 4/7½ each). The same number were replaced in 1926.Mr Behan states that the City Council maintained the line themselves in latter years. Perhaps the Council, with its large engineering establishment and its own street tramway system maintained the line for the whole of the period it owned the line.

The line was said in Board reports to be a first class line, under the inspection of a Railway Department (QR) engineer. It was built with 42 lbs rails. At a late date during the construction, the Commissioner for Railways tried to have the Board build it with 60 lbs rails, because he intended to have the QR line to Tivoli relaid with rails of that weight, but the Board refused, saying that the Commissioner had already sold it the 42 lbs rails needed to build the line. It is very likely, however, given QR practice of the time and the use of first class to describe it, that the bridges were built to carry 12 tons axle load locomotives. That would seem to be confirmed by the two photos of bridges on p 263, showing three double girders per span.

The connecting QR line between North Ipswich (Tivoli Junction) and Tivoli could only ever carry B15 weight locomotives (see reference B). That explains why only PB15 locomotives were seen on the Mt Crosby line in the memory of those still alive.

In 1947 the BCC offered the QR the 42 lbs rails from the 4½ miles of its closed tramway. The QR did not want them, and suggested sale to sugar mills. The QR eventually bought a loop installed at Abermain Junction at the expense of the MWSSB when the line was built, and incorporated it into the yard at Tivoli (QR Secretary's file 1948/787).

The junction and zero point for the Mt Crosby Tramway, 0 miles 0 chains in Plan 5 on p 261 of Mr Behan’s article, was named Abermain Junction by the QR, as said on the same page. It was a distinctly odd name for the location, as it was located between North Ipswich and Tivoli (the original terminus of the line) on what was then the line to Abermain (extended beyond Tivoli) - see p 107 of Ref B, and plans on pp 101 and 105. The name Abermain Junction makes it appear that the line to Abermain junctioned from a through line to Mt Crosby, whereas the opposite was the case. The name should have been Mt Crosby Junction, taking the name of the place to which the line led (as was the case with the names of several junctions on the QR), but the Commissioner refused that name.

The QR was not consistent in naming the junction point Abermain Junction. WTTs during the life of the line show Mt Crosby Junction as the name of the junction (the zero point), with Abermain Junction 16½ chains beyond towards Abermain, what was called Tivoli by the QR after 1947. The 1925 and 1935 General Appendices list Mt Crosby Tramway, Abermain Junction, and Tivoli separately in that order outbound from Ipswich.

QR Annual Reports gave traffic to and from places on its system. A line of data was given for most private lines from which the QR received traffic and to which it despatched it, as through consignments - eg the Aramac Tramway. In the case of the Mt Crosby line, the recording is odd and inconsistent. In the first year after the opening, traffic is recorded for Tivoli and Mt Crosby. In 1914-15, the Tivoli branch is given, with traffic for North Ipswich and Tivoli, with no mention of Mt Crosby at all. Then from 1915-16 until 1922-23, two branches were given, the Tivoli branch with traffic figures for North Ipswich and Tivoli, and the Mt Crosby branch, with traffic figures for Abermain Junction, Abermain and Mt Crosby. This is quite silly, because Abermain was a siding beyond Tivoli, not related to the Mt Crosby line in any way. It also implies that the tramway was a QR branch, when it was not. That listing ceased with the demise of Abermain (on which see Ref B).

In 1925-26, the whole line from Ipswich was described as the Mt Crosby branch, even though the QR did not own the line beyond Abermain Junction to Mt Crosby. In 1923-24, 1924-25, and all years 1926-27 to 1931-32, the Mt Crosby branch (not Tramway) is given, including Abermain Junction and Mt Crosby. From 1932-33 until the end, there is no mention of Mt Crosby at all, and Abermain Junction is given as a place on the Tivoli branch. The conventions followed in reporting the traffic to and from Mt Crosby are therefore confused, but it seems that traffic shown against Abermain Junction was to or from Mt Crosby. See Traffic below.

But neither Abermain Junction nor Tivoli was ever Abermain Yard, as said on p 261 by Mr Behan. That misquotes the Weekly Notice mentioned, which gave the name as Abermain Junction. Abermain was 1½ miles beyond - see the plan on p 101 of Ref B.

Further, on p 272, where reporting passenger travel, Mr Behan says that passengers bought a ticket from Tivoli Yard to Ipswich. Tivoli was always named such, without the word yard.

The distance travelled by a passenger from Mt Crosby to Ipswich was from Abermain Junction, and the fare should have been calculated from there. It is possible that the train from Mt Crosby set back into Tivoli after its arrival from Mt Crosby, and that while it was there the guard wrote out the ticket and collected the fare. Some of the guards might not have noticed that Abermain Junction was different from Tivoli and issued the ticket from Tivoli. The fare to Ipswich would have been the same, because the distance of each place to Ipswich fell in the range of 2 miles 41 chains to 3 miles 40 chains, which range the QR counted as three miles, even though Abermain Junction was 16½ chains closer to Ipswich. For travel to a place other than Ipswich, however, the 16½ chains might have meant a mile extra and a higher fare. Certainly after 1940-41, all passengers were recorded in Annual Reports at Abermain Junction.

So far as I know, the QR WTTs and other instruction books did not lay down speed limits for the line, or indeed for the Tivoli line. In that case the limit would have been given by the weight of rails. This was 30 mph at the time for goods trains on 42 lbs rails on the straight, but on this line was subject to lower limits on sharp curves, down to 15 mph for goods trains on five chains radius curves.

A section of the line (ref C) drawn about the time it was completed, signed by "John Deart, Ad Egr WS" (Water Supply), shows the line to have had heavy engineering. From the junction, it fell to the Mustering Gully bridge at about 28 chains, including 1 in 40. From there it rose 151 feet to a summit just beyond the two miles, at an average of 1 in 60 with 1 in 50 the steepest. From that summit, it fell 108 ft to just beyond 3½ miles at an average of 1 in 68, with the steepest 1 in 45. By there it was 17 feet lower than the junction. It then undulated to the terminus sidings on the river bank. The 1 in 7.95 incline down to the river bridge brought it to a point 77 ft below the junction. The corresponding 1 in 7.74/7.12 incline on the other side of the river took the line to an altitude equal to that of the junction. The backshunt to the coal store (plans 7 and 12 in Mr Behan’s article) took the line down five feet.

Papers accompanying the Act refer to the cable worked inclines on each side of the Brisbane River as 1 in 7.95. Plan 12 on p 269 of Mr Behan's article shows the gradient of the 1921 realignment on the eastern side as 1 in 9.91 steepening to a short 1 in 7.12 at the top. The original gradient on that side is very obvious in the bottom photo on p 272.

The line was very curved, and the curves were sharp. To 3 miles 50 chains, there were 29 curves, and their total length was 68% of that distance. Their radius was down to five chains. In the distance, the line was curved to an average of 11½ chains radius, or 401 degrees per mile or 249 degrees per kilometre. This curvature can be appreciated from the map on p 260 of Mr Behan’s article. The combination with curvature led the QR when setting engine loads to regard the gradients as effectively 1 in 43 outbound, ie with the loaded wagons, and 1 in 32 inbound. Effective gradients sometimes benefit from the effect of momentum, but on this line, with the sharp curves and continuous climbs, that cannot have been the case.

There were some cases of one curve leading immediately into another, and of curves being separated by only a chain or a little more.

The section of the line shows deep cuttings, about 20 ft at 2 m 7 chs, at the summit, and about 25 ft at 2 m 68 chs, at both of which there were overbridges, at 3 m 3 chs about 20 ft, and 3 m 11 chs about 27 feet. The drawing says that four of the cuttings were through rock. There was a long shallow cutting from 3 m 55 chs to 4 m 4 chs. The highest fill seems to be to about 37 ft at 3 m 18 chs, very soon after one of the deepest cuttings.

Mr Behan gave details of the bridges as he found them. On the section of the line, these are shown as:

- 0 miles 13½ chains, over a colliery tramline, as seen in plan 5 on p 261.

- 0 miles 27 chains, Mustering Gully, (text p 262 and photos p 263), shown as four spans, with embankments on approach to circa 14 ft high.

- 1 mile 23 chains, Sandy Creek, (plan p 260), ten timber spans, approach embankments to about 16 ft high.

- 2 miles 31 chains, gully, four spans, not mentioned by Mr Behan, approach embankments to about ten feet.

- 3 miles 46 chains, Melon Hut Creek, four spans, text p 262 and plan p 260, approach embankment to 11 ft high.

- Brisbane River

- 4 miles 37 chains, over diverted road, eight spans, six on 1 in 7.12 and two on 1 in 60; this is the Dump Bridge of Mr Behan’s text p 271, and plan 12 on p 269. The road also appears in Plan 3 on p 260.

There were public level crossings at 18, 33 and 46 chains from the junction. There were occupation level crossings (for land occupiers) at 3 miles 14 chains, 3 m 32 ch and 3 m 76 ch.

There were two for public roads, at 2 m 6 ch and 2 m 69 ch. Both are visible on plan 3, p 260, as Blackwall Rd and Allawah Rd respectively, the former referred to as Hegarty’s and the latter as Hefferan’s in Mr Behan’s text on pp 261 and 262. The roads at about 1m 40 ch in Plan 3 on p 260 were presumably diverted during construction.

The 1914 MWSSB report says that 12,000 tons of coal had been hauled for use at the pumping station and 3000 tons of pumping machinery, bricks and cement for the new plant, the reservoir and the Holt's Hill purification works. The anticipated advantages of the line in cost and time were fully realised, saving £12,000 in haulage. There was also increased competition to supply the works with coal, saving £2000 per annum on 8000 tons of coal used per annum (presumably that was the normal consumption, the 12,000 being a first year supply). This amount saved is five shillings per ton, the amount the Board was said during the presentation of the Bill for the line to have been paying at the pit head previously. Both figures cannot be right. Four new boilers were installed in 1920; if these were extra, that presumably added to the coal moved on the line.

The Board's reports give details of collieries which contracted to supply coal to the Board. This coal was not solely for Mt Crosby. There were other water and sewerage pumping installations, but it seems that Mt Crosby was the biggest single consumer. Stafford Brothers, who operated a colliery between Ipswich and Tivoli, the Klondyke mine which was behind the Ipswich Workshops, and J Wright and A Wright, who both had mines between Tivoli and Abermain, supplied coal to the Board in various years. The Stafford and Klondyke coal would therefore have moved outbound on the Tivoli line en route to Mt Crosby, while coal for other users moved inbound from Abermain and Tivoli. These hauls were short. From Klondyke to Abermain Junction was about 2½ miles, from Stafford Bros about 50 chains, and from the Wrights (who loaded at Abermain) about one miles 30 chains, all followed by the 4½ miles from Abermain Junction to Mt Crosby.

The QR Annual Reports in the 1930s list special rates quoted by the QR for coal to Abermain Junction or Mt Crosby to counter road competition. One of the hauls was from Blackheath to Mt Crosby. Blackheath colliery was on a short branch from the Redbank to Bundamba loop (see ARHS Bulletin June 1968). It was about 20 miles by rail or road from Blackheath to Mt Crosby. Special rates were also quoted for alumina (or aluminium) sulphate from Brisbane to Mt Crosby for use in the water treatment, for the same reason.

The 1926 MWSSB report mentions the installation of three new pumping engines, and diverting the lines to cross the new weir being completed about the end of October. The 1927 report advises that there was a washaway on the west bank of the new weir during floods in January, as Mr Behan states. The report goes on to say that this required extension to the weir and bridge, by day labour. Temporary more expensive arrangements were made for coal haulage, and haulage was temporarily suspended in November and December for alterations to the bridge across the new weir. The alternative arrangements were not specified. Presumably this work was completed for the takeover of the Board by the Brisbane City Council in 1928.

The traffic information in the Annual Reports of the Commissioner for Railways is confusing and perhaps incomplete (see above). That which is available is given in the table. There are question marks for some outwards traffic and blanks for passenger traffic because the Mt Crosby figures cannot be separated from those applying to other places.

For the years Mt Crosby received specific mention, with traffic received and despatched. The tonnages received at Mt Crosby are well below what the pumping station was expected to receive. The Annual Reports of the MWSSB (ceased 1927) make no reference to the tramway not being used or being used only a little in any of these years when the traffic to Mt Crosby specifically is given but is low.

In other years when the pumping station is known to have received coal by rail, Mt Crosby is not mentioned at all.

In both cases, however, considerable tonnages are shown as received at Abermain Junction. It appears that in the years where Mt Crosby is shown, the figures given for Mt Crosby represent traffic which was through booked to or from there, almost certainly including some coal, but the remaining traffic to and from Mt Crosby, MWSSB or BCC, is shown received at or despatched from Abermain Junction. The reason must be that this latter traffic was not through booked, ie the mine concerned consigned it to Abermain Junction and paid the freight to there. On this traffic, QR freight was paid from the origin to Abermain Junction. From the rest of the movement from Abermain Junction to Mt Crosby, the cost was what the Board or Council paid the QR to operate the line, but the Board and Council received no revenue.

The tonnage of coal, plant and supplies moved to Mt Crosby is therefore the sum of the tonnages received under both Abermain Junction and Mt Crosby. From the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s, 10,000 to 13,000 tons were received per year, but in the war years, over 20,000 tons. It is stated in Ref E that additional pumping capacity was installed at Mt Crosby in the 1940s, which would account for the increase.

The outwards goods were mostly timber and other minerals (gravel), from the tramway to the rest of the QR.

The passenger numbers represent those travelling from the tramway. That is obvious for those shown against Mt Crosby, in the years such are given. For those outwards from Abermain Junction, they follow the pattern reported by Mr McDougall, on p 272 of Mr Behan's article, ie the passengers travelled free to Abermain Junction, where they bought a ticket for Ipswich. The passenger numbers are probably not complete.