QUEENSLAND RAILWAYS REFRESHMENT SERVICES

Australian Railway History December 2008, p 407, article "Dining Out on Sunshine Rails" by Len Ardill

Len Ardill's article records the difficulties of providing refreshment to very crowded trains during the war and early postwar years. He also relates the recent arrangements for providing on-train catering. I have placed this comment on this web site, because the editors of ARH do not publish comments of greater than 250 words on previously published articles. I have nothing against Mr Ardill.

There are three major historical points which are missing.

The first is that in steam days, Dining Cars were generally provided on passenger trains only where the population was so sparse and service so infrequent that Refreshment Rooms with dining facilities for large numbers of passengers could not be justified. To a large degree that coincided with another rule, that where the passenger trains were heavy and gradients steep, a Dining Car was not provided.

Thus, the Sydney Mail from Brisbane to Wallan-garra, until 1930 the "top train" on the system, never included a Dining Car in its composition, despite many requests for such. There were at times, buffet compartments for first class passengers (see below), but no meal facility. The line was steeply graded throughout. A single engine load for a C19, the class of engine with the highest load hauling capacity used on the train, was only 240 tons, and for a B18¼ only 220 tons. (These are the up or southbound loads; a little more could be taken down). Even with an assisting engine on the ranges, the loads were restricted.

The timetable therefore had to be organised around the Dining Rooms at Wallan-garra and Toowoomba. On the up, lunch was provided at Toowoomba and dinner at Wallan-garra. On the down, before 1930, lunch was provided at Wallan-garra and dinner at Toowoomba. After 1930, breakfast was provided at Wallan-garra and lunch at Toowoomba. Len remarks on the sometimes inconvenient hours for meals. The last mentioned was one - at around 2.30 pm, until brought forward by accelerations in the last few years of the train.

Similarly, on day one of its up journey, the Western Mail had no Dining Car, and dinner was provided at Toowoomba. It then travelled through the night, and the next morning a Dining Car was attached at Mitchell on day two, to provide breakfast and lunch (and dinner when the train was a mixed beyond Charleville). That followed the second rule, because there were only small refreshment rooms in the far west. The Dining Car was a weight burden. Until 1950, only PB15s were allowed west of Roma, and the 25 tons of the Dining Car was a considerable proportion of the maximum mail train load on the steep gradients, of 175 tons. Similar arrangements applied down, and breakfast on day two was provided in the rooms at Toowoomba, with Brisbane arrival just before lunch.

The Dining Car for the Sunshine Express in steam days was not attached northbound until Rockhampton because the load for a single B18¼ south of there was 315 tons, but from there to Mackay was 375 (later 400) tons. A Dining Car could have been accommodated in the train south of Rockhampton only by reducing the train by one other carriage. Thus, on the second day, breakfast was taken at the RRR at Gladstone, and lunch and dinner in the Dining Car. On the third day, as Len remarks, breakfast was taken at Townsville, and lunch at Cardwell, later Tully. Southbound, on the first day,Cairns was left just on lunch time, but provision was made for a late lunch at Cardwell, later Tully, and dinner at Townsville. On the second day, breakfast and lunch were taken in the Dining Car attached at Mackay, and dinner at Gladstone, while on the third day, breakfast was available in Brisbane on arrival. A Dining Car could have been accommodated in the train load between Mackay and Cairns, but would have been used for only two meals northbound and one southbound. Further, Gladstone rooms were kept busy because the train ran five or six days per week, and also provided lunch to the northbound Rockhampton Mail most days of the week.

Dining Cars were provided on the inland mail trains mostly because the opposite prevailed. They ran only once (the Mt Isa train, although twice at the very end) or twice per week (the Longreach and Cunnamulla trains). This was insufficient to keep large refreshment rooms open to provide meals to a train load, even if they had the capacity to provide meals to the modest numbers travelling on mixed trains. Even so, the cars were run for only part of the route, west of Mingela, Mitchell and Alpha, to avoid haulage when passengers were asleep, and/or where the coastal ranges limited train loads.

The rooms at Miles on the Western Line provided meals to only four passenger trains per week postwar, the up and down day trains to Roma, two dinners per week and two breakfast, and the same applied to Goondiwindi providing meals for passenger trains on the South Western Line. (In the 1930s, with a rail motor running thrice weekly to Roma and a passenger once, the number of meal occasions at Miles was double the above.)

Second Divisions of Mail Trains

The second point is that Dining Cars were not provided on second divisions of the Mail Trains. This led to some catering on the heroic scale at various refreshment rooms where meals were not normally provided in quantity or at all.

When second divisions were provided to the Sunshine Express or Sunlander, it was necessary to provide all the meals on the second day at refreshment rooms. This was usually Gladstone for breakfast northbound and dinner southbound, St Lawrence for lunch in both directions, and Mackay for dinner northbound and breakfast southbound. At Gladstone, that was just an additional meal to the first divisions, but neither St Lawrence nor Mackay normally provided meals to large numbers, although they were equipped and furnished to do so. At St Lawrence, crucial cooking staff must have been transferred in temporarily, and the wife of every railway man in the township drafted in as a temporary cook assistant and/or waitress. I remember once being served dinner at a table on the platform at Mackay. Rockhampton sometimes had to serve meals too.

In addition to the second divisions, there were special trains organised by the Young Australia League (YAL) between Brisbane and Cairns. These ran in school holidays, as did the second divisions, and often on the same days. There was only one such YAL train each way every few days, but on the days they ran, St Lawrence had to provide three lunches in succession.

On 29^th April 1961, the second division of the up Sunlander had breakfast at Mackay, lunch at St Lawrence and dinner at Rockhampton. The late running second division of the down Sunlander (14 vehicles) probably had a very late lunch at St Lawrence, and a late dinner at Mackay. A down YAL special (12 vehicles) must have had lunch at Rockhampton and dinner at St Lawrence. A down troop special (13 vehicles) must have had breakfast at Bundaberg, lunch at Gladstone and dinner at St Lawrence. (The last mentioned was not bound for the army camps near Glen Geddes, for it crossed my train there and continued north.)

Second divisions to the Western Mail had dinner at Toowoomba westbound and breakfast eastbound as did the first division, and had to be spaced sufficiently far behind the first to allow the dining room to cope, as well as to allow use of platform 1 there by both trains. If these second divisions ran beyond Roma, then breakfast was provided at Roma westbound and a late dinner eastbound. No formal meal was provided for these trains between Roma and Charleville.

Second divisions were not normally provided to mail trains or air conditioned trains on the Central or Great Northern Lines. On 9^th December 1962, however, a down passenger arrived Hughenden at 1245, in time for lunch. It was presumably arranged for the start of the holidays at the mines at Mt Isa. There were no rooms west of Hughenden where the passengers could have had a full breakfast. In 1964, QR Weekly Notice 14/64 advised that 32P and 33P supplementary passenger trains would have lunch at Charters Towers each way and dinner westbound and breakfast eastbound at Hughenden. Presumably sufficient dishes and cutlery were on hand at those rooms. What happened west of Hughenden was not stated. Presumably the trains arrived Mt Isa at about breakfast time westbound and left there after dinner time eastbound, the journeys west of Hughenden being at night both ways. At the time, the Inlander took 11½ to 12 hours between Hughenden and Mt Isa. These trains presumably ran for the May school holidays.

The third point has to do with alcohol. Until 1960, alcoholic drinks were not available on QR Dining Cars. The Country Women's Association wished to minimise the nuisance from drunks. Even so, that nuisance occurred, some passengers relieving the tedium of the long journeys with alcohol brought with them, or bought at hotels near the stations en route. It was an offence under the QR By Laws to be intoxicated on a train, but not to consume alcohol on a train.

I don't remember whether alcoholic drinks were available at the table in licensed refreshment rooms where meals were served. Serving such drinks would have added to the great rush to serve the meal in the short periods allowed, a minimum of twenty minutes. Indeed, twenty minutes was often the allowed time.

Len mentions the effect of the number of passengers carried on the QR as the reason for the decline in refreshment facilities. But he not used an appropriate figure. It was country passengers who used refreshment rooms, and it is the number of country passengers which fell. Their number fell from 6.8 million in 1924-25 to 4.7 million in 1939-40. There was then a vast increase, to a peak of 9.4 million in 1944-45. Despite an increasing population (see below), the number of country passengers declined almost continually thereafter. In 1954-55, there were 6.0 million, in 1959-60 4.7 million, in 1964-65 2.8 million, in 1969-70 2.0 million, in 1974-75, 1.8 million, in 1979-80 1.5 million, in 1984-85 1.5 million. By 1989-90, there were fewer than a million, and about a quarter of those were on the Kuranda Tourist Train. And many of those who travel now are travelling on pensioner concessions. Some of the decline in the business done at the rooms has been the result of refreshments provided on board. Who could keep a refreshment room profitable at an intermediate place when there were facilities on board the train?

Much country travel by rail was not long distance, and much of it did not therefore require refreshments en route. I am thinking here especially of the commuting services into the provincial cities. There are no statistics of country travel by length of trip, or duration of trip (travellers on the slow mixed trains needed refreshments after fewer miles than did those on the mail trains, as Len points out). For the last quarter century, the traffic near Brisbane has been included in the Citytrain figure, reducing the country total (this is the travel as far as Gympie, the Gold Coast and Rosewood).

All of this has occurred in a period when the population of Queensland has grown immensely. It was 845,000 in 1925, 1.03 million in 1940, 1.2 million in 1950, 1.8 million in 1970, 2.1 million in 1975 and 2.65 million in 1986.

The accelerations from the tilting trains have brought more business, but at a decline in business on the conventional trains on the same route. Rail is now insignificant as a means of travel outside the coastal south-east.

Late running of mail trains usually led to unexpected serving of meals at various RRRs. If the southbound Sunlander was badly delayed by floods, say, it might arrive Gympie at about breakfast time, instead of Brisbane. In that case, arrangements were made for breakfast to be provided at Gympie. (The RRR there had dining facilities; lunch was served there to passengers on the day passenger trains to and from Bundaberg.)

Further to the rushes Len Ardill describes - some RRRs knew nothing other than such rushes, a few times most days. The rooms at Helidon, between Brisbane and Toowoomba, existed for up to six per day, all of about eight minutes. Rollingstone, between Townsville and Ingham, provided tea and sandwiches to one mail train and two rail motors each way per day, six days per week. In contrast, in 1950, the tea stall at Yalleroi, between Jericho and Blackall, provided sustenance for three mixed trains each way per week. In the same year, a facility at Cooladdi, between Charleville and Quilpie provided for one mixed and one passenger each way per week. A facility at Orallo catered for four mixed trains per week each way on the Roma to Injune branch. Corfield, between Winton and Hughenden, provided for two mixed trains each way per week. Lyndbrook, Mt Surprise and Einasleigh, on the Etheridge line inland from Cairns, provided for two rail motors, later two mixeds hauled by one or more light diesel locomotives, per week. And there was a Refreshment room at Blackbull, on the Normanton - Croydon Railway until 1947. For the last 25 years of its existence, it opened for the once weekly rail motor each way, serving about ten passengers per week.

Mixed trains and up rail motors stopped long enough Tara on the Dalby to Glenmorgan branch (p 412) for passengers to obtain sustenance in the town.

It was provided that the manager of the rooms be provided by the Station Master with information on the timekeeping of the trains, and that information was to be sent by telegram from some prior station with the number aboard, so that that number could be catered for. Sometimes that prior station made more detailed enquiries, about those wanting meals. After the RRR facility at Mt Surprise ceased operation, and lunch was provided at the hotel, passengers were asked at an earlier station if they wanted that meal, by the guard as I recollect, and the Station Mistress at Mt Surprise provided such information to the hotel.

As a train entered an RRR station, station staff were required to call out the name of the station, that refreshments were available and the time allowed. A bell was rung on the platform and near the door of the RRR five minutes before the train was due to leave.

Several of the private rooms listed on p 411 as being Tea Rooms served meals to passengers on mixed trains, as Len's text relates. Some of the privately operated Tea Rooms in his list are best described as Tea Stalls (as the advertisement on the same page says). The stalls were often a shed or hut with a wooden "Window" at the space above the counter. This window was raised vertically to open the premises for business, and provide shelter to about three people if it was raining. Some of the private rooms were run as offshoots of local hotels, cafes and restaurants (just as book stalls on platforms were often offshoots of local newsagents). Some of these facilities were operated by disabled former railwaymen or members of their families. But many were run as businesses in their own right, with some staff.

Some RRR, both QR and privately operated, provided meals and drink for local residents, and did much business that way. One privately run RRR included a fruit and vegetable shop. I don't know what conditions were part of the leases, or rules of the QR rooms. The QR had an Inspector of RRRs and Dining Cars. It had an RRR depot at Roma Street, Brisbane, and may have had others.

Despite the best efforts of the RRR staff and the Station Masters, times allowed at RRR stations were exceeded at busy times. On instructions from the Station Masters, serving at the counters and bars ceased when the train was due to leave. Even so, passengers held doors open, or reopened them, to ensure that all fellow passengers joined the train, sometimes accompanied by much shouting by the station staff and whistle blowing by guards. At some places, passengers visited shops or hotels close to the station to avoid the rush at the RRR and to be sure of obtaining some refreshment, and carriage doors had to be held open for these people rushing back to the station.

Len lists some of the wooden bodied Dining Cars (also called Buffet Cars) used prior to the air conditioned trains. The No. 547 he mentioned was not one of the Sydney Mail train corridor cars of 1910. That (first) No 547 was destroyed by fire at Wallan-garra in 1913. The second No 547, that converted to a Dining Car, did not have end platforms or a side corridor, and was built in 1914.

The wooden bodied cars included at various times Nos 16, 47, 275, 416, 417, 453, 491, 547, 562, 1255, 1256 and 1376. The greatest number of such cars in service at any one time was nine. There were also three kitchen cars (136, 137 and 991, maximum in service at any one time two), but these were used mostly on inspection trains. The Dining Cars all had their own kitchen.

There were also carriages with Buffet compartments on the Sydney Mail and on some South Coast Line expresses. These were for the sale of beverages and light refreshments. On the Sydney Mail there were two types. One was a passenger compartment in a corridor carriage compartment converted for the purpose. The other was in the carriage adjoining the Parlour Car, and was for first class passengers. On the South Coast Line, the facility was provided on the mid-day Saturday up express and the down Sunday evening express between 1934 and 1937.

The stoves in the wooden bodied Dining Cars were fuelled by wood or coal and the food kept fresh in ice chests. Ice was provided at Mitchell to the Car attached to the Western Mail there. The crews working these cars had intolerable conditions in the summer. The cars were turned at the ends of their runs so that the saloon always led the kitchen. The all electric kitchens of the air conditioned trains had electric stoves and refrigerators.

When trains ran late, and the additional meals had to be provided on the cars, arrangements had to be made with butchers, bakers and grocers in towns en route to obtain additional supplies.

RRRs provided hampers for passengers. These were ordered in advance, even by telegram. The contents were consumed en route, and returned to the originating RRR by a station down the line. Staff at that station were expected to confirm the presence of all items which were to be returned.

What Len says on this is correct. Indeed, Landsborough, 51 miles north of Brisbane, was a refreshment stop, only 20 miles north of the next nearest at Caboolture, but the watering station was Palmwoods, only nine miles north (or Yandina, only another ten miles farther north again). So the Gympie passenger trains stopped at Landsborough for six minutes for refreshments, then after only a short run, stopped for five to seven minutes at Palmwoods for water. All of this after stopping for five to eight minutes at Caboolture for both refreshments and water. Southbound the arrangements were similar, except that water was usually taken at Yandina instead of Palmwoods.

There was locomotive water at Isis Junction, and engines on through passenger trains took water at Elliott, 12 miles south of Bundaberg. Engines on trains terminating at Bundaberg watered at North Bundaberg, over the river, which was the location of the locomotive depot. Engines on passenger trains watered at Wallan-garra.

Most watering stations were closer than the 80 to 100 kms mentioned by Len. For a summary of that, consider my book Queensland Railways Steam Locomotives 1900 – 1969, Design and Operation, p 108.

Express trains on the South Coast Line did not stop at Bethania. When they were introduced in 1934, the Tweed Heads branch was served by detaching through carriages from Southport trains at Ernest Junction (see "But How Did the Rails Come to be at the Tweed?" on this web site). There were then no refreshments en route at all, apart from the short lived buffet compartments on a few of the trains, mentioned above. Previously, most trains to the Tweed ran into Southport and out again, and passengers had the benefit of the rooms there, as well as those at Bethania.

The Sunshine Express, and its predecessor the Townsville Mail, did not run through Archer Park (p 412 ). They ran past it on the through lines along Denison Street.

While the Sunlander ran with a Dining Car between Rockhampton and Mackay (until 1970), the attaching and detaching took 30 minutes at each of those places, and in the case of Bundaberg was considerably in excess of the time the train needed to spend there for local business. The train also spent considerable time in Rockhampton each way. Although the hours of the day were not altogether convenient, the meals could have been partaken in the rooms at Mackay, Rockhampton and Bundaberg during the long stops.

8 September 2009