I have spelt Wooloongabba with two Ls in the title so that web search engines will find it. In the remainder of this text, the word is spelt with a single L as the QR spelt it.

Wooloongabba yard and locomotive depot and the line to and through it clearly fascinated Rod Milne as he passed it (article ARH August 2004). They were indeed all fascinating. The editors provided interesting photographs and diagrams to his article. The article and photo captions contain errors, and the article, while raising aspects of the history of the lines, places and operations, is totally inadequate as a history and description, so much so that these comments are longer than that article. Many aspects were even more extraordinary than Rod Milne describes.

I am concentrating on the published material. Photographs mentioned below will be inserted when I have caught up on articles deserving comment.

AR - Annual Report (of the QR)

ARH - Australian Railway History, journal

ARHS - Australian Railway Historical Society

DEL - Diesel Electric Locomotive

GA - General Appendix (QR book of instructions to staff)

HAT - a news supplement to the ARHS Bulletin, now ARH

QPD - Queensland Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

QR - Queensland Railways

QSA - Queensland State Archives

SCL - South Coast Line

SE - Sunshine Express, journal

V&P - Votes and Proceedings of the Queensland Parliament

WTT - Working Time Table (for staff, with instructions)

Different names were used for the locations and lines, some at the same time.

The Coal Wharf The list of openings of lines in ARs refers to the line to the wharf as going to the South Brisbane Coal Wharves. The wharf was geographically just in South Brisbane (by most definitions - Woolloongabba had its own Divisional Board or Shire Council when the line opened). In the Supplements to the GA right up to that for 1962, the place is the South Brisbane Coal Wharf. The wharf was only 500 metres from the QR Wooloongabba yard by rail, even less in a straight line, and it was operated from there. It is therefore not surprising that in QR WTTs and instructions in various documents, and in the AR, it was Wooloongabba Wharf. After Stanley Street station closed in 1891, the sidings there were effectively part of Wooloongabba Wharf (see below). The QR owned all the contiguous wharf space here. The wharves were thus also referred to at times as the Railway Wharf. Even the QR itself was not consistent. Papers on CME file 26/1131 referring to the shipment of rail motor 79 to Normanton call the place both the Railway Wharf South Brisbane and the Wooloongabba Coal Wharf.

Downstream from Wooloongabba Wharf were quarries which supplied building stone, and the rock for a number of training walls in the lower reaches of the river. That rock was moved there by water. The QR also extracted stone from these quarries for ballast, and had a crusher there (1906 AR). The siding into the area was known as the Wooloongabba Wharf Extension. That was logical, as it was an extension of the short branch to the wharf. It was only ever a private or departmental (QR) siding, not a running line. (A plan of the extension dated 1904 appears on QR Secretary's file 1908.3745/2). It was finally a siding for the Department of Harbours and Marine, and, somewhat reduced in length, lasted until the 1950s, but, by examination, not used for some time prior to that.

The line upstream from Stanley Street or the Dry Dock is referred to in the list of openings as the Victoria Bridge Extension. In the AR which reported its opening (1897), and in most other QR books of instruction, it is the South Brisbane Wharf Extension, not (generally) as said on p 289 by Rod Milne, the Wooloongabba Wharf Extension, but see the end of this paragraph. The wharves along this section were collectively the South Brisbane wharves, and were not geographically in Woolloongabba. In the Supplements to the GA, the line is the South Brisbane Wharf Branch, and included the Coal Wharf until the 1950 copy. The 1965 Goods Rate Book, however, refers to the three remaining sidings on the line as being on the Wooloongabba Wharf Extension, but that is clearly a mistake.

Wooloongabba was spelt by the QR with one "l" as noted, but prior to about 1886 it was spelt by the QR with two "ls", as in the geographic name.

In the final paragraph on p 283, Rod Milne says that the railway through Wooloongabba was a continuation of the line from South Brisbane Junction (Corinda) etc. This misses the whole point of the purpose of the line from South Brisbane Junction through Wooloongabba to Stanley Street and the wharf, which was conceived as one, built as one and until the branches from it opened, operated as one.

The first ideas of a continuation of the Southern and Western Railway eastwards from Ipswich to Brisbane in the 1860s envisaged the Brisbane terminus being in the vicinity of the eventual Wooloongabba Wharf. That kept the line entirely on the south side of the Brisbane River, saving the large bridge which would have been necessary if the line was to terminate in North Brisbane. When the S&W line was eventually extended to North Brisbane (the present Roma Street) in 1874-75, it needed that large bridge (at Indooroopilly) and had no connection to navigable water. Import and export traffic had to be carried by road between the railway and wharves. The emerging coal mining industry of the West Moreton could not conveniently sell its product to users (including the QR) elsewhere in the Colony, or beyond it, nor later .to the steam powered vessels calling at the port, vessels which were much more suited to navigating the twisting river than sailing vessels.

The lack of connection to navigable water prior to the opening of the line to Wooloongabba Wharf in 1884 was a serious inconvenience to the QR itself. For the construction and equipping of the first section of the QR westward from Ipswich, opened in 1865, rails and fastenings, bridge spans, locomotives and rolling stock and material for the mechanical branch to build rolling stock and undertake repairs, had to be unloaded from overseas vessels in or near the mouth of the Brisbane River or at a wharf specially built at Lytton and lightered to Ipswich along the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers. That had to continue after the extension of the railway to Brisbane. It is very likely that the rails and other items for the inland extensions of the Southern and Western up to 1884 (ie as far as East Mitchell and Stanthorpe, and the beginnings of four branches) were lightered to Ipswich for railing to the construction. Presumably however the rails for the Sandgate and Racecourse lines (to the east of Brisbane) were carted from a Brisbane wharf to Roma Street. (For much of this time, transhipping to lighters in the mouth of the river was still necessary to reach Brisbane wharves.) Presumably locomotives and rolling stock sent from the S&W system to Rockhampton (1867) and Maryborough (1879-80) were lightered from Ipswich to the mouth of the Brisbane River.

Several schemes for connecting the Brisbane extension to navigable water were considered, and the South Brisbane line (as originally known) to Wooloongabba and Stanley Street was the one decided on. The government of the day was clear that the main reason for building the line was the intended coal traffic, and that passenger traffic was secondary. Even other import and export goods traffic was of lesser importance to the coal. See the section below on Wooloongabba Wharf for development of the coal traffic.

The branch was cheaply built. To Yeronga it was built more or less as it is today, with a sharp curve across Fairfield Road entering Yeerongpilly, as it is now called (the extension to the south coast was already in mind when this section was built). From Yeronga to what is now Dutton Park it was built alongside Fairfield Road, which had to be widened following complaints, with a steep gradient into Dutton Park.

The original intention was to build even more cheaply north of Dutton Park than the extraordinary line used until the 1960s. Where the line as built came near to Ipswich Road near the later Albert, it was actually built along Ipswich Road to the Wooloongabba Fiveways. From there it was to have turned west into Stanley Street, then run along that street to the Vulture Street intersection near Stanley St station, and run from there to the north-east to the coal wharf or even to a point downstream near the quarries below River Terrace.

The first change was to last part beyond the Fiveways. Before that section was built, the planned line was deviated away from running along Stanley Street into what became Wooloongabba yard, to follow the route as built to Stanley Street (although a cutting was proposed at Vulture Street at one stage instead of the tunnel eventually built). The second change, adopted only after the line up to the Fiveways was built, was to run from near Albert to Wooloongabba yard along the route eventually opened and used until 1969, initially to the west of Ipswich Road, then across Ipswich Road near Balaclava Street, then to the east of Ipswich Road, crossing Logan Road, Stanley Street and Main Street en route, all crossings on the level. Obtaining parliamentary approval for the deviation, resuming the land, removing the line built along Ipswich Rd, and building the line along the deviated route delayed the opening of the line (for detail see the 1883 and 1884 ARs, and V&Ps and QPDs for the period.)

Eventually the alignment between Dutton Park and Yeronga was improved by building the Fairfield Deviation in 1896 at a higher level and as double track.

What happened in the goods yard and locomotive depot at Wooloongabba were exactly the same as what went on at the same facilities elsewhere on the QR. They were in no way a wonderment, there was no mystery. The whole facility was actually very open to view. It was the nature of the route, with its numerous level crossings, four over major arterial roads, sharp curves and tunnel, through a suburban area and on to the river bank, and the location of the facilities opposite an inner suburban shopping and business centre in a capital city, which made Wooloongabba unusual and memorable. That there were so many goods trains and light engines added to the singularity of the line, that one with such a location could be so busy.

The level crossings were not the only constraint on working the line. Trains entering Wooloongabba from Dutton Park (down trains) faced a 1 in 50 gradient. Stanley Street level crossing was on a five and six chains (100 and 120 metres) radius curve. Then followed six chains of 1 in 50 up with short 8 and 10½ chains (160 and 210 metres) radius curves beside the entrance to the Cricket Ground, then across Main Street and into the yard. This gradient is evident in the photo on p 298. The train in the top photo on p 283 has just entered on to the gradient. For light engines, short light goods trains, or heavier goods trains with more than one engine, this gradient was not a difficulty. If a train stopped before crossing Main Street, a PB15 should have been able to start 145 tons (my calculation) on the combination of gradient and curve between Stanley Street and the entrance to the yard, other engines in proportion. Further, if the train stopped before Main Street level crossing and crossed it at the 4 mph normally allowed over these crossings, the same flagman dealt with both Stanley and Main Streets level crossings.

The down load into Wooloongabba for a PB15 was a much higher 240 tons, however, and for other engines it was in proportion. A load of 240 tons for a PB15 normally applied on a considerably easier uncurved gradient of 1 in 64. To enable this scheduled down load to be moved, there was a special procedure for fully loaded trains at Main Street. Points had to be held for the entry of the train into Wooloongabba yard (of which more below), an extra man had to be sent to flag Main Street level crossing, and the home signal had to be clear for the train to enter the yard. As the fully loaded train entered on to Stanley Street level crossing it was flagged there by the normal flagman and at Main Street by the additional flagman. It then did not have to stop before Main Street, and was allowed to attain 12 mph past the Cricket ground entrance to give it sufficient momentum to overcome the short 1 in 50. (This is the reason for the 12 mph limit; the signalling provision mentioned by Rod Milne on p 296 was simply part of the procedure for allowing that speed and avoiding the stop.) This arrangement is mentioned in the 1914 WTT and possibly earlier.

In the photo on p 289, the train is crossing Main Street without stopping. The Stanley Street flagman has jumped on to the engine cab step before the train made its rush and is riding there complete with bell. The level crossing is guarded by the additional flagman. The engine is not C17 824 but a B17 (the slide valve cover, the running board, the boiler diameter and the safety valve cover behind the dome differentiate the engine from a C17).

The short 1 in 50 was about double the length of a full load for a PB15 of coal in VJ hoppers or grain in WH wagons, plus brake van, so a full effort was needed as the train came off Stanley Street. Usually these trains staggered over the summit, in the yard. No doubt some stalled. I have no recollections now of such stalling. Two such stallings were reported by J P Meara in SE, December 1967, p 17, however. On two days running, 12^th and 13^th October 1967, goods trains hauled by B18¼s, 889 and 868 respectively, included a breakdown crane to assist in the removal of machine tools from the by then closed locomotive depot, and stalled with the brake van partly across Main Street. The trains were divided into the yard. (The crane had been removed from Wooloongabba overnight for security.)

Presumably the signalman at Dutton Park was advised by the driver of the down train of the need for the second flagman, and he advised Wooloongabba and the flagman for the three level crossings nearest Wooloongabba.

One night close to midnight in 1964 I was on the leading PB15 of a double headed goods train from Southport with a full through load. That was equal to only 190 tons per engine, set by the gradients south of Beenleigh. At that hour, there was no one at Wooloongabba to provide the second flagman, so the fireman of the second engine performed that duty. I distinctly remember that although the load was about 20% below full for this location, the driver of that leading engine gave his engine full regulator and cut-off starting away across Stanley Street, and reduced the cut-off by only a nick or a nick and a half after a few yards. The second engine seemed to be driven the same way. The whistle was kept blowing and both driver and fireman watched out for traffic as the train charged across Main Street. Presumably the Assistant Station Master on duty held the points into the yard, and eventually the staff was collected, probably by the same ASM.

I remember another occasion well. That is of a single PB15 with a full load of bulk grain charging across Main Street level crossing. See photo. The policeman on points duty (directing traffic) seemed unaware that the train would not stop before Main Street, but I could be wrong about that.

On another occasion, at about 8 pm I was endeavouring to record the sound of a train at the Fiveways as part of the ARHS Queensland Division campaign to record the sounds of the steam era. I was pleased to have a B18¼ on a well loaded down goods proceeding under the two flagmen and 12 mph arrangement. Apart from initial blowing off from the safety valves, the train sounds were excellent, but extraneous sounds of the Fiveways were numerous, loud, and impossible to predict. Those extraneous sounds so overloaded the recorder that the recording was of no use and was wiped.

The gradient into the yard is the reason why Wooloongabba yard ended at the Main Street end in a dead end, as seen on the diagram on p 301. This arrangement was installed in 1930 (WN 31/30), no doubt to prevent runaways. Not all shunting movements at that end could be directed into that dead end, but all were restricted in length, to avoid blocking Main Street, and to avoid any difficulties of pushing up the gradient. Points had to be held for up trains leaving the yard. The possibility of a down train stalling and moving back as it tried to restart is presumably the reason why the points had to be held for down trains as well.

From Stanley St to Ipswich Road, the gradients were easy, but the curves were sharp, with a minimum of five chains (100 metres) radius. From the centre of Ipswich Road level crossing, a vertical curve started an incline which became, two chains in from the fence line at the level crossing, 12 chains (240 metres) of 1 in 49½ up with curves of 9½ to 11½ chains (190 to 230 metres) radius, followed by six chains of 1 in 77 up, and then easier up gradients to Albert.

While the gradient from Ipswich Road towards Albert was short, trains had to stop before crossing Ipswich Road, and the speed limit across Ipswich Road was 4 mph (for the whole train), which, if observed, made attaining momentum impossible. The load for a PB15 in this direction was 245 tons (other locomotives in proportion). The load a PB15 could start on the combination of gradient and curves given above was 160 tons, two-thirds the load laid down. Hauling that load therefore required that the gradient to be rushed, so that momentum could provide some of the energy to overcome the gradient and curves. For speed to have been a safe-from-stalling 8 mph at the top, it had to be 14 mph at the foot. In other words, either the full load or the speed limit at the foot was impossible.

Fortunately most up trains were well below full load. Full down loads of coal, bulk wheat or mineral concentrates into Wooloongabba resulted in the return movement of the same length of train being relatively light, easily started and moved up 1 in 49½. Fully loaded goods trains to the South Coast and its branches were 190 tons for a PB15, or 200 tons after the Yeerongpilly to Kuraby duplication of 1950-52. To allow for 8 mph at the top, trains of that lesser weight had to be moving at about 11 mph at the foot.

According to P Meagher, Living with Albert, SE, December 1978 p 144, 194 up Southport and Nerang goods, with one, occasionally two PB15s, used sometimes stall on this bank in the 1961 to 1964 period, even though the full through load to the South Coast per engine was well within the 245 tons. It was then necessary for it to divide into Dutton Park, or for a light engine waiting to cross it at Albert to go to its assistance, and help it to Dutton Park.

When loads for DELs were issued late in the life of the line, the same impossibility in the speed of approach and load to be hauled continued to apply. There were perhaps two differences. One is that it is to be doubted if any DEL ever hauled a full up load from Wooloongabba to Albert - even a 1600 class was allowed 740 tons. The second is that a DEL could probably climb the gradient at a slow speed and high amperages without overheating its electrical components because the gradient was so short.

It would seem that the load on this bank was set by calculations made in an office, allowing for the momentum which might be achieved at the foot, but totally ignoring the requirement to stop before Ipswich Road level crossing and the 4 mph limit across it. It is surprising that instances of stalling did not lead to the load being revised, and provision for assisting engines in the up direction. Alternatively, two flagmen might have been provided on Ipswich road level crossing and up trains allowed to achieve a speed which allowed the gradient to be climbed without difficulty, 14 mph, 11 mph, etc, as above.

I suspect that by unofficial local practice, trains did not leave Wooloongabba with more than about 180 tons for a PB15, and equivalent for other locomotives, unless running to the SCL when they took a full through SCL load, and that even then drivers did their best to attain some momentum by exceeding the 4 mph limit across Ipswich Road. In the same vein, assisting engines were probably unofficially provided between Wooloongabba and Albert or Dutton Park to guard against stalling.

Turning now to the line beyond Wooloongabba towards the wharf, the curve out of the yard towards the tunnel was five chains radius, easing to seven chains, initially at 1 in 49.5 up, but just before the footbridge changing to down, with 1 in 50 down continuing right to the junction for the wharf. The tunnel was 5½ chains (110 metres) long, roughly half on a five chains (100 metres) radius curve which was nine chains (180 metres) long (ie going through more than a right angle). The five chains curve is seen in the photo on p 296. Unusually for a QR running line with a curve of eight chains radius or sharper, it had no guard or check rail.

The junction for the South Brisbane Wharf Extension was on the low level dead end beside the former Stanley Street station, below the wall which supported the site of that station and its two lines. The line passed around the head of the dry dock by a 4½ chains (90 metres) radius curve. Beyond Tribune Street, the level crossings at Ernest and Glenelg Sts were occupation (ie joining the properties of adjacent landholders) and pedestrian crossings. The terminus of the extension near Victoria Bridge was circa 15 chains (300 metres) from the lines at South Brisbane station by foot (not several blocks as said by Rod Milne on p 285), but 4 miles 48 chains (7.4 kms) by rail via Dutton Park (see ARHS Bulletin July 1964, p 128).

Several operating arrangements were not laid down in the usual books of instructions, but were laid down locally, perhaps in Circular Memoranda.

Tender engines were not allowed to run tender first leading a train or running light engine over the level crossings between Albert and Wooloongabba (see B J Webber, SE, August 1983). They could run tender first if running within or at the end of a train. This rule suited tender engines running light to South Brisbane, which left Wooloongabba funnel first, then ran tender first from Dutton Park to South Brisbane, and were thus facing funnel first for their outbound trains from South Brisbane, and vice versa. It also suited goods trains leaving Wooloongabba for the South Coast Line and branches, and Corinda and beyond.

The rule did not suit workings to and from the Cleveland line via the direct line from Dutton Park to Cleveland Junction. Outbound, light engines banked coal and livestock trains from Dutton Park to Cannon Hill or Murarrie. Tender engines coming from Wooloongabba chimney first had to turn via Park Road and Cleveland Junction to be chimney first at the rear of the train they were to bank (they had to wait at Dutton Park on the Wooloongabba line or loop or siding until the train they were to bank arrived). Returning from banking on the Cleveland line, tender light engines facing the wrong way for the level crossings ran via Park Road. If Park Road was not in circuit (in the early hours when no passenger trains were running to and from South Brisbane), they ran from Cleveland Junction through Dutton Park to Yeerongpilly to turn on the junction there. (That required them to run tender first over a level crossing there.) Goods trains from the Cleveland line for Wooloongabba ran to Park Road and reversed along the up main line to Dutton Park, then ran forward to Wooloongabba, and vice versa.

Tank engines ran chimney or bunker first across the level crossings. If light, they could therefore run direct from Lota Junction to Dutton Park before proceeding to Wooloongabba.

The caption to the photograph on p 287 refers to engines working "light attached" between Dutton Park and Wooloongabba and to banking. As the down goods load from Corinda and Yeerongpilly to Dutton Park was higher than the load from Dutton Park to Wooloongabba, and as there was little space at Dutton Park to reduce loads, assisting down trains from Dutton Park to Wooloongabba was sensible. This did not apply to through trains from the SCL and Beaudesert, because their through loads were less than the full load from Dutton Park to Wooloongabba.

Fully loaded down goods trains were not to be stopped on the approach to Dutton Park because they would not otherwise be able to restart. As avoiding such a stop could not necessarily be guaranteed, there was additional incentive for assisting such trains, although that strictly meant double heading. That was because the location of the crossover on the Yeronga side of Dutton Park did not allow placing a banking engine behind down goods trains of any length. A clear road was therefore needed to allow such trains to draw on to the Wooloongabba branch at Dutton Park where a banking engine could easily be added to the rear of the train.

Alternatively, the train could be stopped before the junction for the Wooloongabba line, and an assisting engine added in front. One mid-morning in August 1964, I observed PB15 443 bring a train of bulk grain bound for Wooloongabba from Corinda to Dutton Park, a full load for that section. This was in excess of its load from there to Wooloongabba. It stopped in the down platform. That in itself meant it required assistance, because, as a note to the load tables said, most of the train was then on the gradient into the station, and it would not have been able to restart. D17 77 arrived light engine and funnel first from Wooloongabba at almost the same time, and was attached, then bunker first, in front of 443. The D17 was of course able to run over the level crossings whichever direction it faced. Although the train was then well within the load limit for the two engines, it made the rush at Main Street.

"Light attached" means the attached engine running in a train, but doing no more work than if it were running light. Such was not a recognised practice on the QR, at least in the rules. If a second engine was attached to a QR train, it was expected to do its share of the work of moving the train, however light the train. For example, light engines proceeding from Toowoomba to Murphys Creek to bank up trains were often attached to down goods trains to save a train path, and had to help haul the train from Toowoomba to the top of the range at Harlaxton. If the light engine so attached were heavier than the train engine, it had to lead, and brake the train down the range.

Nevertheless, goods trains between Dutton Park and Wooloongabba were often light in weight, and the number of engines attached so numerous (from the issue of Bylaw 588 in 1952, up to four were allowed on a train, two at each end, the heaviest hauling) that light attached is a reasonable description for the engines at the rear. For the rushing into the yard across Main St, however, all engines would contribute to moving the train to the extent required. Before this 1952 provision, apart from the running of up to four light engines between Wooloongabba and South Brisbane, and banking of one PB15 hauled train by another PB15, there was no provision for running other than two engines on a train, attached at the front, but as photographs show, engines were attached to the rear of trains even in the 1940s, if not earlier. There was a further way of working with more than one engine. The 1953 WTT shows 233 engine and van from Murarrie (which would have run in reverse from Park Road) running attached to 199 goods between Dutton Park and Wooloongabba, ie an engine within the double train, something not normally allowed on the QR.

Dutton Park to Wooloongabba was not included in the GA as a section on which banking was to be employed. Nevertheless, the load tables included the load mentioned above (given in a note) for trains with a PB15 at each end, even before the 1952 provision. By 1962, the load tables included banking by, and of trains hauled by, C16 and D17 engines. Further, the 1946 WTT noted that coal and goods trains to Wooloongabba could be made up to a bank load, and that surplus loading, if a banking engine were not available, was to be detached at Yeerongpilly or Dutton Park as arranged by "Control".

In the 1946 WTT B11 goods from Redbank to Wooloongabba Wharf could be made up to a bank load, presumably into Wooloongabba, but no light engines were shown as required from Wooloongabba to Dutton Park to perform that duty. That might indicate that banking between Dutton Park and Wooloongabba was done by engines and crews available at the time, perhaps by extending a shift then finishing by 45 minutes or so.

There was no need to bank or otherwise assist the sand (actually mineral concentrate) trains, for which the through load for a PB15 between Southport and Dutton Park was 190 tons, well below the load from Dutton Park into Wooloongabba rushing Main Street, of 240 tons. If an additional engine was seen on such a train, it was a light engine proceeding to Wooloongabba. These trains did not normally attach additional loading en route, especially if worked in both directions in one shift by the one crew, often a Southport crew. Not all these trains took the concentrate to Wooloongabba. It was also detached at Yeerongpilly for onward movement to wharves on the north side lines.

The caption on p 287 claims that extra engines were attached to trains when Albert cabin was cut out. The line was at its busiest, and the number of light engines accessing Wooloongabba greatest, when Albert was cut in. The cutting out of Albert was irrelevant to the attaching of light engines to goods trains.

On p 287, the caption implies that banking engines were used on account of the stopping before level crossings and tight curves. This is not right; they were used as needed, as above. The loads and working arrangements allowed for the stops and the curves, even if the up load was excessive. Many if not most goods trains ran with a single engine hauling, stops and curves notwithstanding.

No engine loads were set down for the section between Wooloongabba and the wharf. Instead, there was a note in the load tables which said that the up load was restricted to what an engine could haul without sticking on the bank. That in a publication setting out loads! For 1 in 50 and a five chains curve, the same as on the Toowoomba Range, that was 130 tons for a PB15. Trains leaving the wharf had to set back to obtain access to the line back to Wooloongabba. They usually set back as far as possible, to near the dry dock on the South Brisbane Wharf extension and charged the short gradient through the tunnel. No doubt it was ascertained in advance that the down home signal at Wooloongabba would be clear. With such momentum and no risk of stopping at the signal, over 200 tons could probably have been taken. No down load was given either. The down load from Dutton Park to Wooloongabba could probably have been taken through to the wharf.

The tramway signal cabin at the Fiveways (p 286) controlled the points of the tramway junction. There were colour light signals for the trams showing the safe passage possible for the route set, so far as other trams were concerned. Within what those signals showed, the trams had to follow the usual rules of the road, including obeying the directions of any policeman directing traffic, and giving way to trains at level crossings (although conflicts with trains did not occur precisely at the Fiveways).

It is not correct (p 286) that trains were always late. Light engines had to run to time so that the passenger trains from South Brisbane could run to time, and so that the trains they were banking could keep to their path in an area where there was no facility for trains to be refuged, apart from the chord line from Dutton Park to Cleveland Junction. Goods trains from Wooloongabba had to leave to time to fit into the passenger timetable. That is not to say that goods trains performing varying work during the shift did not become late on their return. Some down goods trains became late waiting for a path. The lack of space for refuging en route meant these were often held far away, at Corinda, Sherwood, even Roma Street.

The capacity for crossings on the line was limited. The capacity of the loops was not given in the WTTs, but would seem to have been as follows. At Dutton Park, the loop on the Wooloongabba line could hold only about 34 F (The F was the four wheel unit of train length in pre-metric days and was 5.3 metres; these calculated train lengths include brakevan and allow for an engine.) At Albert, the loop could hold 45F, but only 22 F if the level crossing there was not to be blocked. Wooloongabba could hold 46 F. Down trains with full loads of grain or coal, hauled by a B18¼ or two PB15s, could generally fit within these loop lengths. A train of 60 F, the length limit on most parts of the QR until the 1960s, might just have fitted on the second road south of the engine shed at Wooloongabba, but that was useful only if an up train were put together from the rear, and a down taken apart from the front, and the shunting engine was able to go beyond the up home signal, that on the wharf side, towards the tunnel.

It is said on p 290 that the Canungra mixed (trains) had different origins and destinations, although they did call at Wooloongabba. Two things are certain, that the up Canungra mixed had Canungra as its destination, and the down had Canungra as its origin. When the up mixed started from South Brisbane, the goods loading from Wooloongabba was taken to Yeerongpilly and attached to the mixed there. At other times, the mixed started from Wooloongabba as a goods (it did not simply call there), and became a mixed at an outer suburb, to which passengers travelled from South Brisbane by a suburban passenger train.

It is said on pp 290-292 that an item loaded for Southport on Thursday for example would be available for collection at Tweed Heads the next day. Whatever else can be said about the efficiency of the QR, goods loaded at Wooloongabba for Southport were almost always made available for collection at Southport.

Tables on pages 298 and 299 of the article give the timetabled arrivals and departures at Wooloongabba in 1958. These were taken from the Suburban Lines Working Timetable. They are incomplete as a list, because they exclude the light engines between Wooloongabba and South Brisbane, which were given in a separate Light Engines and Empty Coaches WTT (other light engines, those running to shunt or bank, were included in the ordinary WTT, and are therefore shown in the tables on pp 298 and 299). I do not have the 1958 version of the Light Engines etc WTT. In 1966, by when the number was lower than in the fifties, there were 18 up movements and 13 down. Of the 18 up, six ran as pairs of attached light engines, so 15 paths were needed. Most were before 6.30 am and between 2.31 and 3.58 pm. The movement to or from South Brisbane took 18 minutes if there were no delays from crossings at Albert or Dutton Park or waiting paths.

The reason why there were fewer down light engines from South Brisbane than up in 1966 is that engines on various evening suburban passenger trains returned light engine from their outer terminus or from some other place where they were sent to shunt after the passenger task and thus do not appear in the Light Engine movements between South Brisbane and Wooloongabba.

Loco work was not to be carried out at South Brisbane on engines arriving there at the end of their shift. They were to be cut off immediately on arrival and despatched to Wooloongabba. In this direction, in 1966, 173 and 175 attached light engines leaving South Brisbane at 7.25 pm were attached to 155A light engine from Lota at Dutton Park. These crossed 134 up goods at Albert and on arrival at Wooloongabba at 7.54, crossed B16 up empty coal.

There were in addition shunting trains to the wharf and the South Brisbane Wharf Extension. These ran without brake van, sometimes with the engine pushing the train, even though neither of those practices was specifically allowed on the section by provisions in the GA. These trains were not shown in the columns of the WTT, but in the text of The Empty Carriages, Light Engines, etc WTT. In the 1960s this showed a shunting engine allocated to "yard and wharf" from 8.15 am to 3.45 pm, and another to "yard" from 6.15 am to 9 pm, both Mondays to Fridays, all times departing from or returning to the engine shed.

The WTTs included paths for trains to convey livestock detached at Corinda from down Toowoomba trains to meatworks near Cannon Hill and Murarrie. An engine and van ran from Wooloongabba to Corinda, attached the livestock wagons, hauled them to those places, and waited while the wagons were unloaded. Sometimes the engine and van then returned to Wooloongabba, at others they moved those empty livestock wagons and others to where they could be next used, say back to Corinda. All of this occupied a shift for the engine and crew, although some further work might be included, such as taking loading from Corinda to Clapham or Wooloongabba.

There were also special trains running on Train Notice.

It is said on p 296 that between 1889 and 1891 Albert would have been a busy little junction. It had the fifteen passenger and mixed trains each way on the main line on weekdays (see below under Stanley Street), but in that period there were only two trains per day in each direction on the Cleveland line on weekdays, four on Saturdays and five on Sundays, so it was not busy as a junction.

The Laheys, later Hancock and Gore No. 2, and Commonwealth (Postal Department) sidings are mentioned on p 286. It is not clear in the article where they were and they are not shown in the map on pp 300-301.They left the line just south of Abingdon Street level crossing, points facing Dutton Park, and crossed Abingdon Street outside and on the western side of the level crossing gates for the Wooloongabba branch itself. The Laheys siding crossed Ross Street and ran parallel to Henry St in which the premises served were situated. The Commonwealth siding left the line just described just north of Abingdon Street and turned west, parallel to Ross Street.

Albert was only 37 chains (750 metres) from Dutton Park, and only 74 chains (1500 metres) from Wooloongabba, two very short single line staff sections. It took only two to four minutes depending on direction and load to run to or from Dutton Park, but eleven minutes to run to or from Wooloongabba over the level crossings. There was no scope for a crossing loop on the Albert to Wooloongabba section. Albert was justified partly by the local sidings, partly by the lack of holding space at Dutton Park, mostly as a holding point and crossing loop for the section on to Wooloongabba.

Apart from the main line, there were only four through lines in the yard, as the diagram shows, so Wooloongabba suffered very much from lack of space. Empty wagons were often stored at the wharf, including the sidings at the former Stanley Street station.

The shunting requirement included the placing of wagons for loading and unloading including in the private sidings in the yard, breaking up arriving and assembling departing trains, sorting wagons for the wharf extension, and placing coal wagons for the coal stage or for unloading on to the ground. The head shunts within the signals and on the dead end to prevent runaways were short, so that some shunting operations were very restricted.

There are conflicting statements in Rod Milne's article about the down home signal, that on the edge of Main Street level crossing (p 301). On p 287, left side, it is said that in later years it was fixed at stop. On p 296, it is said that one of the provisos of 12 mph being allowed across Main Street in certain circumstances, was that the signal was to be off. It therefore had to be moveable. It is also said on p 298 that the signal was rarely not at danger. Except for up home signals at unattended crossing loops, the rules provided that home signals were to be at danger except when they were lowered for a train to pass. (Various "stop" signals could be left at clear, but not home signals). The down home at Wooloongabba should therefore have been at danger most of the time, but moveable.

It is possible that when the provision for crossing Main St at 12 mph was in force, the additional flagman guarding that level crossing also flagged the train past the home signal, notwithstanding the requirement in the General Appendix for the signal to be clear, leaving another member of staff to hold the points. Rod Milne might have seen trains pass the home signal at stop in these circumstances and assumed the signal was fixed at stop. But there was no need for this to happen for light engines and short goods trains, and the signal cannot have been fixed.

Most goods traffic to and from the south side lines bypassed Wooloongabba. This was predominately livestock and coal to Cannon Hill and Murarrie, and traffic to and from the transhipment yard at Clapham. Even then, Wooloongabba often provided the engine and van to convey some livestock to Cannon Hill and Murarrie, and the power to bank heavy trains proceeding to those places. That which was handled at Wooloongabba was general goods to and from the South Coast lines and branches, goods loaded or unloaded there, grain to the flour mills, coal to the locomotive depot and wharf, and traffic to and from the private sidings, including those on the South Brisbane Wharf Extension.

It is doubtful that Wooloongabba saw much goods to or from the stations on the Cleveland line after the 1930s (see p 292 where Rod Milne speculates on the loading days at Wooloongabba for that line). The places were so close to Brisbane that once goods were on a road vehicle to take them to a railway goods yard, it was cheap and convenient to take those goods all the way by road (to Cleveland, the railway was indirect). Further, the distances were in many cases within that for which there were few restrictions on road transport, even when protection of the railway from competition was at its height. It could be that when fuel and road vehicles were scarce during the war years and immediately thereafter, some goods for Cleveland temporarily went back to rail.

In the 1950s, the goods traffic from stations beyond Lota on the old Cleveland line was almost entirely fruit for interstate, ie the QR hauled fruit the short distance to Clapham, where it was transhipped for interstate. By about 1955, the evening peak passenger train from South Brisbane to Cleveland left all of its train but one brake van at Cleveland Central, and returned as a mixed to Manly using the other brake van, picking up this traffic, and then proceeded to Yeerongpilly as a goods. The reverse arrangement applied in the mornings, except that the train was a goods throughout. There was also a little general goods traffic between stations elsewhere in the State and those on the Cleveland line, worked via Yeerongpilly.

Traffic between elsewhere in the State and the other southside lines should in principle have been attached to South Coast, Beaudesert and Canungra trains at Yeerongpilly. The lack of space at Yeerongpilly, and the need for some movements to cross the running lines there, however, meant that some of that traffic was worked via Wooloongabba. Indeed the through up goods for the SCL was not given time to attach at Yeerongpilly.

The building visible in the photo on p 291 on the opposite side of Main Street from the turntable was the Wooloongabba Police Station. From time to time there were railway associated incidents which interested the police. If they concerned locomotive crews based at the depot, it was usual for a message to be left on the roster or notices board at the depot asking the engineman to call at the Police station before going home.

Rod Milne expresses views about the importance of goods traffic to Wooloongabba. The tonnages were respectable, especially considering the operating difficulties, but not especially heavy. The tonnage outwards in 1951-52 was 28,000, the tonnage in, apart from QR locomotive coal, 154,000. In 1959-60, these tonnages were 37,000 and 128,000, and in 1962-63, 21,000 and 120,000 respectively. These tonnages apply to Wooloongabba and the line beyond to South Brisbane Wharves. Parcels traffic was not handled (it was dealt with at South Brisbane). Wooloongabba was the depot station for wagon supply for all lines south and east of Corinda. That does not mean that every wagon supplied to those stations came from Wooloongabba. The staff there arranged the supply with "Wagons" in the General Manager's Office, and the wagon requested might have come from the north side and been attached to a train at Yeerongpilly to be taken to where it was wanted.

It is said on p 293 that box wagons were used for roadside traffic. Roadside was traffic in less than wagon loads despatched through a goods shed, for intermediate sidings. It was almost always loaded in box or covered wagons. Roadside was small in the total tonnage of goods. Other goods loaded at Wooloongabba were, as elsewhere, loaded in convenient wagons, open, flat and covered, even when less than wagon loads.

Customers used Wooloongabba for traffic to and from the whole system. After 1964, the only line south of Brisbane handling goods traffic was the Beaudesert branch, and there was then precious little general goods traffic for there, not enough to keep the yard and goods shed at Wooloongabba anywhere near as busy as it was, indicating the extent to which traffic was loaded at Wooloongabba for places north and west of Brisbane, and vice versa. And that is borne out by the opening of a goods yard to replace it, at Moolabin, immediately on its closure in 1969. (Moolabin also served the fruit and vegetable markets, relocated there earlier, with sidings opened in 1964).

Loading at Wooloongabba for places west or north of Brisbane probably lost a day compared with loading at Roma Street or Newstead. As most freight rates were calculated by mileage, there was a monetary penalty for traffic to places north of Brisbane (those to the west were about equidistant from Wooloongabba and Roma Street). There was always a time and financial penalty to loading at the north side goods yards for destinations on the SCL and branches.

Customers with private sidings at Wooloongabba and on the wharf extension had of course to pay the mileage charge and suffer the delay.

There was a two year period when Wooloongabba was the only Brisbane goods yard for lines west. In February 1893 the original bridge over the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly was washed away in a flood (as was the Victoria road bridge in central Brisbane). While a replacement bridge was built at Indooroopilly, passenger trains for Ipswich and points west, including the Sydney Mail for Wallan-garra, left from South Brisbane, and goods trains for those places from Wooloongabba. There were local shuttle trains operating to each side of the break, and a ferry over the river, so the transfer of passenger traffic was less than total. Coal for QR use at Roma St was carried by contract across the river from Riverton (near Chelmer) on the south bank to Indooroopilly. The replacement bridge at Indoroopilly was opened in August 1895.

ARs show that 19 passengers were booked at Wooloongabba in 1918-19 and 13 in 1920-21. How and why can be speculated upon. My guess is that they travelled on goods trains from there to the SCL or branches, having missed the last passenger trains of the day.

What Rod Milne said about turning facilities is not right. He said on pp 287 and 294 that in the early years there was no turning facility at Wooloongabba. Diagrams of south side lines held at the Workshops Museum show a turntable in those years roughly on the site of the washout shed which existed when Wooloongabba closed. It is curious that Rod Milne said there were no turning facilities when he gives on p 299 QR Station Yard plans of the 19^th century as a reference. WTTs for the years 1885 up to 1897 also show that there was a 40 ft turntable at Wooloongabba. By the 1916 GA this had been replaced by a 60 ft turntable. The 1921 60 ft turntable (WN 690) was a relocation of that turntable to the Main St edge of the yard, on stilts.

Rod Milne made no mention of the provision of a water softener in 1902-3, the elevated coal stage and additional accommodation for locomotives in 1912-13. (An additional four acres were resumed from Wooloongabba Park in 1912 for these extensions.) His article is not a history of the depot, despite various historical references.

QR statistics show that in July 1927 the non-running shed staff and non-salaried staff in the depot was 38 (ie tradesmen, their assistants, and unskilled grades such as coalmen). In May 1939, there were 25 cleaners (who were a running grade).

No doubt there can be different views on what Wooloongabba yard was. Rod Milne says it was a big loco depot with a (goods) yard attached. The goods and marshalling functions were indeed modest. The photo on p 290 shows that the locomotive depot was not especially large either. The maximum allocation of locomotives was 54 in 1954. Because a large proportion of the engines worked on suburban passenger and shunting on the south side, the majority returned to the depot each night. Allowing for the number of engines at outdepots and workshops, the number to be found there on a Saturday night in 1954 would have been about 35. The shed itself was not large, and the road beside the machine shop, with drop pit, was normally reserved for engines under repair. A large proportion of the engines was therefore stored outside the shed at each end.

Except at weekends, most of the engines at the depot at any hour had a fire on the grate. This meant the shops and business houses along Stanley Street and along the other roads leading from the Fiveways received a good quantity of smoke and soot, especially because the prevailing winds blew from the depot towards those buildings. A question in State parliament on 22^nd October 1969 revealed that between 1960 and 1969, the latter year after the depot had closed, the level of air pollution, meaning particulates, at Wooloongabba almost halved.

As a depot, Wooloongabba had at most about the same number of engines as Maryborough, but Maryborough had a modest workshop attached to the depot, whereas Wooloongabba was equipped only for running repairs. Intermediate overhauls were not performed there at all. The drop pit was unable to take larger coupled wheels than the four feet diameter of the PB15s. That meant that the D17s and B18¼s which required work on axle boxes had to be sent to Mayne. On a Sunday in July 1967, when the depot was not operating, I recorded 28 dead engines there, 17 PB15, 5 D17 and 6 B18¼. At the closure two months later, there were 18 PB15, three D17 and seven B18¼ at work from the depot (as recorded by P Meara - see references below to his articles on the closure).

By the 1950s the shed itself was poorly maintained, and the facilities in the machine shop were antiquated. Presumably it was considered from the 1920s that the depot would not have a long life, and that it was not worth spending on improvement. That said, the discipline at Wooloongabba was better than at Mayne, and the engines were better maintained and kept cleaner.

There was a water softening plant, vertical tanks visible in the far distance in the photo on p 292, and beside the engine in the photo on p 294, top. The photo on p 290 was probably taken from there. The plant was necessary because the water supplied to Wooloongabba generally came from Mt Crosby, and was very hard on boilers. Wooloongabba had one of the earliest such plants on the QR (1902-03 AR).

The classes attached to Wooloongabba depot over the years included 6D11½ tram motor, A12, B13, 6D13, D13½ shunting tank, B13½, A14, PB15, B15Converted, B16D, C16, D16, B17, C17, D17 and B18¼. The D17s were not visitors as Rod Milne said (p 290) but were attached to Wooloongabba. There were 20 engines in the D16 class, not six as Rod Milne said.

Why were so many PB15s attached to Wooloongabba depot? There were several reasons. Beyond Lota on the Cleveland line, and beyond Kingston on the SCL and branches, they were the heaviest allowed. The passenger traffic was not especially heavy, so that these small engines were often adequate for the traffic, especially as, being short distance, it was mostly accommodated in light carriages. Some peak trains to Cleveland and Beenleigh were decidedly heavy for these small engines, however, which made them slow, and some passenger trains on the SCL at the busiest times had to be double headed.

In addition, PB15s were the ideal banking engines for coal and livestock trains between Dutton Park and Cannon Hill or Murarrie, in that they allowed heavier engines to take the load they had brought from Corinda to be taken beyond Dutton Park. And they were able to perform the necessary shunting at the several places on the south side of Brisbane.

Tank engines normally hauled all trains terminating at Kingston. They also hauled some trains terminating at Corinda and Lota, but many Lota trains were hauled by PB15s which turned one way at Manly and ran the section beyond Manly tender first in the other direction.

The heavier engines allotted to Wooloongabba, of C16, C17, B17 and B18¼ classes, hauled coal for Wooloongabba and the Tennyson power house from the Ipswich area and some goods trains on the south side. The latter included livestock detached from Toowoomba line trains at Corinda, especially after this arrived in greater tonnages per train with diesel operation of the Toowoomba line. They were occasionally used on suburban passenger trains to Manly and Kuraby, especially in the afternoons after having been lit up after a morning boiler washout.

There were visitors, in the sense of Ipswich and Mayne engines working in and returning, of which the C19 is definite. It is doubtful that an ASG or Beyer Garratt worked there. Of AC16s I do not know.

Rod Milne says that the 1170 class diesels were banished to the North. Banished has the implication of sent off in disgrace. That was not the case. The 1170 class as it became was designed to replace the B15 Converteds on line work in the Northern Division and to operate on the Townsville to Mt Isa line. They were intended for the North, not banished there, and were very successful. I do not know if they ever worked into Wooloongabba.

Rail motors occasionally worked in. The Locomotive Foreman at Wooloongabba was responsible for the day to day maintenance of those on the south side, those at Cleveland, Beaudesert and on the SCL. Most of the work was done by the drivers, or by fitters going to the cars, but occasionally it was necessary or more convenient to take them to Wooloongabba. A modest fleet of 2000 class railcars was allotted to the south side after 1960, but a servicing depot was not provided for them at South Brisbane until 1965/66. In his article mentioned above, P Meagher recalls a two car 2000 class unit running into Wooloongabba in the 1960s, presumably for something which could not be done on the spot at South Brisbane.

From May 1963, there were no locomotive hauled passenger trains to Southport on normal weekends. The engine for the passenger train from and to Beenleigh on Saturday was lit up and put away at Beenleigh. Two light engines went out for early duties on passenger trains on Saturday morning, and returned after goods and shunting work late Saturday afternoon. The crews put these engines away in an otherwise unstaffed depot. From then, the depot and station were closed and deserted, and all engines were dead. It was possible to walk around looking at engines and rolling stock, unaccosted.

Enginemen from Wooloongabba often had to travel to other places in Brisbane to take over trains and shunting engines. They took trains from Park Road (to which they walked) or South Brisbane, Central Roma St, Brunswick St or Mayne, to all of which they travelled by tram or bus.

Wooloongabba had guards for goods trains. The guards for passenger trains were based at South Brisbane. There were occasions when guards from each place worked from the other.

The PB15s attached to Wooloongabba were mostly not withdrawn from service when the depot there closed on 22^nd September 1967, as Rod Milne claimed. They, and the other Wooloongabba engines at the time, were transferred to Mayne depot. Mayne took over the supply of engines to south side duties, including passenger trains leaving South Brisbane, and shunting at Wooloongabba, despite the long distance running light engine. It took 35 minutes to run light engine from Mayne to South Brisbane via Yeerongpilly, almost double the 18 minutes from Wooloongabba, but the mileage was about 16 compared with 3½ (26 and 5.6 kms), showing the effects of the level crossings on the Wooloongabba line.

During this period when Mayne supplied steam engines to the south side, some of the PB15 rosters went over to 18¼s, and DD17s appeared on south side passenger trains. Unless 60 tons DELs were available, however, PB15s were still very much needed for all locomotive hauled trains running on lines south of Kingston, on which they remained the heaviest steam engines allowed. Although there were already PB15s attached to Mayne before the Wooloongabba PB15s were transferred in, the latter were in generally much better condition (the pre-transfer Mayne allottment mostly shunted) and were preferred for the Beenleigh suburban runs. Many of the PB15s simply worked the same jobs.

On the Thursday after the closure of Wooloongabba depot, I observed PB15s on the afternoon down Abattoirs and the 5.04 pm up Lota, as well as on Beenleigh trains. The following Monday, however, the 5.04 pm up Lota was hauled by a BB18¼, although it was seen some days later again PB15 hauled. The next day a BB18¼ was seen on a Corinda train. As the months went by, more and more 60 tons DELs were also used, including on Beenleigh trains. This working of steam engines, including PB15s, light from Mayne to South Brisbane lasted about nine months until the full dieselisation of Brisbane south side suburban services in June 1968.

Even then the former Wooloongabba engines were not necessarily withdrawn. After June 1968, some of the Wooloongabba PB15s were transferred to other parts of the State, especially the Mackay Railway for the last season of steam in 1969, a further delay to their withdrawal, which Rod Milne dated from the closure of Wooloongabba depot two years earlier.

DELs ran light from Mayne to South Brisbane to work passenger trains from the latter place for another ten years until the railway was opened from Roma Street to South Brisbane in 1978. Some were stored overnight at South Brisbane, where there was already a railcar depot.

Between 1890 and 1927, Evans Anderson Phelan and Company of Kangaroo Point, about 1.5 miles, 2.4 km, north of Wooloongabba yard, built 185 locomotives of five classes for the QR. These were delivered by driving them in steam, usually two together, on prefabricated track, down Main Street to temporary points laid in at Wooloongabba yard. Several lengths of such track were used. As the locomotives reached the head of the track, lengths of track were removed from behind the locomotives to in front of them to allow progress to continue. (See my article in ARHS Bulletin June 1961, p 99). The PB15s ran their test mileage to Cleveland. This might indicate that arranging test mileage fell to the Locomotive Foreman Wooloongabba.

Of the output of the firm, B15s 273 and 274 were shipped to the then isolated Great Northern Railway at Townsville in 1895 by EA&P without running test mileage. There are various ways this might have been done. At the time, there were no wharf cranes in Brisbane or Townsville capable of lifting a B15, and at the time Wooloongabba was the only rail connected wharf. Only if a ship with suitable lifting gear was available could the engines have been shipped intact. The engines might have been run to Wooloongabba and dismantled there or at the wharf for shipment. Or they might have been delivered from the EA&P works to the wharf by lighter in the parts in which they were to be shipped (EA&P were involved with ships, and operated a slip). It is doubtful that wagons were taken to the EA&P works using the lengths of prefabricated track, the locomotives put on the wagons in parts as completed, and the wagons hauled back along those lengths of track, on account of the length of the train, even if it was hauled by another of the locomotives being delivered, but it is not impossible. In addition, B15s 239 and 240 in 1894, PB15s 586 and 587 in 1912, C16s 658, 659 and 660 in 1913, 672, 673, 674 and 675 in 1914, 139, 140 and 167 in 1915, and 20 in 1918 were shipped to Townsville very soon after delivery by EA&P, but they entered service on the Southern Division first.

In 1916, the line into Wooloongabba was restricted to C16 engines, but by 1925, all locomotives could run there.

The Dutton Park to Wooloongabba section had been made available for 90 tons DELs from their introduction (1953 Supplement to the WTT). The first DEL did not run on the line until over 11 years later, when one arrived on 20^th July 1964 on a 700 tons test train, mainly wheat (HAT, Sept 1964; see also SE June 2005, article by D L Overson, where the locomotive is identified as 1265, a 90 tonner). Only then were loads for DELs on the line issued (WN 37/64). Restrictions on sidings at Wooloongabba which could be used by 90 tons DELs (p 295) were short lived, for there were none in the 1967 Supplement to the WTTs.

When they did run to Wooloongabba, DELs worked in and out. None was ever attached to Wooloongabba locomotive depot before it closed in 1967.

Only in 1966 were enginemen at Wooloongabba tutored in DEL operation. For a metropolitan depot, 1966 was very late. Many of the drivers there had of course been passed as DEL drivers while at other depots, often years earlier, before coming to Wooloongabba. This training was prompted by the making available of the Kingston to Bethania section and the Beaudesert branch for 60 tons DELs early that year and of Bethania to Beenleigh in June (HAT April and May 1966, WN 26/66). DELs were then used on some south side suburban trains, but were worked round from Mayne, and were kept overnight if necessary at South Brisbane.

Some of the passenger train work was taken over by railcars allocated to South Brisbane from 1960. They were operated by drivers appointed to South Brisbane. From time to time, with railcars unavailable, those drivers had to work steam engines on passenger trains. They went to Wooloongabba to pick up the engine, which they worked with with a Wooloongabba fireman. They also worked occasional goods and shunting operations, to fill in spare time, again from Wooloongabba.

The site was chosen with the intention of having bins high enough above the river so that coal could be loaded on to ships by gravity via shoots, much as the majority of the coal the QR loaded on to its locomotives was delivered from elevated stages. The site was not developed to have such bins, however, which meant that steam cranes had to remove the hopper bodies from their frames and swing them over the holds of ships. In addition, that meant that coal needed for spot or urgent sales was not stored in bins but in wagons, at the cost to the QR of supplying the necessary wagons and sidings.

Had elevated bins been provided on the wharf as built, an approach ramp would have been needed. At QR locomotive depots, such ramps were graded at 1 in 20 if locomotive worked, and 1 in 5 if cable worked. Because the dry dock preceded the coming of the railway, a downstream extension of the branch to the wharf, earlier than that made, would have been needed to provide the ramp, approach line and run around siding. The only alternative to that would have been to bring the line to the wharf at a higher level, above the streets, with a cutting under Vulture Street, to a yard cut out of the river bank. Perhaps the line could have gone due north from what became Dutton Park, cutting through the hill south of Wooloongabba. Very possibly, it would have been necessary to fill towards the river to provide sufficient space close enough to the bank. At that yard, coal would have been dropped to the bins, and from the bins to ships. As the volume of the coal traffic was uncertain, it is not surprising, considering the geography of the area, that the line kept to the surface.

While the wharf was the only one connected to the rail system, traffic other than coal was handled there, including railway equipment for the isolated parts of the QR (see below). The 1893-4 AR records the award of a contract that year for the conveyance of goods by road between customers’ premises and Wooloongabba Wharf.

Having cranes lift the bodies of the coal hoppers was not satisfactory. The cranes had insufficient height and reach to lift hoppers over the holds of ships of any size, even after the base of one crane was raised. At high tide the cranes could not reach over the sides of almost any ship. (The photo on p 295 shows these two cranes, one on a portion of the wharf with a projection into the river to allow punts to be loaded on three sides, and a turntable to release the hopper from the head of the wharf.) The space on the wharf for shunting wagons to and from the cranes was limited, so that the operation was slow.

The electric transporter crane (visible in the photo on p 296) was provided by the QR in 1903 to overcome these deficiencies. Its mechanism was imported from the USA. It could raise hoppers well above ships' sides, and move them across the width of the ship, and along the ship as well as along the train of hopper wagons. The machinery of the crane worked along an elevated A shaped truss parallel to the wharf. The inner section of the jib was akin to a bridge, supported at the edge of the wharf by a pylon running on two rails laid close together. The wheels on which this pylon ran were powered, and turned at such a rate as to co-ordinate the motion of the pylon with that of the crane itself. The outer section cantilevered over the ship. The crane ran along a 200ft section, had a reach of 53ft, could raise a hopper 31 ft, and was capable of dealing with 30 hoppers per hour. The electricity initially came from the Brisbane Tramways powerhouse at Countess Street. It could lift ten tons.

This crane was technically satisfactory, but it could not overcome the quality limitations of the coal, and by the time it was in use, the wharf itself was unsuitably located for direct loading of coal to ships of sufficient size to enable the Ipswich area coal to secure any large scale markets. The port gradually moved downstream, especially for vessels of Suez Canal size, which were unable to reach Wooloongabba Wharf.

It is recorded in the evidence to the 1938 Royal Commission on Railways that many QR hoppers had two load limits, one for shipping coal, another (higher) limit for land coal. This was to keep within the ten tons load limit of the electric crane at Wooloongabba Wharf, and applied to the four wheeled hoppers weighing sixteen tons gross. Hoppers of lower capacity had the same load for both uses.

Even ships which could reach Wooloongabba wharf lost productivity sailing there solely to bunker. Much of the bunkering was therefore done by punts or lighters which could be loaded at Wooloongabba Wharf by the steam cranes. These were towed to the ship needing coal, and loaded into bunkers by ship's gear on the offside while the ships were moored at wharves (the process generating a lot of coal dust). This happened even for ships berthing as far upstream as the wharves along the South Brisbane Wharf Extension; in February 1914, a coal lighter sank at the Stanley Wharf of the Adelaide Steamship Company ("Queenslander" 14^th, p 10). It would be interesting to know if coal was railed to any of the downstream wharves later linked by rail, with hopper bodies raised to bunkers by ship's gear.

South Queensland coal had various deficiencies which made its use on locomotives less than satisfactory (see Part 4.03 of my book, Queensland Railways Steam Locomotives 1900 -1969 etc). Newcastle was much preferred by shipowners. Nevertheless, the Australian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN) had its origins in companies intending to use only Queensland coal. After Federation, Queensland could no longer protect its native coal with tariffs, and most of the non-government market was lost to Newcastle.

The coal handled at the wharf had the following destinations:

(1) ships' bunkers, ie for firing the boilers of steam ships, as above. This was the great hope of the colliery owners and the Queensland government. The government hoped for ships to come to Queensland first rather than last on the circuit of Australia from overseas, even to come to Queensland only, and to bunker in Brisbane. Ships which called at Sydney or Newcastle as well as Brisbane did not generally bunker in Brisbane, on account of the lower quality of the coal.

(2) Intrastate export. The rest of the QR, much of it isolated from Brisbane, initially had no local coal sources. Coal was shipped from Wooloongabba and from Maryborough to Central and North Queensland for railway use until local supplies developed, and to varying degrees for other uses such as mining, gas works, and sugar mills and their tramways. At times, the QR hired a ship for the sole purpose of supplying coal to the separate railways. On account of the quality differential, the non-government users often imported Newcastle, eg Chillagoe Railways and Mines. As railways reached coal fields in Central and North Queensland, the intrastate movement of coal from Wooloongabba fell away - Blair Athol produced from 1910, Mt Mulligan from 1915, Collinsville and Baralaba from 1922.

(3) Other export. South Queensland coal was exported in small quantities elsewhere in Australia and overseas, including South-east Asia and South America, but its quality told against it. Some of the movement was as ballast in ships otherwise leaving Brisbane near empty. (The "Queenslander" of 15^th Sept 1906 records 2000 tons of coal being loaded for Valparaiso in Chile.)

In 1900, about 200,000 tons of coal per year were shipped from here, the annual peak of about 400,000 tons occurred in 1910, after which the annual tonnage fell away to 200,000 in 1920 and 180,000 in 1925. The average annual tonnage railed to the wharf for the five years 1936-37 to 1940-41 inclusive was 53,000.

The above material on the history of the wharf, its facilities, deficiencies and traffic handled, is summarised from R L Whitmore, Coal In Queensland, Volumes 2 and 3 and ARs. See also R Torrance, Steamers on the River, from Ipswich to the Sea.

This change in the tonnage of coal is reflected in the number of trains scheduled to the Wharf. The February 1914 WTT showed 11 definite arrivals of coal trains per day and eight as required, all running from the coalfields to the wharf. These trains had numbers prefixed by A and B. The May 1920 WTT showed seven definite and five as required. By May 1930, three definite and two as required were shown, all originiating at Woolooongabba, presumably after remarshalling of coal hoppers there, those for the locomotive depot and those for the wharf. The May 1935 WTT shows no trains arriving at the Wharf. The little traffic was presumably worked forward from Wooloongabba as required.

The stations column in the Suburban Goods and Coal Trains section of the WTT continued to include Wooloongabba Wharf as well as Wooloongabba, right to the end. In the 1946 WTT, B11 coal from Redbank on Mondays to Fridays proceeded to the wharf, arrive 5.10 pm, then to Wooloongabba (probably engine and van), arrive 6.03. B19 coal on Mondays to Fridays from Bundamba arrived the wharf at 12 midnight, then to Wooloongabba arrive 00.55. This train conveyed coal for elsewhere on the south side as well, detached at Yeerongpilly.

That same WTT instructed that "care should be taken not to delay coal when urgently required on the wharf".

In the 1953 WTT, B19 coal and goods from Bundamba arrived Wooloongabba Tuesdays to Saturdays at 1.30 am and the wharf at 1.40, depart 2.10 Wooloongabba arrive 2.20. (The same WTT shows train number 15 arriving at the wharf at 1.40 on the same days, but that seems to be a misprint for Wooloongabba itself.) (Note ten minutes allowed for 27 chains, which is 2 mph or 3.2 kph, but the ten minutes probably allowed for the reversing of the train to run on to the wharf on arrival, and vice versa).

After the early 1930s, most of the coal on these trains to the wharf was probably coal which was stored at the wharf until need at the locomotive depot.

After about 1955, no trains were shown in WTTs arriving at or leaving from the wharf.

The 1954 Schedule of Haulage, Shunting and Royalty Charges on the QR provided that coal to the wharf was charged the rate to Wooloongabba plus 3/- per ton for wharfage, cranage and haulage, plus 20%.

The 6D11½ tram motors, bought for the unfulfilled proposal to connect Roma Street with the river at Petrie Bight by a tramline along Ann Street, shunted at the wharf for a time, and appear in photographs. The 6D13 class 0-6-2Ts also shunted there, according to the late Mr H Harley.

Rod Milne said (p 293) that when coal was being hauled, a range of hoppers was used, as well as open wagons. Given the loading arrangements, the coal for shipment from the wharf had to be in hoppers, and that is confirmed by photographs. Any open wagons visible there in photographs would have been for other users and stored there.

Coal did indeed come to Wooloongabba in open wagons. To allow PB15s to run from South Brisbane to Southport without cleaning the fire, even non-stop, Blair Athol coal was brought from Central Queensland from the 1930s until about 1960. It was moved in open wagons, partly to use wagons coming south empty, partly because the large lumps in which it was often supplied often stuck in hopper openings and in coal stage chutes. It was stacked on the ground at Wooloongabba. Although this coal was supplied to the locomotive depot, wagons with that coal were possibly stored in the wharf area at times prior to unloading.

The QR used the wharf to move locomotives, rail motors and other rolling stock to and from (but mostly to) the isolated parts of the system. As the capacity of the cranes, including the electric transporter crane, was so limited, these items were almost certainly loaded by ships' gear. Such gear would have been necessary in any case to unload the material or tranship it to a smaller vessel at Mackay, Bowen, Townsville, Cairns, Cooktown and Normanton. The vessel taking the railway equipment would not have been a collier, so would have had to make a special call at Wooloongabba Wharf to load it.

After the railway wharf was opened at Pinkenba about 1901, it is likely that some equipment was shipped from there after that. The depth of water was greater, and there would have been no need for the ship to make a special trip upstream to Wooloongabba Wharf. Certainly the C17s imported in 1927 arrived at Pinkenba, as did all subsequent locomotive arrivals by ship (Beyer Garratts, BB18¼s, the first ten IGE DELs and first ten English Electric DELs). (Pinkenba was intended as a coal wharf when it was built, but is not known to have been used as such). The following references are to shipments where the record is clear that Wooloongabba was the wharf used.

B15s 235 to 238 inclusive (which had been built by Evans, Anderson and Phelan and placed in service on the Southern Division) shipped to the then isolated Central line in 1893, three to five months after entering service;

B15 303 shipped to Townsville in November 1897 (its record card);

Sixteen T wagons were gathered and sent to the Railway Wharf, South Brisbane (sic), to be shipped intact to Bowen on the "Dilhera" on 18^th March 1909. (The four wheel brake van 39 in the same transfer was shipped from Maryborough, because Hyne and Son of that city quoted favourably to carry it on their "Hopewell", perhaps sailing to Bowen with timber (CME file 09/871).

Rail motor car 6 to Cooktown in 1916 (Illustrated London News 27 January 1917);

Rail motor car 21 (1929 RM12) was sent to Wooloongabba on 14^th November 1919 for shipment to Townsville on the "Nardoo" on 18^th (CME file 17/371);

Rail motor car 79 (1929 RM31) loaded to the "Kallatina" by the electric transporter on 28^th May 1929 (CME file 26/1131) (it was about six tons, well within the ten tons capacity of the transporter).

This must be only a fraction of the rolling stock shipped to Townsville prior to 1923.

In 1888, the Toowoomba Foundry pressed the steel sleepers used on the first 36 miles of the Normanton Railway from imported plate at Wooloongabba. These sleepers were almost certainly shipped from Wooloongabba Wharf.

The Locomotive Foreman at Wooloongabba told the 1918 Royal Commission on Railways that his staff operated the cranes at the wharf. QR Secretary's file 1908.3745/2 records that the crane maintenance was in the hands of the Locomotive Branch. The wharf was reported to have been in daily use in 1949, with the work on the wharf performed by members of the Waterside Workers Federation (QPD 28^th September). The Railway Award of 1958 includes wage rates for coal workers at Wooloongabba Wharf. Perhaps both railway and wharf workers were involved in loading coal.

The Mines Department continued to record coal supplied for bunkering at various Queensland ports. In 1950, 14,000 tons were supplied for that purpose in Brisbane, but by 1953, even that modest quantity had fallen to 5500 tons (Department's Annual Reports).

See above about nomenclature. When coal and other traffic was handled at the wharf, there was an Assistant Station Master there, under the control of the Station Master, Wooloongabba.

The wharf was listed in the Supplement to the General Appendix in 1950, still with the electric crane and one ten tons steam crane available for use, and the elevated truss and the electric transporter crane were extant in 1958. When it was decided the transporter crane was no longer needed, the crane per se was dismantled, and the truss was bodily pulled over sometime after 1958, and lay on its side for some years. By then, the wharf was out of use, and the rails were removed in 1960 (HAT Sept 1960). The Wharf was not shown in the 1962 Supplement to the GA, even as a siding, but it was shown in WTTs until the line closed, although with no trains arriving or departing. Its closure as a location does not seem to have been registered in WNs, apart from the closure of the line.

In 1964, the upstream section of the wharf was reconstructed to be a laying up berth for vessels using the South Brisbane Dry Dock. The dock ceased operation in 1972-73 (see Harbours and Marine 1824 - 1985). The wharf itself was demolished in 1974, except for the crane bases, which remain.

It is claimed on p 287 that there was a (down) home signal for the Wharf, fixed at stop. No date is given. I do not remember that signal, and it is not shown in the plan on pp 300 - 301. (This signal for the Wharf is distinct from the down home for Stanley Street when it was a station, which signal is indeed shown in QR yard plans for the period.)

In 1950, the train staff sections were Wooloongabba to Wooloongabba Wharf, and Wooloongabba Wharf to Adelaide Wharf on the South Brisbane Wharf Extension. By 1962, the whole section beyond Wooloongabba was operated without staff, presumably under the instructions of the Station Master Wooloongabba. Wooloongabba to the wharf was only 27 chains (540 metres), even shorter than Dutton Park to Albert, at 37 chains.

Not so very busy in terms of passengers handled or trains arriving and departing.

Figures of passenger bookings are given on p 290 of the article. These are actually tickets issued and collected. This counts each ticket, other than a season ticket, seen by a collector as one, whether an arrival or departure. (On the system as a whole, the number collected equalled the number issued. As such an amazing correspondence could not have been achieved, the number collected means tickets issued to the place concerned.)

The number of tickets issued at Stanley Street in 1886 was not very high, even by comparison with other places in Brisbane at the time. It was only about 10% of the number at Brisbane (Roma St, there then being no Central), about a third of the number at suburban Toowong, and about a quarter of the number at Ipswich. And by most standards, even those stations were then not really busy.

In 1886, the number of tickets issued and collected at Wooloongabba was only about half the number at Stanley Street, but by the last twelve months of passenger operation on the line, with the basis of counting passengers changed to the number of tickets issued excluding season tickets, Wooloongabba, with 70,000, exceeded Stanley Street, with 40,000. The number at Toowong was 128,500 and at Roma Street and Central (opened by then) combined, just under half a million.

The number of trains per day at the opening was only three each way, to and from South Brisbane Junction. With the extensions of lines to Southport and Beaudesert, the number per day using Stanley Street reached its maximum of 13 departures and 10 arrivals in the last timetable applying to the place, that of January 1889. In addition, two started outwards from Wooloongabba, and on return, five terminated there. In total, fifteen passenger carrying trains ran to places on the South Coast Line and Corinda (as South Brisbane Junction had become in 1888) on Mondays to Saturdays, six of them to Corinda, four to Rocklea or Sunnybank, two to Beenleigh, two to Southport and one to Beaudesert. No trains left Stanley Street after 6.20 pm on weekdays and after 9 pm on Sundays.

Trains to and from the Cleveland branch, which junctioned at Albert, did not use Stanley Street at all (cf p 291 of the article where the list of places served from Stanley Street in its last year is said to include Cleveland, but omits Beaudesert, to which the railway opened in 1888). All Cleveland trains started from and returned to Wooloongabba, two Mondays to Fridays, four on Saturdays and five on Sundays, each way. The Cleveland line timetable was clearly not designed to allow passengers to travel from Stanley Street on a train for another destination and change conveniently to a Cleveland train at Wooloongabba, or vice versa. Although there were a few reasonable connections, in most cases there was none. For a passenger who arrived Wooloongabba from the Cleveland line, it was quicker to walk than wait for the next train to Stanley Street, or outbound to use the previous train from Stanley Street and wait at Wooloongabba for the next Cleveland train.

The May 1885 WTT has arriving trains working back empty to Wooloongabba, and says that the section from Wooloongabba to Stanley St and the wharf was worked on the orders of the Station Master, Wooloongabba, with only one engine allowed on the section at any time. See below, however, further details of the 1889 timetable, which required two engines at Stanley Street at a time.

In 1888, the Traffic Manager, Thallon, recommended, on account of the limited facilities at Stanley Street, and the need to work the trains back to Woolooongabba, that all trains terminate at Wooloongabba, pointing out that the tram then passed both places (ref QR file in QSA old ref A8926). (Prior to the tram there were horse buses running to Queen Street, the centre of Brisbane. The ferry mentioned in the article deposited passengers at the southern end of the Brisbane peninsula, a good way from Queen Street.)

Coal tonnages handled at the wharf were modest while Stanley Street was open (see Wooloongabba Wharf above). Even allowing for some coal trains, given its short length, it is doubtful if the section between Wooloongabba and the wharf was truly congested, as claimed on p 290 of the article.

Nevertheless, for a station with limited facilities, the working at Stanley Street had its moments. The following occurred in the January 1889 timetable, the last in force while the station was open. The book of 1891 of Gradients, Sections and Station Plans of the South Coast Line and Branches held at the Workshops Museum, Ipswich, clearly shows the single track approach, home signal, single platform 305 ft long, loop, and dead end siding parallel to the main line with a crossover near the buffers. There was also another dead end at lower level, below the retaining wall, from which the South Brisbane Wharf Extension was later made.

The 10.45 arrival from Beaudesert was followed by a departure at 10.50 for Sunnybank. After the 3.04pm arrival from Corinda, there was a departure at 3.05 for Southport and another at 3.15 for Corinda (probably the return of the 3.04 arrival). There was a 5.25 departure for Sunnybank, followed by a 5.35 arrival from Corinda, but that was more a problem for Wooloongabba, where the two trains obviously crossed.

The 10.45/10.50 crossing was possible only if the arriving carriages provided those for the departing train, or one train arrived at or left from the loop, and any wagons for the 10.50 had come from Wooloongabba earlier with the engine and been held in the second dead end, or at the wharf.

The 3.04 from Corinda had to arrive in the loop. The running times among the intermediate stations of the two trains dealt with at 3.04/3.05 were the usual, so that there was no slackness in the working timetable allowing more time at Stanley Street than shown in the public timetable. With five or six minutes allowed for the 28 chains (560 metres) or so between Wooloongabba and Stanley Street, however, there was perhaps two minutes slack for every train in that section.

Furthermore, only the 3.05 to Southport and the 10.03 arrival from there were passenger trains. The rest of the trains were mixed. Given the large number of trains per day to the nearer places, and the modest quantity of goods traffic handled at the stations en route, it is to be expected that some at least of these trains conveyed very few if any goods wagons. Nevertheless, no time was allowed to attach or detach wagons en route at Wooloongabba or South Coast Junction, so it has to be presumed that all wagons on the arriving mixed trains were worked back from Stanley Street to the goods yard at Wooloongabba and vice versa. That might have been done attached to the engines working from and to Wooloongabba for turning and servicing. Nevertheless, the number of wagons on the mixed trains had to be relatively few to allow those trains to fit into the loop and platform at Stanley Street, especially as the usual QR practice was to have the passenger vehicles at the end of the mixed train, to ensure that the guard was at the rear and able to stop any portion of a train which became detached with the brake in his van.

I suggest that the 3.04 arrived in the loop, with the carriage doors locked. On the departure of the 3.05, and after a couple of minutes delay to eliminate any concern that it would come downgrade after stalling in the tunnel, the 3.04 reversed out, and drew forward into the platform. A light engine, probably waiting at the wharf or the dead end siding, then took its carriages out to Corinda at 3.15. That was then followed by the light engine from the 3.04 arrival going to Wooloongabba to turn and water.

Some people felt the closure of Stanley Street in favour of the new South Brisbane was an inconvenience. The 1892 V&P contain a petition to the Queensland parliament signed by 813, urging the retention of Stanley St.

The crossover at the dead end remained for years, probably because it was useful for engines to run round coal wagons, but it was eventually removed as the drawing on p 300 shows.

It is said that the station was located in Dock Street. It was parallel to Dock Street, but it had paths from the station building to both Dock and Stanley Streets. See photo.

After it closed as a passenger station in 1891, Stanley Street retained an independent existence as a location in the list of Stations etc in the Supplement to the GA until the last one published, in 1962. Despite what is said on p 288, no GA or list of facilities at stations in the twentieth century shows a shelter shed at Stanley Street. Its only facility in that period was a loading bank. The timber faced side loading bank was somewhat shorter than the platform of the passenger station. That timber face was presumably constructed at some stage to provide or preserve that loading bank.

After 1891, however, Stanley Street was really merely a siding in the yard of Wooloongabba Wharf. The names Dock Station and Stanley Street were probably given to the siding at the site of the former station by the ASM at Wooloongabba Wharf when giving instructions about using them to store wagons or make shunting movements. The names were retained because the staff understood them.

On 9^th April 1960, as part of a tour of suburban goods lines organised by the Queensland Division of the ARHS, a special railcar, RM2000-01, ran to the dead end loading bank at Stanley Street, staying there for five minutes.

In 1981, the late Douglas Jolly, a long time member of the Queensland Division of the ARHS and for many years its auditor, arranged for a plaque to be erected at the site of Stanley Street station, commemorating its being the first South Brisbane station. It was unveiled on 26^th September.

The main and original station at Rockhampton was often called Stanley Street after the name of the street in which it stood, to distinguish it from the more central Archer Park, opened in 1899. When long distance trains ceased to start from or call at Archer Park, the distinction was no longer made.

The 1897 AR gave the date of opening of this line as 18^th December 1896, but the list of openings of railways given in ARs for many years gave the date as 30^th March 1897.

This short line had a complex Book of Reference, on account of the densely used area traversed at the time it was built (see QR Secretary's file 97/108 at QSA). Such a book describes the course of a planned railway, the land resumptions, and changes to roads, water courses and ground levels. Many QR lines built for long distances in the inland had much simpler Books of Reference, because the land occupation at the time they were planned was simple and they required few if any alterations to roads and watercourses.

Landowners along this line were prepared to give up to 25 links (9.2 metres) width of land free of compensation to have it built on account of the increased value the line would confer to their remaining land (1894 V&P).

Wagons were loaded and unloaded on the main line on this section including by firms not having private sidings. It was provided that from 1^st September 1910, such practice was to cease, and that traffic was to be taken only to and from the various private sidings, and only to the capacity of those sidings.

After 1940, locomotives were not allowed on Adelaide Wharf. Wagons were shunted by hand or by motor lorry. That continued until at least 1950.

There were no jetties along this branch as said on p 289.

It is mentioned on p 285 that the line separated two parts of the Hancock and Gore sawmill. There were two occupation level crossings, at 1 mile 3 chains and 1 m 6 chs from Wooloongabba. These had flashing lights from 1950 or earlier, controlled by signals at Dutton Park and Albert and track circuits. When Albert was not in circuit, only a short track circuit operated the lights and road vehicles were not to cross. The power to operate the lights was provided by the company.

The following is a full list of the level crossings apart from the two above, working back to Wooloongabba, which is the zero distance, from Dutton Park:

- 0 m 72 ch Burke St pedestrian crossing

- 0 m 68 ch Albert St, across the main line and crossing loop at Albert. On the Ipswich Road side, the road met the rails at a sharp angle, as the photo on p 300 shows. The map refers to boom gates here. These were not the conventional electrically powered boom gates falling halfway across the road on each side of the line, operated by track circuits. The booms here fell across the entire width of the road on the outer side of the lines (main and loop), mechanically operated from the signal cabin, and received by forks on the side to which they fell (visible in the photos on pp 286 and 300). The flashing lights referred to (visible in the former photo) operated even when Albert was cut out and the booms were not operated. In that case, trains were required to stop before crossing.

- 0 m 63 ch Park Street pedestrian crossing

- 0 m 58 ch Abingdon St with gates for the main line, but the siding to the west with its junction on the Albert side was outside the gates. The gates were removed in September 1967 (WN 38/67) with the closure of the locomotive depot and considerable reduction in the number of trains.

- 0 m 54 ch Ross St pedestrian crossing

- 0 m 47 ch Ipswich Rd, with tramlines, which continued on to cross the west end of Balaclava St

- 0 m 36 ch Jurgens St

- 0 m 31 ch Logan Rd, with tramlines

- 0m 29 ch Trafalgar St (as that street joined Logan Rd)

- 0 m 24 ch Stanley St, with tramlines

- 0 m 18 ch Main St

The section above on Location and Effects on Working refers to the working over several of these crossings.

The diagram on p 300 shows the line to the wharf crossing Dock St/River Terrace just outside the tunnel. Oddly, the section between Wooloongabba and Stanley Street does not appear in the QR list of level crossings, but there was a pedestrian crossing there. Dock St became Muswell Street and ended at the railway. Lower River Terrace began on the other side of the railway and joined River Terrace at the northern end of Leopard Street. There was a pedestrian crossing across the line between Muswell Street and Lower River Terrace, more or less at the end of the five chains curve out of the tunnel. (In the drawing on p 300, Muswell Street was between Dock Street and (Lower) River Terrace.)

The description of the route above refers to the crossings on the South Brisbane Wharf Extension.

There was always pressure on the QR to remove the level crossings on this line. At one stage, consideration was given to shifting the locomotive depot and goods yard to the land near Dutton Park now largely occupied by the Princess Alexandra Hospital. That would have removed the light engines and some goods trains from the level crossings, leaving those for the private sidings and wharves.

The 1948 AR mentioned the elimination of the crossings being included in a Seven Years works programme. Eliminating the level crossings by raising or sinking the railway would have added to the gradient problems, and reduced the effective operating space in Wooloongabba yard. Raising or lowering the roads could no doubt have been achieved, but a raised or lowered Main Street would have had to continue across Stanley St, reaching ground level somewhere in Ipswich Rd. That might have been useful in improving the road junction.

Not surprisingly, the aim of the QR management was to eliminate or much reduce its activity at Wooloongabba. The 1950 AR records the resumption of land at Tennyson for a replacement locomotive depot. That land was eventually used for Moolabin goods yard, as above. In a grander way, the management wanted to connect South Brisbane across the river to Roma Street, so that there would not have been a separate south side system, connected to the north side only some seven miles (11 kms) from the city centre.

While some road vehicles did indeed play cat and mouse with the trains at the level crossings, by my observations, the obedience of the flagman was of a high degree. Considering the traffic volumes on the roads, collisions with road vehicles and trams were not numerous, although no doubt some were prevented by trains braking. No doubt too there were many close shaves. Except for rushing Main St in the down direction, as above, trains stopped before the crossings, even Ipswich Road up, and entered the crossings slowly.

The level crossing warning arrangements were not the best. Except for up trains approaching Stanley Street, the view of the trains to road users was poor, and the signs, lighting and warning lights, were not especially prominent, mostly on account of the considerable width of the roads. Even the flag and bell man walking out in front of the trains, if visible, did not seem to indicate anything significant.

The train usually waited a few moments before proceeding on to the road, to allow the flagman to take up his position, and of course the flagman, aware that to most vehicle drivers he appeared as a pedestrian wanting to cross the road, waited until there was a sufficient gap in the traffic for him to be visible. No doubt too, some tram motormen, in the middle of the road, did not see the flagman on account of large vehicles on their left until it was too late to stop at tram rates of braking. All of these aspects might have been taken to be the train waiting for the traffic, or the tram racing the train, but they lasted only a few seconds. The possibilities of driving round the front of a train entering the level crossing were limited by traffic in the opposite direction stopped or stopping at the level crossing, and trams, whatever their direction, which always observed the flagman once they observed him.

It took the slow entry of the train on to the level crossing with the whistle sounding continuously to make most road vehicle drivers aware of the need to stop. But stop almost all of them did.

Apart from the additional flagman at Main St when 12 mph was to be attained, one flagman guarded three crossings, Main and Stanley Streets and Logan Road, travelling on the engine or on foot between them, while a second guarded Ipswich Road.

The date of the closure of the line beyond 41½ chains was 19^th December 1969, not 12^th as said on p 299 (see WN 50/69). Wooloongabba goods yard closed on that date, and its replacement as a goods yard for the South Side, Moolabin, opened on 22^nd (WN51/69). 41½ chains was Albert St level crossing at Albert, which allowed the sidings up to that point to remain in use.

Detail on the closure of the locomotive depot on Friday 22^nd September 1967is given in articles by Perc Meara in SE, December 1967 (two articles, one on the disposal of the equipment and stores) and in November 1968. News items in February and March 1970 in that journal mention the dismantling of the line.

The closure resulted in bulk grain traffic being handled at South Brisbane main station, as said on p 299. Wheat to the flour mills which remained on the closed South Brisbane Wharf Extension (Queensland Co-operative and Barnes (Nabisco)) was railed after the closure to an unloading facility on the western edge of the embankment south of that station (on the site of the siding to the closed turntable) and moved the short distance to the mills by road. The facility was provided by the QR and leased to the mills. With the closure of the mills, the facility had a short life, and the siding was lifted by December 1979. Limestone previously unloaded at Wooloongabba (dumped from VJL hopper wagons through the former coal stage, as mentioned in SE June 2005) was unloaded at Roma Street (see QPD 30^th October 1969).

This siding is not shown in the diagram on p 301. The history given on p 286 is incomplete, and misses the interesting aspects. These appear in two articles in SE, January 1978 by W Henderson, and July 1982 by J P Meara.

The Brisbane Tramway Company had a power house in Logan Road, which obtained its coal by rail (while it operated, it must have been responsible for as much smoke and soot around Woolloongabba as the QR loco depot and yard, although its chimney carried the smoke to a higher level).

The siding was not located between Albert and Ipswich Road level crossing, as said by Rod Milne at the first mention, but between the level crossings for Ipswich and Logan Roads. It comprised a loop and branching dead end. The loop paralleled the Wooloongabba line for most of the distance between Balaclava Street and Logan Road with outward facing crossovers at each end, so that it was a loop with a dead end at each end. It crossed Jurgens Street, with the branch siding into the power house junctioning in Jurgens St and also crossing that street. There were curves of 3½ and 4 chains (70 and 80 metres) radius on the branch siding, which was laid with tramway rails with the groove side placed outside.

The loop and branch siding were electrified, and there was a traverser at the Logan Rd end of the branch siding. An electric locomotive converted from a four wheel tram regauged to 3 ft 6 ins shunted the siding. This was a platform with a controller at each end of the locomotive, and a central tower to support the bow collector. That type of collector was necessary as on the loop the overhead was not central to the track; it was so located so that it could be outside QR clearances for rolling stock. The locomotive had drawhooks and dumb buffers. It would seem that the wheels were moved in on the axles, and the original locations of the axleboxes built for 4 ft 8½ ins gauge retained. The 1982 article mentioned above includes two photographs of the locomotive.

The siding was available from June 1916, and was used for its original purpose until the power house closed in 1929-30. During that period, ownership changed to the Brisbane Tramways Trust in 1923 and the Brisbane City Council in 1925. While still in power house use, the siding came to be used by others, and after the power house closed by several users at a time (the article gives the users). The QR used it for storing coal and wheat wagons at times. The whole siding was dismantled in June 1955 (WN33/55 records its closure).

It is said on p 285 that most of the last 1¼ miles into South Brisbane is on embankment. That distance was from Annerley Road overbridge inwards. This section actually includes the tunnel near the former Gloucester St station (which is mentioned), and the deep cuttings on each side of it, especially on the northern side. There is an embankment near Annerley Road, and the last 44 chains, from Tribune Street to South Brisbane are indeed on substantial embankment, which allowed all four streets en route to be crossed by overbridges. So it really the last half mile for which the description is correct. The tunnel and cutting are however more substantial earthworks than the embankment.

The stations in Brisbane suburbs which closed before 1900 (p 285) were remote from Wooloongabba, and irrelevant to the subject, and one did not close. Lutwyche was renamed Wooloowin in 1890 and is still very much open. The name Lutwyche still applies to the now less extensive suburb west of Wooloowin. Nearby Thorroldtown was misspelled Tharroldtown in the article.

Cleveland Junction/Lota Junction signal cabin was manned as needed until March 1967, as said on p 285. The junction was thereafter remotely operated from an electric panel at Dutton Park, as was the junction at Park Road.

The map on p 300 shows two 3ft 6ins gauge lines between Park Road and Dutton Park. There was only one double track line, and the two tracks were not separated. The standard gauge line there was single track, with a siding at Park Road.

The diagrams of lines in the area drawn by Mr C C Singleton for the June and July 1964 ARHS Bulletins, on which the map on pp 299 - 300 is based, were themselves a redrawing of QR plans of the lines in the area.

It is mentioned on p 299 that the track north of Wooloongabba was removed two months before the line was officially closed, and a similar event on the Mt Cuthbert line is mentioned. The Normanton Wharf line, last used in 1937 and removed about 1950, was never officially closed (see Lonely Rails in the Gulf Country, 1993 edition, p 55). (The 1991 Transport Infrastructure (Railways) Act, however, legalised everything done to the QR network prior to then.)

The references given on p 299 are non specific. Anyone wishing to check the statements made in the article could not know their basis or origin from this list.

Interesting reminiscences of the late A W Macdonald of working as a fireman at Wooloongabba in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in the 1990s in various AMRA (Australian Model Railway Association) Journals between Nos 227 and 243. Note however that as there were no turning facilities at Kingston, two car 1800 class railcars (power car and trailer) ran to Kingston (Journal 237) only if there was sufficient time between the forward and return trips for them to run on from Kingston to Bethania to turn.

10^th October 2006

amended 21^st November 2006

amended with details of number of trains to Wooloongabba Wharf, 16^th August 2007

amended with LL heading 23^rd March 2008