WARWICK MAIL TRAIN QUEENSLAND

THE TWILIGHT YEARS OF THE WARWICK MAIL

John Knowles comments on this article by Rod Milne in Australian Railway History magazine, November 2008, p 360

This article is to a large extent a repetition of an article by the same author which appeared in this journal as recently as July 1995, entitled "The Last Years of the Warwick/Wallan-garra Mails". Despite considerable correspondence, in Bulletins for December 1996, June 1997, November 1998, August 1999 and December 2000, this latest version repeats the errors in the earlier article!

To start with something particular to this version, the captions to the photographs. Several are obviously guesses, revealed by the ir inaccuracy and incompleteness.

P 360.This train is said to be working north of Rosehill approaching Toolburra, on a Saturday. If in that location and facing that direction, it is a down train, No. 37, and as it is a Saturday, it has commenced at Wallan-garra, not Warwick. The engines and vehicles on the trains were the same whether the train was bound for or coming from Warwick or Wallan-garra except in one respect, that those to and from Wallan-garra were usually one carriage longer north of Warwick, where one carriage was detached. southbound and attached northbound.

P 362 Engine 851 on 37 down. This is said to be in the 1930s. If it is, it was not the train commencing from Warwick, because in the 1930s, the train commenced at Wallan-garra every day of the six per week that it ran. In addition, it is too short for the train running in the 1930s. In any case, it has to be after 1936 when 851 entered service. It is almost certainly one of the days when the train started from Warwick, which dates it to a short period in 1944 or after 1948. The shunting engine, PB15 583, was based at Toowoomba continuously from 1953 if not earlier. Many PB15s retained kerosene headlights until the late 1950s. The most probable date is about 1950, on a day when the train started from Warwick.

P 364 As the day was a Saturday, the train was to terminate at Wallan-garra, not Warwick. The crossing gate shut in the foreground was not over the main Southern Line, but over the southern extension of the goods shed loop. It opened into the railway yard, not across the road - see the location of the hinges and bolt.

P 365 As the day was a Saturday, the train had started at Wallan-garra, not Warwick.

P 367 This photograph is wrongly dated. Both trains are hauled, as the caption says, by PB15s. After the production run of C16s went into service from 1907, this train went over to C16 haulage, after 1911 to B17, and after 1914 to C18. After 1910 larger heavier carriages than those shown were used on the train. The photograph was taken pre 1907. Both trains are the Sydney Mail, 26 and 37. After 1901, if not earlier, those trains crossed at Toolburra, whereas from 1914 they crossed at Hendon. Hence if the photograph was taken circa World War I much bigger engines would be hauling both trains, the carriages would have been bigger, and the trains would not be crossing at Toolburra. The second vehicle on the nearer train is a Travelling Post Office, in this case with compartments for second class passengers.

The last mentioned photograph is a reminder that in the longer historical context, the Warwick Mail or Passenger train, ie the train terminating at Warwick southbound, was not the train of Rod Milne's article. Rather, it was The Sweeper, which ran in advance of or behind the Sydney Mail between Brisbane and Warwick for passengers on that section, allowing the Sydney Mail to cater for passengers for south of Warwick and Interstate. It lasted from at least 1901 until 1930, when, with the opening of the line between South Brisbane and Kyogle, most interstate passenger traffic was diverted to the coastal line. A brief history of The Sweeper appears on the John Knowles Railway History Web Page at http://freespace.virgin.net/johnk.pb15 under the head Crossing Passenger Carrying Trains on Single Line on the Queensland Railways.

On p 360, Rod Milne says that, because the trains to and from Warwick ran the same days and crossed en route, it was necessary to convey coaches empty. He does not explain that. Presumably, as in his 1995 article, he considers that carriage sets which terminated at Warwick on Mondays and Fridays were hauled empty to Wallan-garra to work the down passenger trains from there on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and that the carriage sets which arrived Wallan-garra on Saturdays and Thursdays were worked empty to Warwick to operate the services starting from there on Mondays and Fridays.

That did not happen, as I explained in a letter in the December 1996 Bulletin. The carriage set which arrived at Warwick on Mondays remained there until Fridays, and that arriving Warwick on Fridays remained there until the following Mondays. The sets concerned could be seen stored there almost every hour of the week, ie except between departure of the down on Mondays and Fridays and the arrival of the up on the same day. Similarly, the carriage sets which terminated at Wallan-garra remained there two or three days until the next down service originating there. That means that four train sets were required to run the Warwick and Wallan-garra passenger trains.

If the sets had been worked empty between Warwick and Wallan-garra, there was little point in terminating the trains at Warwick on two or three days per week. Until the Warwick to Wallan-garra section was made available for 90 tons diesel electric locomotives (DELs) in 1960, even 100 to 125 tons of an empty carriage set was a considerable burden on the section, being up to half a goods load in each direction (240 tons for a B18¼, the C19s being no longer in use during the years under discussion). Even after 90 tons DELs could operate on the section, an empty passenger train was a considerable weight.

Rod Milne also mentions imbalance in locomotives and crews resulting from terminating these trains at Warwick. Until January 1967, crews on all southbound trains from Toowoomba changed at Warwick. Through trains to Wallan-garra were taken forward by crews from Warwick or Wallan-garra. The main line engines on these trains were supplied by Toowoomba depot, and continued through Warwick. Some goods trains terminated at Warwick, bringing forward loading for Warwick and the South Western Line. Engines of those trains were returned from Warwick to Toowoomba on the return versions of those trains. Trains to and from the South Western Line were made up at Warwick and took a locomotive from there. Warwick was a depot for only the lighter engines used on branch and South Western lines, in the sense that only those lighter engines were serviced and repaired there. For main line engines on trains which terminated there, Warwick was a garage depot, where the engines were turned, coaled and watered before going forward or returning. With so many goods trains on the Southern Line terminating and commencing at Warwick, little difficulty in balance of engines and crews was presented by the passenger trains terminating and commencing there twice per week.

After January 1967, through Southern Line trains were worked through Warwick by Toowoomba crews to Wallan-garra and by Wallan-garra crews working through Warwick to Toowoomba. In addition, Toowoomba crews worked through Warwick to Inglewood on the South Western Line. A few crews remained at Warwick, for local shunting, and working slower trains to and from Toowoomba or Wallan-garra when no Toowoomba or Wallan-garra men were available. Trains to and from the South Western Line were then made up in Toowoomba and worked from there by 60 tons DELs. The slower goods trains on the Southern Line, north and south of Warwick, terminated at or commenced from Warwick. These trains were worked by Toowoomba crews working to Warwick and signing off to return on a later train, and by Wallan-garra crews to Warwick doing the same, and sometimes by Warwick crews.

The apparent imbalance in locomotives and crews caused by 26 and 37 working to and from Warwick on Mondays and Fridays was solved mostly by interworking with those slower goods trains. Several possible balancing movements appear in the November 1969 Working Timetable. No doubt it was necessary on occasion to work the crews spare in one direction, and tow the engines. To the extent those measures had to be adopted, running these train to and from Warwick was an even more expensive proposition than was obvious.

Rod Milne mentions on p 360 that "it was normal for the locomotive off 26 to Warwick to come back on a freight train from there, not uncommonly 663, the fruit express. At the time he is writing about, the twilight years, 663 down, a fruit train, already had a 90 tons DEL from Wallan-garra. There was no point in changing that engine for another such engine or a lighter one from 26 up, and then only two days per week. In any case, 663 did not run north of Warwick on Fridays, there being no fruit market in Brisbane on Saturdays.

On p 361, Rod Milne mentioned an article of mine, 26 Up - the Great Connector, published in Sunshine Express for February 1973, p 26. This included connections to and from the Western Line, as well as those on the Southern Line. In it, I said that the connection for the rail motors to Millmerran was made at Toowoomba, as the timetables suggested, not at the junction station of Wyreema, where there was little for the passenger to do during the long connecting wait. Further, waiting in Toowoomba allowed connections on Wednesdays, when the train Rod Milne is discussing did not run south of Toowoomba in either direction.

Until 1958, Allora had connections each way, but Goomburra had a connection only in the down direction. The three times (latterly twice) weekly up mixed to Goomburra started at Allora. There was a connection to Goomburra if you like to call it one, but it required an overnight stay at Allora. (Early in the history of the Goomburra extension, the branch engine was based at Goomburra, and there were connections both ways, but that is well before the periods covered in both The Great Connector and Rod Milne's article). From 1958, the branch service was from Warwick to Allora to Goomburra and return. It connected with 37 down at Hendon, but not with 26 up. The Allora to Goomburra section closed in 1961. The map on p 361 should have shown the section from Hendon to Allora as still open in 1966. It should also show the line leading north from Kingsthorpe as closed by that date.

On p 361 Rod Milne says that on Mondays in 1960 there was a connecting passenger train from Warwick to Goondiwindi. There was no such connection. In that year, there was a connecting passenger train from Warwick to Goondiwindi, but it ran on Thursdays. The Friday 26 up to Warwick connected with a mixed to Dirranbandi on the South Western Line until 1967, when the mixed became a Goods with Passenger Accommodation, until it disappeared from the public timetable in 1969.

The public time table continued to entitle 37 down Mail long after the up train had become a simple passenger, as can be seen by comparing the timetable extracts on pp 362 and 363. Both trains were shown in the Working Timetables as passenger. Some long distance passenger trains on the QR were popularly called mail train, even if designated passenger. One thing is for certain: the train was not a mixed, as it is said to be in the photograph on the rear cover (p 344) of the October 2008 copy of ARH. The train in that photograph happened on the day concerned to be conveying two wagons (class CJFP) allowed on passenger trains.

In the first paragraph of the article, on p 360, Rod Milne says that the interstate service provided by trains 26 and 37 running to Wallan-garra, operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the 1960s. That is not right. It ran on those days until 1958. From 1958 until 1962, the train ran to and from Wallan-garra on Tuesdays and Saturdays only, and the Warwick train which is the subject of the article ran on Thursdays as well as Mondays and Fridays. From 1962, the Thursdays service ran from and to Wallan-garra again. The same correction was made in my letter to the Bulletin in December 1996.

On p 360, Rod Milne remarks that in 1962, also in the mid 1960s, taking into account the mail trains to the South Western Line, passenger trains ran every day between Brisbane and Warwick. That lasted until 1969. It operated only in the up direction - the down passenger trains from the South Western Line (often mixed trains between Warwick and Toowoomba) ran early on Tuesday and Friday mornings, the same days as 37 down ran from Wallan-garra or Warwick. From November 1969, the up South Western Mail ran from Brisbane on Mondays and Thursdays, which ended the passenger train from Brisbane to Warwick on seven different days, and on return passed through Warwick around 4 am on Thursdays and Saturdays.

By the time Rod Milne is writing about, of the staff stations listed on p 363, Greenmount, Hendon and Toolburra were unattended electric staff stations. They were stations at end of sections, not themselves sections.

It is worth remarking on the crossing of the two trains at Harristown, where the short platform was closer to the Toowoomba end of the crossing loop. The rules provided that the first passenger carrying train to arrive was to stop at the platform on the main line, the second to be brought through the crossing loop and stop beyond the first, then leave from the loop. Alternatively, the second to arrive, after running through the crossing loop, could reverse into the platform after the first had departed.

It was not uncommon for Station Masters to interpret the rules liberally, especially if the first train to arrive was short, and could be put into a nearby siding, to save the SM having to go to the (possibly distant) ends of the crossing loop. This was very common with rail motors. At the time covered in the article, trains 26 and 37 were normally only four or five vehicles, so could fit into a siding up to about 110 metres long. And that is just what happened on the trip Rod Milne describes. 37 had arrived first, and after stopping at the platform, was put into the Barley Board Siding, allowing 26 to pass undelayed on the main line.

More detail on crossing passenger trains where there was only one platform can be found in my article in this journal for July 2003, p 243. Following some comment on it by Rod Milne further material on the subject offered to but not published by this journal, has been placed on the John Knowles Railway History Web Page (as above).

The timetable planners had the arrangements for the crossing had 26 arriving first and being second to leave: 26 was due to arrive Harristown at 1238, 37 to depart at 1240, and 26 to depart at 1241. The intention was obviously to bring 26 to the platform, then put it aside, bring 37 through on the main line to make a brief stop and leave, then let 26 back on to the main line to depart. The Barley Board Siding would have suited this arrangement if not precisely the rules. If that siding were occupied, and no other siding been long enough or free, however, it might have been necessary to put 26 in the crossing loop at the Toowoomba end, near the platform. After the crossing, 26 had to be let out of the crossing loop at the Warwick end - there was insufficient space between loop points and home signal at the Toowoomba end for it to reverse out at that end, and 37 had just left with the staff. That would not have suited the wording of the rule, even if it was the way the timetable was laid down. Had 26 been kept at the platform, and 37 brought through the crossing loop, as the rules required, the crossing could not have occurred in the times laid down. Had an Inspector been present, however, the rules would have been observed.

8 September 2009