Christmas time and the school holidays would bring back memories of long train journeys to far flung parts of Queensland, for many people. The link between country and regional towns, and the smaller townships, was the railmotor. For many decades in Queensland, the small red painted 45 horsepower AEC motors (based on a London bus design), ‘red rattlers’, or the later incarnations of the ‘Tin Hares’, through to the streamlined 2000 class ‘Silver Bullets’ provided an important connection for many Queenslanders to the railway townships. School children made their journey to school on the ‘RMs’, s ..read more

Annette and Queensland Rail Historian, Greg Hallam, talk about a time of trains bringing families together to celebrate the holidays, delivering presents and good wishes.  From everyone at Queensland Rail, we would like to wish our listeners a happy Christmas,  and we're looking forward to connecting with you again in 2023 with new stories of the railways in Queensland.      ..read more

Along with many in affected communities, Queensland Rail has been responding to the recent flood crisis and the recovery of our network from record rain and flooding. Our teams have undertaken a mammoth job to repair damage that was sustained across rail infrastructure in Queensland.   It’s hard to convey the full scale of the effort undertaken in the last few weeks, but one thing’s for sure – our teams dug deep with planning, persistence and hard work to reconnect communities once again. Sincere thanks to our customers, rail freight partners and the broader community for your patience du ..read more

Today we're talking about the crossing of the Main Range from the present day township of Murphy's Creek to Toowoomba, and what truly was a marvellous feat of Victorian era engineering. We also speak with Gavin Anderson, Asset Manager West Moreton for Network Operations South at Queensland Rail. He commenced his career as a ‘Nipper’ in a Bridging gang at Miles on the western line, and has been with Queensland Railways etc for 36 years.    As Asset Manager, Gavin looks after the Main Range railway, and follows on a tradition stretching back nearly 155 years of maintaining this importa ..read more

Today we are looking into design and standardisation of the railway. Be it early prefabricated buildings brought over on ships, the choice for narrow gauge or the adapting and tweaking of designs, to give a local solution to problems faced when building a railway in Queensland’s climate and landscape. We’ll also hear from Andrea Kriss, a Senior Design Manager here at Queensland Rail and hear how the process for building train stations has changed over time.  ..read more

The Christmas period was always one of the busiest times for travellers in Queensland, who went to visit family, or go on holidays, on the Queensland Railways ..read more

What are some of the great Queensland Railway lines that never were? What we might today think of as a big, connected network across the state, actually began as a number of scattered railway lines that stretched inland from the coast. They were very much their own identity.  In this episode, we chat with Ken Fairbairn, Driver of the Gulflander and Officer in Charge of the Normanton Railway, an isolated section of track in North Queensland that very much reflects that 'patchwork' approach started in the 1860's.  ..read more

In this two-part episode, we’re going to dive into one of the most iconic pieces of railway in Australia, arguably in the world: The Kuranda Scenic Railway – the KSR - located in Far North Queensland. It has become such a popular tourist attraction in Cairns, truly a must-see experience.  We’ll chat with our historian, Greg and deep dive into how this railway came to exist and we’ll also chat with a Train Driver with over 25 years of experience driving on the Kuranda range.  Rising from sea level to 327m, the journey to Kuranda passes through flat farm fields outside of Cairns, headi ..read more

In the last weeks of July 1865, the population of Southern Queensland watched with increasing interest and confidence, the anticipated completion of the first section of the Southern and Western Railway. Looking back at that era, it is still easy to discern the excitement and pride that had manifested in the colonists of Queensland as they read reports in the local papers of the approaching opening.   ..read more