Thursday 10 October 2024

Ipswich - Queensland Railway Workshops

 Ipswich - The Workshops Rail Museum, Queensland

On another day, we drove to Ipswich (no, not all the way back to Suffolk in England!), to visit The Workshops Rail Museum, Queensland - a very impressive facility, with a wonderful model railway layout to boot. Obviously built with love and care, we appreciated the intricate timetabling and the many different areas of Queensland featured over such a large area; we wished we had a couple of days more to take it all in, but at least Wendy and I had a fine taste of what was on offer. 

Wendy had been here before, and loved it; it was my first visit, and I was thrilled to discoverer what a fantastic place the Railway Workshops are!









Loco 444


Destination: Bowen Hills


Beyer Garratt locomotive and the manufacturer's plates:




This locomotive was commissioned in 1950, and restored in 1995.

This Class 1009 (Works No. 7349) Beyer- Garratt Locomotive was built by Beyer Peacock in in Manchester in 1950, for the Queensland Railways; it was one a batch of ten, but because there was a full order book for work in Manchester, the remaining twenty locos were sub-contracted to Franco-Belge in France. 

This class of locomotive is articulated in three parts; its boiler is mounted on the centre frame, and two steam engines are mounted on separate frames, one on each end of the boiler. This type of arrangement allows larger locomotives to negotiate curves and lighter rails, that could restrict large rigid-frame engines. 


A beautifully refurbished carriage...

and compartment






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