G'day all, the climate in coastal Queensland was pretty humid and oppressive when I took these photos in early December 1964 and I think that comes across in the shot taken at Rockhampton Loco. For those who didn't know them these QGR Garratts were painted a strong, bright red. They worked west of Rocky, out to Mount Morgan and Emerald having been displaced off the North Coast line by diesels, this was well before the massive expansion and electrification of the Central Queensland coal traffic. Even so Rockhampton was a very busy rail centre.
I don't remember the location of the other photo, somewhere north of Rockhampton is the best I can manage, 1070 is on a southbound roadside goods I think and the van of our northbound train is just visible at the left of the picture. A large part of our 2000 mile return journey from Brisbane to Cairns was in the van of trains just like this one. 12 to 14 hours for 100-120 miles wasn't unusual. These were the least important trains on the North Coast line and they got put away for every other train. 3 hours in some remote loop was par for the course, a couple of crosses and maybe a run-through. A great way to see the country though. As long as you had enough tucker and a waterbag you were pretty much OK.
Maybe more QGR* next week.
*Queensland Government Railways.
Regards,
Peter Bruce.
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