Railway Digest Magazine April 2016 Back Issue

Queensland New Generation Rollingstock EMU arrives
Following a voyage from Mumbai, India the MV Matsumae docked at the Port of Brisbane on 15 February with the first six cars of the 75 six-car set order of New Generation Rollingstock EMUs for use on the south east Queensland Rail network, and after unloading, the cars were taken the short distance by road to the nearby rail yard and checked before the assembled train was towed from the Port of Brisbane to the Bombardier’s new maintenance facility at Wulkuraka on Friday 19. On Saturday 13 February, an open day was held at the Wulkuraka facility, where visitors were given the opportunity to inspect a full-size mock-up of one of the new cars. John Hoyle reports.

Stainless steel to the outback
The final arrival of the Brisbane–Cairns Sunlander at Brisbane’s Roma Street station on New Year’s Day last year after 61 years of service marked the end of the traditional Queensland Rail (QR) locomotive-hauled air-conditioned train made up of M Series steel cars, plus some newer L Series stainless steel cars. With QR’s intention to withdraw all the M Series cars, the more youthful L Series cars have been called upon to provide the backbone of a now much-reduced locomotive-hauled car fleet. James Chuang reviews the current situation.

THE WEST
To think that the entire Queensland Rail western system beyond the suburbs of Brisbane is at risk would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The system once hummed with bulk fuel, coal and grain, cattle trains, general freight and fruit, containers filled with cotton and heavy block loads of molasses. The twice-weekly Westlander conveyed sleeping cars, a diner and always rated a second ‘60-tonner’ locomotive ‘just in case’. Neill Farmer takes a look at the current and recent operations of a once-thriving system with an uncertain future.