Australian Railway History Magazine October 2025 Back Issue

In Part 2 of Demise of the Australian Standard Garratts in Queensland we start in 1939, immediately after the declaration of war, there was an emphasis on increasing the support of Queensland’s manufacturing of material for the war effort. Both the Ipswich and Rockhampton railway workshops had a focus on production of vital components for the armed forces. Railway maintenance and construction were curtailed. On 31 July 1942, the CLTB recommended to the War Cabinet that 30 Garratt locomotives be built for the 1067 mm gauge railways of Australia and thus the ASG were coming to Queensland.
The Mighty 60 Class Garratts on the North are well shown in fine form this month with plenty of double working before NSWs Short North was electrified, a time now lost and changed.
Col Gammidge worked for the New South Wales Railways for 13 years from 1952 to July 1965. His article relates some of his experiences working as a fitter and machinist, then later as an electrical equipment examiner in various locations around Sydney. This is an interesting article where the author starts with the author saying ‘There were no ‘clean’ jobs around a steam locomotive’ to ‘the dress code changed from really greasy running shed overalls to casual clothes and a dust coat as we were now mixing with day-to-day suburban train passengers.’