SX Carriages
Our SX fleet
Our Carriage fleet utilises a set of stainless steel carriages designed and built in the 1950′s by Commonwealth Engineering, which were used to take Brisbane commuters to work. Known to many as “SX” cars or “Budd” cars, these carriages phased out the turn of the century “Red Rattler” carriages, which were finally withdrawn in the 1980′s.
The SX carriages were hauled behind steam and diesel locomotives during their life in Queensland Rail. A conversion to electric traction was envisaged as they featured power operated sliding doors (controlled by the guard) and were also fitted with headlights and destination rolls.
The carriages were all walk through, unlike the old Red Rattlers where passengers were seated diaganally across the carriage with a door at each end of the seat.
The conversion to electric traction never occured and these units remained as locomotive hauled passenger carriages until the end of regular locomotive hauled commuter trains in 1999.
Several sets of the class have been retained for excursion train operations.
Our SX carriages require very little restorative work to get them back up to mainline standards, however several modifications will be made to the carriages to make them ready once more. Toilets which were never part of the SX fleet will be installed in all carriages to ensure passenger comfort.
A carriage is also being restored as a Dining Carriage for our longer train journeys.
Sheep Wagons
Sheep Wagon
Our two sheep wagons were built around 1955. They were used for transporting sheep from the sale yards to the abattoir.
One of the wagons is in good condition, even though they have been sitting in a paddock, bogged down in black soil, for the last 12 years.
With some help from a crane, they were loaded onto a truck to be transported to Toowoomba. Both wagons are now located at our Drayton Yard.
A sadder sheep wagon
