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Steam Locomotive C16 106

Steam locomotive 106 was built at the Toowoomba Foundry in 1915 and was one of 15 Locos built for Queensland Rail to its C16 requirements. The C16 was designed in 1903 as an improved 4-8-0 loco built by various firms. By 1918 there were 152 C16’s in service with Queensland Rail. In the early 1920’s further developments of the basic design resulted in a new class which was introduced as the C17. This design with its improvements totalled 227 locos that served in Queensland and also on the Commonwealth Railway during WWII.

In July 1950 there were still 142 C16’s in service with Queensland Rail. However by the time of dieselisation in the 1970's only 5 of the C16’s were still around. Only one of the class escaped the scrapper’s torch and was placed in the Redbank Rail Museum.

One of No. 106’s special duties was to bank a train pulled by the Lady MacGregor (No 694) which broke the blue ribbon at the opening of the “Drayton Deviation” (the present line from Toowoomba station to Wyreema) on 15th May 1915.

Type 4-8-0
Number built 152
Year 1903 - 18
Cylinders Diameter 16
Cylinders stroke 22
Wheel Diameters Leading 28
Coupled 45
Tender 33
Total Wheelbase 45’0”
Total Height 12’6”
Total Length 52’5½”
Total Weight (tons) 80.5
Max Axle load (tons) 8.25
Water capacity (gals) 3,000
Coal capacity (tons) 8
Total heating surface (sq.ft) 1,093 Grate Area (sq.ft) 18.5

Boiler pressure (lbs.sq.inch) 175

Tractive effort - 80% boiler press (saturated) 17,520

SX Carriages

Our Carriage fleet utilises a set of stainless steel carriages designed and built in the 1950's by Commenwealth Engineering, which were used to take the Brisbane commuters to work. Known to many as "SX" cars or "Budd" cars, these carriages phased out the existing turn of the century "Red Rattler" carriages, which were finally withdrawn in the 1980's.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. Not to mention that 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. However the conversion 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 for traffic 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

The 2 Sheep Wagons DownsSteam Tourist Railway and Museum has in its possesion were built abround 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 for the last 12 years, they were bogged down in black soil but with some help from a crane were loaded onto a truck to be transported to Toowoomba. Both wagons are now located at our Drayton Yard.

The second Sheep wagon is currently ungergoing restorative work and is progressing steadily, upon completion thsese wagons will be initially used for storage of various items.