Queensland Railways Gulflander

[Peter Beckett]

On Wednesday Sandra and I boarded the weekly Gulflander from Normanton to Croydon in Northern Queensland. Originally built in 1881 to service the Port of Normanton and the copper mines of Cloncurry, the track was redirected to Croydon when gold was discovered there. The track is possible unique in the world as being all steel with steel sleepers but laid directly on the ground, no ballast. For over 125 years this track has never been washed out during the many floods since starting. The max speed is 25 mph (very understandable on un ballasted track) and takes 5 hrs to do the trip one way. This includes a "smoko" at Blackbull of about 20 mins. After arriving at Croydon we adjourned to the only pub in town for a meal and a nights kip. We boarded the train at 0830 for the return trip to Normanton. One of the best parts of the trip is the staff, especially Ken who is the train driver, Station master, ticket clerk and chief mechanic. He also knows all of the history of the track and we stopped at a spot and he took us into the bush and showed us the rusting remains of a corrugated iron canoe (no river or lake for hundreds of miles)

We also did a photo stop of RM 93 on the Norman River bridge on the way back. There is one picture of the level indicator of recent floods in the area

 

if anyone is interested here is the web page url     http://www.gulflander.com.au/Pages/Default.aspx

 

Attached are a view of the shots I took

 

Peter