Stanthorpe Goods

["David Brown" <davidgbrown@optusnet.com.au>]

Readers may be interested to know of the status of the Wallangarra line.The
fruit season such as it is stopped in June when they were running up to two
trains a week to Stanthorpe to collect Northgate cannery juice apples loaded
in VAOAs at The Summit, the only traffic point left on the line. Some QLDPs
are used as well, it being normal for the working to go on to Stanthorpe
where wagons are stored to stable for the day. Train times are normally
allowing for an arrival at Stanthorpe about 8 a.m. or so on a Tuesday, the
crew shutting down and going back to Toowoomba by car. In the evening, about
four or five, another crew comes down in a car and they go back on the
train. There is still an SM at Stanthorpe but the line beyond is out of use,
a red marker being placed on the first straight south of Stanthorpe. I was
told by the SM that the QR needs a weeks' notice before a train can run to
Wallangarra. I have been told also that some of the container traffic has
come back at Wallangarra but is now road hauled, sadly and with little
foresight I feel.

The train to Stanthorpe runs usually once a fortnight on Tuesday (except in
the season when once or twice weekly running can occur). Last time I saw it
in June it was hauled by 1516 and 1720 multi, the branch liner working back
as the train engine and toting the big loco as a vehicle along with about
eight wagons, all stored at Stanthorpe. It is advisable to photo this while
it is still going.

The QR is clearly backing away from fruit haulage completely, with the
recent closure of Wamuran, Elimbah and Glasshouse Mountains as loading
points, the end of the Mary Valley line, and the demise of Palmwoods as
well. Although wagon load fruit traffic has recommenced, a worrying sign
occurred in July when the QR cleared all wagons from Beerwah yard, one of
the last handful of fruit points on the NCL.

Rod Milne