Re: Suggestions for Brisbane and QR Citytrain

[Roy Wilke <royboy@bit.net.au>]

Bill McNiven wrote:
> 
> Roy Wilke <3891@bit.net.au> wrote in message <378cc56c@news.ausmail.com>...
> >
> 
> ...  This would be an extremely expensive and politically unpopular thing to
> do
> ... Now this is just being stupid. ...
> 
> You thought I was serious????

Until you mentioned the bridge across Moreton Bay, I was beginning to
suspect you were serious (btw, I don't think many people are familiar
with the route of the old Belmont Tramway - some would probably think
that it's still vacant land).

 
> My theory was that, if a "news" group is being crowded by the opinions of
> amateur railroad tycoons, I might as well "go over the top" with them.  I
> still hope that the tycoons spent hours finding Peel Island on the map
> before they realised that their legs had been pulled.
> 
> I'm well aware of the furore in 1997 when a proposal floated for a railway
> from around Acacia Ridge towards Fisherman Islands (to spare Morningside
> residents the noise).  "Save Gumdale" was the slogan recited by the Hon.
> member for Capalaba then.

My then next-door neighbour here in East Brisbane floated that idea -
he's about a mile from the nearest railway line and the noise is
unnoticeable here.
 
> Barinia was a halt at 20m70c (see "Destination South Brisbane", ARHS, 1978 -
> my copy from the Redlands museum), which I think means the crossing with
> Wellington St and Bainbridge St.

LOL - that's a railway cutting  beneath a road overpass now!

 
> Still not serious, but I'd put Dunwich station on the former Ilmenite dump
> on Mining Lease 1001, about 1 km south, and extend Ballow Road to the
> station.  (Hey!  we could run ore trains for Con. Rutile and ACI!)

That wouldn't be practical - firstly because the land is radioactive, 
secondly because the Aboriginal community have built a replica bora-ring
on the site (and the Aboriginal community on NSI have a substantial
amount of political power and influence), and thirdly because a
connecting mining line would have to climb the escarpment behind
Dunwich.

There's another reason, too - you don't mix heavy mineral sand with
glass-sand.

(btw, Ballow Street already goes down that far - if you turn right at
the fig tree, it will take you to the Adams Beach caravan park).

Anyway, while we're in the realms of the impossible, I'd say it would be
more practical for a line to run parallel to the East Coast Road from
Dunwich to the Stradbroke dump at Aranarawai Creek, where a mineral line
could run along the creek to the Yarraman Lagoon lease while a passenger
line would skirt the swamp and head to Amity Point and Point Lookout (to
tell the truth, I'm working on building a miniature version of this for
my toy trains <g> - working on the assumption that it's a line left over
from the US Army and RAAF when Point Lookout was an early-warning
station to protect Brisbane in WW2 - with Ladbrookes Transport running
the line as a private operation after 1950 with war-surplus and
second-hand QR stock). A Dunwich passenger station would be most
practical behind the township in Sturt Street with a mining company spur
heading down to the current CRL plant.
 
> Even though all of this is ridiculous, commuters would find a train a
> pleasant alternative to standing up in the rain on the Quandamooka on a
> rough night!

They'd catch a water-taxi and make the crossing in half the time. I've
found that if you *must* walk across on a car ferry, the Stradbroke
Venture is preferable - it has  a cafe on board that's much cheaper than
the greasy-spoon at Toondah Harbour (as an aside, I can remember being a
terrified 8-year-old on the Myora during the 1974 Australia Day
floods/cyclone - the old Myora was literally surfing across the bay on
that night).
 
Roy

> Regards
> 
> Bill