Re: Kajabbi Branch

["John McCandless" <johnmc@topend.com.au>]

Garry Hoddinett <hoddos@netspace.net.au> wrote in message
7n6j2h$158m$1@otis.netspace.net.au">news:7n6j2h$158m$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
Can anyone tell me please, when the Kajabbi branch closed and when it was
pulled up?  I drove past the remains of the line not long ago and anyone
could be excused for thinking that a railway never existed as there is
almost no trace of any bridges and the permanent way is over grown and
bulldozed level in many places.  I understand the railway used to go further
than Kajabbi.  Where did it go to and why?

Many thanks.


Ok..... this is one of my favourite subjects....
The last train to Kajabbi was in September 1988, being a special train
for a Cloncurry Football Club (Raiders, I think).  I ALMOST had the
priviledge of writing out the last ticket, but alas I was a
wet-behind-the-ears
 junior clerk at the time, and I screwed up the pricing.  The Asst SM
on duty wrote out the correct pricing.  I am unaware of the last freight
train on the branch, probably a few months earlier.  The line was never
used after that, and soon it succomed to washouts along it, which were
never repaired.

When the then Labour government proposed the closure of a number
of QR branch lines in 1994, there was a massive state-wide uproar, and
most of the proposed closures were called off.  Naturally, the Kajabbi
branch could not justify it's existence, and it was officially closed on
January 1, 1995.

At this time, i had sold my car, so I was unable to go traipsing around
the bush, so I cannot tell you the exact date the line commenced to be
lifted.  I am fairly sure that it was 1996 sometime.  I do know that the
contractors were not supposed to touch the bridges, but that message
didn't seem to get to them ;-)  The Road/Rail bridge at Kajabbi was
still used as a road bridge up to earlier this year.  The local bridge
gang removed a span from it, after concerns from the Kajabbi
community about heavy mine trucks using it.  (The bridge was clearly
marked as a 5t load limit, and had at least one fire lit in the last 5
years)

The Kajabbi Branch was originally laid for copper mines at Dobbyn,
and Mt Cuthbert.  Beyond Kajabbi, the line went to Oona, where a
branch to the west went to Mt Cuthbert.  The main line continued to
Dobbyn, with spurs to several mines in the Dobbyn area.  The line
 was laid in the 20's, AFAIK.  The lines beyond Kajabbi were all
closed by 1964.

I did do a bit of research on the line a few years ago, but have
 managed to lose all my info.  I shall have to go digging.

When were you in Cloncurry?