Total Number of Engines Built	30
First Engine Built	1950
Last Engine Built	1950
First Engine Written Off	1968
Last Engine Written Off	1969

31/12/50	31/12/60	31/12/66	31/12/67	3/12/68	31/12/69
–	30	30	30	8	–

31/12/67	31/12/68	7/10/69
2	1	–

Notes

The initial plan had been to use these engines on the proposed air-conditioned Mail Trains that were being designed at the time. This never eventuated, although they did regularly haul the “Midlander”, mainly between Emerald and Bogantungan for some years. They were used on the Rockhampton Mail and Sunshine Express in the early 1950s.

The first ten engines were constructed at Beyer Peacock & Co Limited Works in Manchester UK. Owing to the number of orders they had on hand, Beyer Peacock (BP) contracted Societe Franco Belge de Materiel du Chemins de fer, Raismes, France (FRB)to build the remaining twenty.

They were painted Midland red and had chrome yellow lining with large QR monograms on the sides of the front tank and bunker. Unfortunately this attractive livery easily discoloured particularly as a result of priming. The engines were not regularly cleaned when relegated to goods train working in latter years and their appearance rapidly deteriorated.

Originally trialled on the Brisbane – Toowoomba route, they were soon withdrawn from this section due to problems with limited clearances in the tunnels. They were used extensively on North Coast Line between Brisbane and Rockhampton. By 1956, this working had become restricted to mainly north of Bundaberg. They did not work north of St Lawrence on the NCL. On the Central Line they initially ran between Rockhampton and Emerald but from 1957 this was extended to Bogantungan.

A few were attached to Mayne until 1955 and some at North Bundaberg until 1956, when all were allocated to Rockhampton. In later years they worked Moura coal trains via Mount Morgan, prior to the opening of the ‘short line’ to Gladstone. One of their last regular tasks was on limestone trains between Tarcoola and Gladstone. Increasing numbers of diesels saw mass withdrawals of these engines. Twenty two were written off in June 1968.

They were subject to much positive publicity when introduced but failed to live up to all expectations. They were attributed with saving 19,500 miles of assistant and goods engine running on the Bundaberg – Rockhampton – Emerald sections between October 1950 and June 1951. Steaming difficulties were encountered with South Queensland coals; however they performed well on Blair Athol coal. The boilers had a tendency to prime. Limited coal and water capacity caused worries. General overhauls cost about three times those for a B18¼.

They had a number of unique features (for QR steam engines) including Ajax air operated butterfly fire doors, Hadfield power reversers, speedometers and also flow meters; the latter being fitted to the class in 1955.The outer bogies and inner trucks had roller bearings but the coupled axles has plain bearings. Several engines received fabricated stove pipe chimneys to replace the original cast ones that had been damaged.

N°1009, preserved as a static exhibit, was taken into Ipswich Workshops in 1993 and restored to working order. Subsequently due to a leaking fused plug, it has been out of service for quite some time.

* Test weighing proved some engines to be 11 tons over this design weight with 11TAL

Total Number of Engines Built	55
First Engine Built	1950
Last Engine Built	1958
First Engine Written Off	1967
Last Engine Written Off	1970

31/12/50	31/12/60	31/12/66	31/12/67	31/12/68	31/12/69	31/12/70
–	55	55	53	44	11	–

31/12/67	31/12/68	7/10/69
37	17	10

Notes

This design was an improvement on earlier successful B18¼ incorporating modern appliances. Some modifications to the original design were suggested by Vulcan Foundry and subsequently adopted. A number of features, including the mounting of WH pump on fireman’s side, stainless steel rather than brass boiler bands, SCOA-P coupled wheels and pressed steel sand box, distinguished these engines from the earlier B18¼ class. Engines constructed by Walkers Limited used electricity for the light on the rear of the tender, for side lamps and to illuminate the motion. All were fitted with Roller Bearings and chime whistles. The engines were painted green when introduced.

The first batch was constructed by Vulcan Foundry and the last 20 by Walkers Ltd, Maryborough. Contracts were let to both manufacturers in 1948 but Walkers did not deliver its first engine until 1955 due to shortages of materials. Delays in these deliveries resulted in the last of the order, N°1089, not entering service until March 1958 and thus becoming the last mainline steam locomotive to be built and placed in service in Australia. In fact Walkers had delivered some diesels to QR before completing this order.

Several members of the class that were overhauled in the final years were repainted black. In the 1950’s a “standard” boiler was designed to be suitable for both this class and B18¼ engines.

They proved to be a most successful design and were popular with crews. Initially they were used on mail trains, long distance passenger and goods trains and northside suburban services. The introduction of diesels saw them gradually relegated to lesser duties and ultimately cut short their careers.

Last engines in service were N°1012, 1030, 1037, 1039, 1070, 1073, 1081 and 1084 at Mackay and N°1088 at Ipswich.

Abbreviations

Vulcan – Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, Lancs.,
Walkers – Walkers Limited, Engineers, Maryborough, Qld
ZZR – Zig Zag Railway Lithgow NSW

Team Members

Dean Stalker [email protected]
Matthew Smith [email protected]
Peter Burkitt [email protected]
Adam Cole [email protected]
Steve Allan [email protected]

The moderators can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

Our Sites

QRIG.org :: https://qrig.org
QRIG.org Yahoogroup :: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qrig
QRIG.org Gallery :: http://gallery.qrig.org

Charter Outline

This QRIG Charter is provided for all Team Members, Members and Guests of QRIG as guidance to what is and isn’t acceptable during use of the provided services. It is up to the individual to take responsibility and read this document from start to finish and comply with all guidelines provided. Any breaches of this charter will be dealt with swiftly with full collaboration amongst the Team Members to provide a final and compulsory outcome. The outcome is at the Team Member’s discretion, with punishments ranging from warnings to permanent banning, or as basic as editing of a contribution.

Categories

The QRIG Charter is broken up into 3 categories, covering the various services provided:

1. QRIG.org Website
2. QRIG.org Gallery
3. QRIG.org Yahoogroup

Further sub-categories are also provided where applicable for each service (eg. QRIG.org Motive Power, Lineside Histories, etc.). These will mainly cover user contributions.

QRIG.org Yahoogroups

The QRIG.org YahooGroup (hereafter referred to as ‘group’) is a discussion group for Queensland, Interstate and International rail enthusiasts who are interested in QR and railways in Queensland. Naturally, QR is the main focus of the group but postings on cane railways and standard gauge traffic in Queensland is accepted and encouraged.

The group is covered by the Yahoo! Acceptable Use Policy, Terms of Service Agreement, Privacy Policy and Copyright Policies which are covered by US law. It is up to the individual to make sure they are aware of these documents and read up on them before using this group. This group does not recognise US ‘Freedom of Speech’ laws, as Australian content is discussed and can be taken to court if it is in breach of corporate confidentiality or ring fencing laws.

This group is setup as a Private YahooGroup, which means Members are screened before their subscription is approved and Messages are not viewable to the public unless you are a registered user. This is to keep control of content in/content out as mandated by members of the list who post in confidence to the group. As outlined in the copyright clause below, it is a bannable offence to crosspost from this group to another form of media without permission from the author of the post.

Below are some “Do’s” and “Do not’s” we request our members to abide by. Please peruse them then enjoy a friendly, informative chat group on the railways of Queensland.

DO

* Post messages relating to:- Rail Happenings in Queensland (on any gauge)
* Post Interstate sightings as long as they are QRNational/Pacific National (xB/Bx) trains … ie. they originate or terminate in Brisbane
* Trip Reports
* Sightings (see rules for posting sighting lists)
* Upcoming events at your local railway heritage or interest group
* Model train shows and exhibitions. (Note – please only advertise shows and exhibits based in QLD. A QR theme is not essential).
* Modeling of QR and Queensland cane railways

When replying to a message, please trim any unnecessary text from the original message as well as footers and signatures, before sending. Try to retain the original text pertinent to your reply. We ask this because some members prefer to receive their QRIG emails by “Daily Digest” or on a portable email device such as a Palm Pilot, Pocket PC or GPRS enabled mobile phone. Pages of unnecessary text make it very difficult for these members to peruse the postings.

Ask questions if you need to. Many members of this group are QR employee’s and/or heritage railway operators and are more than willing to help those who wish to learn. Other members, while note being QR employees, are very knowledgeable about QR operations and can be very helpful too.

Cross-post YOUR message to other groups (like Ausloco or Locoshed) provided the message suits ALL criteria of ALL forums posted to. We expect it of members of our list, we expect no less if you are a member of other lists. (Please refer to the section “QRIG & Yahoo! Copyright Policy”)

Promote your web page if it has anything to do with the railways of QLD, QR modelling, QR, QR National or Interail. ALWAYS include your web page address in the promotion and in any update announcements. Also, we invite you to post the link into the “Bookmarks” page on YahooGroups (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qrig/links/). To promote the QRIG mailing list on your web page, click the Promote link (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qrig/promote). This page will give you intstructions on how to add the QRIG mailing list subscription to your web page.

DO NOT

Do not use foul, sexist, racial, derogatory or otherwise unwelcome language or remarks.

Do not flame other members (For those who do not know, “Flaming” is posting a message to QRIG that intentionally ridicules, belittles, defames or threatens another member or posts unwanted sarcasm etc. about another members message). Flaming will NOT be tolerated and offending members will be dealt with accordingly

Do not post messages relating to:-

* Rail Discussions of happenings in other states or countries (even if it concerns QRNational). There are many other Yahoogroups available for rail activities in other states and countries where you can discuss these topics. This does NOT include sightings/headsup of trains originating or terminating in Brisbane.
* Interstate/International trip reports unless they conform to the conditions below
* Model train shows and exhibitions in other states or countries (Unless it is known there will be a QLD based layout on show there)

Do not post messages in rich text or HTML format (Plain text mode only, please)

Do not post virus or spam warnings. These should be posted off list, since a high percentage of warnings are of hoax viruses or in the case of spams, can be dealt with off-list. A good measure would be to check the authenticity of such virus warnings.

Do not infringe copyright law (see QRIG and Yahoogroups Copyright policy below). Contrary to belief, QRIG is not in the public domain.

Do not attach files to discussion list messages. The Yahoo server will automatically delete any attachments before distributing the message to list members. If you have a file or photo to share, upload it to the QRIG.org Gallery (http://gallery.qrig.org). Please see below for extra rules for the files and photo sections

Posting Sighting Lists to QRIG

Members are invited to post sightings lists with the following conditions:-

Make sure the message heading contains the date and the word “Sightings”. Many members use email filters to sort or delete such messages.

Do not post sightings of EMU’s, SMU’s or IMU’S that are working regularly scheduled services (this includes empty movements, wash trains, etc.). It is permissible to post sightings of EMU’s, SMU’s or IMU’s operating in unusual circumstances (for example – EMU’s north of Cooroy, an IMU on the Ferny Grove line, test trains, tuition trains etc.).

Interstate sightings are permitted where QRNational and Pacific National are predominantly mentioned – as long as their trains are originating or terminating in Brisbane.

Using “Daily Digest” As Your Preferred Method of Message Retrieval

Some members prefer to receive their QRIG messages in a “Daily Digest”. If this is your option and you wish to reply to a message in the digest, please CHANGE THE SUBJECT HEADING to reflect the contents of the information. Remember to trim away any unnecessary text

QRIG AND YAHOOGROUPS COPYRIGHT POLICY

The YahooGroups copyright policy can be found at http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html

The following guidelines should be followed when reproducing information:-
1. Crossposting to another list by the AUTHOR is permitted.
2. Crossposting to another list by someone other than the author is NOT PERMITTED without prior consent of the author. Such permission should be stated at the head of the cross-posted message.
3. When replying to a message, it is permitted to retain some of or all of the original message.
4. Publishing, broadcasting or distributing information from this list on radio, television, print media or other digital media (IRC, Newsgroups, Mailing Lists, Websites) is NOT PERMITTED without prior consent from the author.

Members are advised that these laws are put in place to protect our rights. It is the right of each member to be fully aware of where their information is being used. The moderators at QRIG support sharing of information, however, such distribution of information MUST be carried out in a proper and legal manner. A simple email to the author requesting permission is all it takes.

Any list member who commits a breach of copyright, as described above, will be given one stern warning only. A second occurrence will result in the member being permanently banned from this list, provided ALL list moderators agree to such action. Futhermore, that member may be liable to civil action at the discretion of the “infringed” author.

If you have any questions, please feel fre to ask the moderators. If you would like a more formal response, send an email to the YahooGroups Copyright Agent at [email protected].

Members who break any of the rules WILL be place immediately on moderation.

Furthermore, members who break any of the rules MAY be, at the discretion of the moderators:-
1. Warned
2. Banned temporarily, or
3. Permanently banned

Posting Disclaimer

Posting to QRIG is at the users discretion, QRIG will not be held liable for any content that appears on this Yahoogroup. QRIG strongly discourages the distribution of restricted content, and will not tolerate any breaches. Please email the moderators at [email protected] if in doubt.

QRIG.org Gallery

QRIG.org Gallery is powered by the Gallery2 software provided by Menalto (http://gallery.menalto.com/). This is one of the more powerful galleries available on the net, and best of all it is free to use under the GNU GPL Licensing agreement.

Photo Licensing

All photos uploaded to the QRIG.org Gallery are automatically covered by a Creative Commons License, which considers every photo uploaded to QRIG to be the property of the original owner of the photo, and will also hold copyright even if the photo is modified by a 3rd party. It also discourages commercial gain out of any photos posted to the Gallery.

To help protect your content from unauthorised use, please make good use of the Watermarking feature available at the time of uploading or via the Edit Item option.