Queensland Family History Society Inc
QFHS Calendar Event
Members Lounge - Presenting … The Beginnings of Qld Railways
Starts: 21 May 2025 at 1:00 PM
Ends: 21 May 2025 at 3:00 PM
Notes:
This event will be held online and in-person at the QFHS Family History Research Centre i.e. a HYBRID meeting.
Guest Speaker: Greg Hallam. Greg will be attending at the Research Centre
Topic: The Beginnings of Queensland Railways, in the 1860s
It will be 160 years in July 2025 since the first section of railway line opened in Queensland (31 July 1865). Greg Hallam, Queensland Railways historian, will once again tell us the history of Queensland Rail. Charles Douglas Fox, the son of Sir Charles Fox, had read of railways in Norway, and travelled to see what was being achieved in providing an ‘economic’ steam locomotive operated railway, and also to investigate its adaption for the Southern and Western Railway in Queensland. The Foxes used their cross ‘North Sea’ experience with the 1067mm (3’6”) gauge when they endorsed it for Queensland in 1863. The Norwegian equipment was also used as a model when specifying the equipment for Queensland and for the 1067mm gauge railway. The first locomotives that entered service on the Southern and Western Railway were identical to the Avonside engines that were used on Norwegian railways in the early part of the 1860s - although unlike the Norwegian engines that were tank engines, the Queensland engines were tender locomotives.