The Jandowae Branch Railway was a railway line from
Dalby to
Jandowae in the
Darling Downs region of
Queensland,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
History
The Darling Downs is a very fertile agricultural area in South East Queensland, and was the destination of the first railway built by the State government to facilitate transport and encourage development and immigration. The
main line
Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to:
Transportation
Railway
* Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system
* Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
arrived in 1868, and was extended west commencing a decade later.
Despite being a productive valley, with
Jimbour House
Jimbour is a heritage-listed homestead on one of the earliest stations established on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia, It is important in demonstrating the pattern of early European exploration and pastoral settlement in Queensland, ...
being one of the earliest settled areas in the region, a railway was not approved until December 1911, the line opening on 13 August 1914.
Initially the junction was situated at Mahar, about 3 kilometres west of
Dalby, but a parallel line was built to Dalby within a few years to save on the cost of staffing the junction.
The line was undulating, with a maximum grade on 1 in 73 (~1.37%) in the northwest bound direction, and 1 in 83 (~1.2%) in the southeast direction, with curves of a minimum 500m radius and only 1 substantial bridge on the line.
A
mixed train initially plied the route three times a week taking some 2¾ hours to complete the one-way journey. A
rail motor service ran three days a week from 1928 to 1941. The line catered in the main for the transport of
dairy product
Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in th ...
s along with bagged and bulk
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
.
The line was upgraded in the 1990s to enable grain traffic to be handled by main line locomotives. It had 30 kg/m rails, a 15.75 tonne axle load and a line speed of 30 km/h.
The line closed on 26 June 2013.
Route
Stations on the route included (from north to south):
*Jandowae railway station ()
* Marnhull railway station ()
* Cresley railway station ()
* Kuyuru railway station ()
*Pirrinuan railway station ()
References
External links
1925 map of the Queensland railway system
{{Railway lines in Queensland , state=expanded
Closed railway lines in Queensland
Railway lines opened in 1914
Darling Downs
1914 establishments in Australia
Railway lines closed in 2013
2013 disestablishments in Australia