Steam Train in Cloncurry

http://www.q150.qld.gov.au/library/pdf/q150_train_souvenir_program.pdf

Fast facts about steam trains in Queensland

http://www.q150.qld.gov.au/CelebrationHighlights/q150Train.aspx

• The first steam locomotives were put into service in 1865 in Queensland. The first four locomotives were all given names that reflected the importance of the role they would play in opening the fist section of railway. They were named “Lady Bowen”, after the wife of the then Governor of Queensland, “Faugh-a-Ballagh”, as a tribute to the first Governor of Queensland Sir George Bowen, (or perhaps because of the large number of Irish who helped build the railway), “Premier”, and “Pioneer”.
• Queensland Railways (QR Limited) has in its heritage fleet, one of the first steam locomotives to enter service in Queensland, (which is now one of the oldest able to operate in the world). It also has also has in operation the last mainline steam locomotive built in Australia (BB181/4 1089 - built at Walkers Ltd, Maryborough, in 1958).
• The biggest steam locomotive used in Queensland was the Beyer-Garratt. It weighed 137 tonnes.
• Steam locomotives used to be delivered along Brisbane streets in the 1920s. Evans, Anderson and Phelan, a company at Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane, used to deliver steam locomotives to the Woolloongabba railway yards via Main Street, on prefabricated tracks. The locomotives were moved under their own steam.
• From 1865 until 1969, Queensland Railways had a total of 1311 steam locomotives put into service. Of these, 908 were built in Queensland.

Find out more information about the history of trains in Queensland