DownsSteam Tourist Railway and Museum set to launch passenger service in 2024
It has been 20 years in the making, but the team of dedicated DownsSteam Tourist Railway and Museum are hopeful they will be ready to run passenger joy rides in the new year.
Toowoomba
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Be on the lookout for the vibrant engines that will be making their way from Drayton to Hendon on Monday.
Two steam engines, the Spirit of Toowoomba and a yet-to-be named BB18 ¼ will be making their first run on the public train lines as the DownsSteam and Railway museum prepares to launch its passenger service in the new year.
Operations manager Andrew Caldwell said the purpose of Monday’s runs were to train more than a dozen steam locomotives and railmotor operators, along with carriage attendants, train managers, drivers and firefighters.
“When we finish that training we will go through a certification exercise to take on passengers in the Toowoomba area, to Pittsworth, Millmerran, Hendon and Clifton,” he said.
DownsStream and Railway Museum was started about 20 years ago by a team of volunteers, which included the then-mayor of Pittsworth Ros Scotney.
They were given an old engine to use as a display marking 110 years since the rail line was laid in the Darling Downs and from there the idea of a tourism line was born.
Mrs Scotney said she fell in love with trains as a young girl, riding them to and from boarding school.
“We are going through our final accreditation and hopefully it will be complete by February,” she said.
“We have been dealing with three authorities; QR, Aurizon and the Officer of the National Rail Safety Regulator, so it is not as easy as just putting an engine on the line.”
The announcement comes as the museum opened its gates to the public at the weekend for its Super Christmas Saturday.
It featured a barbecue, Christmas Carols, rolling displays and a visit from the Southern Downs Steam Railway engine towing four wooden carriage laden with guests from Warwick.
The museum is entirely run by volunteers who have intricately rebuilt the engines over the past two decades.
It is these same volunteers who are now learning to operate the engines
Mr Caldwell urged anyone with an interest in mechanics, history and wide-open spaces to get on board.
“We are fortunate to have a lot of really good volunteers but we could always do with more, there are so many jobs that needs to be done, from working in the garden or the shops, or learning to drive a train,” he said.
“It has been a massive project because we had to overhaul the engines to modern standards, so we had to take apart every nut, bolt and rivet, inspect them and replace them.
“We are lucky to have a really good machine shop and to have some really talented tradesmen here that have been able to accomplish the project quickly.
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