Mount Morgan railway station

File:StateLibQld 1 113240 Passenger train on the Mount Morgan Rack Railway track, 1913.jpg

Mount Morgan rack railway, 1913

Mount Morgan Railway Station is a heritage-listed railway station located at Railway Parade, Mount Morgan in the Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. The station was constructed in 1898 to service the former goldrush and gold mining township of Mount Morgan and its mine. The station was designed by Henrik Hansen, who also designed the Archer Park, Rockhampton Central, Shorncliffe and South Brisbane railway stations. The station operated as a functional railway station from 1898 until 1987, after which it was restored as a Railway Heritage Museum.

Connection to Rockhampton

The Mount Morgan Railway Station was connected to Rockhampton in 1898. The Mount Morgan to Rockhampton line initially used a combination of adhesion railway and rack railway due to steep inclines in the Razorback Ranges.

Rack railway

The rack railway section of line operated through the Razorback Ranges, between Moonmera and the Mount Morgan township. It was built at half the cost of a conventional railway to Mt Morgan at a time when the longevity of the ore deposit was unknown, but added significant operating cost and time delays to the journey. A special purpose steam locomotive needed to attach to the train for ascent and descent of the rack section. Although only ~2.4km long, the rack section speed of ~10km/h and the time for the rack loco to attach and detach added 40 minutes or more to the journey compared to a conventional line, and the maximum load was limited to ~130 tons. The engine was typically coupled at the lower side of the train, when ascending and descending the incline to prevent runaways if wagon couplings broke. The steepest grade was 1 in 16.5 (~6%), double the steepest grade on a conventional line and three times steeper than the usual maximum grade.

The Rack Railway system was developed in Switzerland and was one of three used in Australia. The remaining two are the West Coast Wilderness Railway, a former mining line rebuilt as a tourist attraction located in Tasmania and the Skitube Alpine Railway serving the Blue Cow skifield in NSW.

The rack railway was closed in 1952 after a conventional line diversion was built, with grades of 1 in 50 (2%) able to handle ~750 ton trains, partly because the rack locomotives were due to be replaced but mainly because the development of export coal mines at Callide and Moura would not have been able to be provided with adequate rail service with the bottleneck that the rack section created. A concrete retaining wall from the line remains at the top of the Razorback Ranges on the entry to Mount Morgan. A short section of the rack centre rail has been retained in Morgan Street, Mount Morgan, opposite the town museum.

No railway

After the rack railway was removed, the Mount Morgan to Rockhampton line operated as a fully adhesion-based railway until the line was closed in 1987, following the construction of a direct line from the Moura and Callide mines to the coal loading terminal at Gladstone, able to handle 5,000 tonne trains. The line was consequently dismantled in 1989.

Today

A small section of the railway line has been retained for tourism purposes. The line operates subject to its state of repair.

Rail Heritage Museum

The Rail Heritage Museum includes artefacts from the rail and mining history of Mount Morgan, including a restored Hunslett steam engine, "Silver Bullet" rail motor and timber rail carriages.

Heritage listing

The station was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.

External links

• Rockhampton Regional Council: Mount Morgan Railway Museum
• Rockhampton Regional Council: Archer Park Station & Steam Tram Museum