Our Collection: CARRIAGE STOCK

Queensland did not escape the worldwide depression of 1929-1932 which  bled prosperity from every corner of society. For four years the  Ipswich Rail Workshops had been starved of new construction programs.  Tradesmen worked part-time or on reduced rates and senior men like  Chalmers faced a salary reduction.

In 1932 State elections returned the Labor Party to government with a  program of using budget deficits to lead Queensland towards prosperity.  As the new Premier Forgan Smith began his cautious scheme of economic  reconstruction to revive activity across all arms of the public service,  and from this the railways gained its new North Coast mail train the  Sunshine Express.

In the restrained language of his 1933-34 Annual Report Rail Commissioner James W. Davidson (1918-1938) announced:

The increasing passenger traffic by the Sunshine Route has made it  desirable to proceed with the construction of three new up-to-date  trains for that service and it is anticipated that the first of these  will be placed in traffic about the end of March, 1935.

The work, which is being carried out in the Ipswich Workshops, comprises the construction of –

• Nine first-class sleeping cars (each with seven 2-berth cabins).
• Nine second-class sleeping cars (each with eight 3-berth cabins).
• Three first-class sitting cars.
• Three second-class sitting cars.
• Three parlour cars.
• Two dining cars.

At  Ipswich work had already begun quietly on planning a train intended to  be the most modern and comfortable that Australian travelers would know.  The title Sunshine Express had appeared in the October 1934 timetable  as a publicity label for an extension of the Townsville Mail through to  Cairns. The name sprang from a realization that a nation emerging from  bitter times would surely want the freedom to travel. Queensland more  than any other Australian State had the potential of sun, sea and  scenery to lure the tourists north and what better way than by train?

Medium-Gauge it might be and limited to a speed of 40 miles per hour  but this would not deter Ipswich Workshops staff from devising a train  that promised carefree relaxation on a journey of more than 1000 miles.  It was by far the longest distance that any rail passenger could ride  within one State border and as far as medium-gauge travel was concerned  among the longest in the world.

As Chief Mechanical Engineer, Chalmers headed the new mail train  project. To execute the design he appointed the head of the Drawing  Office Charlie Hunt as leader of a team that included Senior Designing  Mechanical Engineer Frank Downs and Bill Hall and Stan Kruger a young  first grade draftsman. Kruger was raised to act in a higher grade  position so that he could exercise his talent for innovation. In the  years ahead, many at Ipswich would say that the Sunshine Express was  really ‘Kruger’s train’.

The plan called for a train of sleek and uniform appearance,  essentially ‘Queensland’ in the choice of timber-bodied coaches built on  steel underframes. All coaches would measure a standard 52ft 6in long  and 9ft wide (with the exception of the 55 ft 6in parlour cars) and  allowing for Queensland’s generous loading gauge for rollingstock  construction it would have semi-elliptical roofs to accentuate the  interior space. (Material used for lining the carriage ceilings soon  earned the train the title of ‘the plywood express’ among the Ipswich  workers.)

Knowing that Queensland’s limited locomotive power needed all the help  it could get roller bearing bogies were adopted throughout making it the  first complete train in Australia to be equipped like this. In the  carriage ‘shops’ an almost ‘production line’ assembly began of the 29  coaches necessary to form three mail trains for the  Brisbane-Townsville-Cairns weekly schedule. Veteran carriage builders  Foreman Alf Wallis and Sub-foreman Joe Tunstal were in charge of the  more than 20 craftsmen of the No. 1 Gang assignee to the construction.

Each  train would consist of 12 coaches positioned behind the locomotive in  the following order – brake van, baggage van, second class sitting car,  First Class sitting car, three second class sleeping cars, dining car,  three First Class sleeping cars and a palour-observation car.

In all, they provided accommodation for 206 passengers plus train  crew. Insulation against the extremes of a northern climate received  careful attention with the adoption of Colotex compressed sheeting in  the roof to repel heat. Likewise, beneath the floor a rubber underlay  muffled track noise in an era before welded rail. The coaches were also  richly carpeted throughout. Records of the Ipswich Workshops show that  to build a First Class sleeping car cost £5885/10/1. The cost of a  parlour car was £4553/11/10. A First Class sitting car was £4299/17/6  and a second-class car was £4304/13/1.

The  exterior appearance of the Express drew much pleasing comment. Whereas  passenger rollingstock had traditionally been painted in a maroon shade,  for the Sunshine Express the choice was varnished natural cedar to  convey the tropical spirit. Natural timbers were also a theme repeated  throughout the interiors. Polished red cedar with matching red chrome  leather upholstered seats in the twin-berth cabins of the First Class  sleeping cars and varnished native pine in the three-berth second class  cabins with matching red fabric upholstery. Red cedar paneling also  featured in the dining car where by wide windows chairs of red chrome  leather awaited the 29 patrons seated at tables arranged for two or four  guests. The menu offered them lunch or dinner at 2/6 a head and morning  or afternoon tea at 6 d each.

Swiveling  arm chairs again upholstered in red chrome leather were arranged in the  trailing parlour car where the First-Class passengers could yarn, read a  book, play cards or maybe summon the conductor for a pot of tea and  nibbles from the kitchenette. Depending on the rollingstock employed  they could also enjoy the passing scenery through the wide, glazed end  of the car or be seated outside on an observation platform.

On a train that travelled for almost two days into the tropics  cooling had been a major question. The answer – or perhaps the  compromise was a series of oscillating electric fans fitted to each  cabin and sitting compartment supplemented by roof-top ventilators. Iced  water was freely available (and hot water flasks for the First Class).  Mirrors, arm rests, wardrobes and reading lights and ‘thoughtfully  arranged’ bathrooms and lavatories were all part of a luxury train of  which Queenslanders could be proud. But the fact remained that  air-conditioning was one nicety that Sunshine Express passengers would  go without.

Commissioner Davidson had carefully considered the air-conditioning  option but ruled it was not for the Queensland Railways. The cost of  installing the apparatus he wrote in his 1934-35 Annual Report would  probably be nearer £3000 per carriage which in the case of the new  trains being constructed for the Sunshine Route would mean an increase  in their cost of about 50 per cent.

"I am of the opinion that such an outlay is not justified. If the sum  of £30,000 were available, I would prefer to improve the comfort of a  large number of our older carriages … rather than that a few  [passengers] should benefit by the air-conditioning of one train only.  The experience of other railways, both abroad and at home, will be  closely followed so that further consideration may be given to the  matter…"

On  Thursday 24 May 1935 the Hon. John Dash, the appropriately named  Minister for Transport and Commissioner Davidson hosted an exhibition  run of the first Sunshine Express from Brisbane to Landsborough on the  North Coast Line. Proud to show off the design and workmanship of his  Ipswich men an affable Bobby Chalmers strolled along the corridors  fielding questions and sampling the comments of the politicians,  judiciary, businessmen and reporters who were the invited guests.  Numerous travelers admired the rattle-free rimless windows. The windows  were a particular pride of the Chief Mechanical Engineer. He liked the  wide view they braced and the security of quarter-inch plate glass yet  when one of his draftsmen had suggested etching a motif into the glass  to alert passengers when a window was closed, Bobby Chalmers was  reported to have replied ‘only a bloody fool would try to stick his head  through a pane of thick glass!’

The Express returned from the VIP excursion late in the afternoon to  be readied for the first run to Cairns in a few days’ time. Mr Chalmers  unfortunately wasn’t aboard to receive the congratulations when they  pulled into Central Station. During the journey the train had stopped at  a signal for a seemingly undue amount of time. Impatient to investigate  the delay the Chief Mechanical Engineer rose quickly from his seat to  gaze along the track. Whack! Skin and skull collided with immovable  glass that shattered into razor-sharp pieces. Forehead badly cut, blood  flowing down his face, light concussion ensuing Bobby Chalmers was  hurried to a casualty ward. A rapid order was sent to the Workshops.  When the Sunshine Express left for Cairns three days later a dainty  emblem was visible on every window.

The happy days of “Chasing the Sunshine” came to an abrupt end in  1942 in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbour attack and the rapid Japanese  advance through the south-west Pacific to New Guinea and nearby  Islands. Normal railway services suffered as Queensland Railways  directed their attention to the war effort. American and Australian  serviceman filled the compartments of the Sunshine Route not as tourists  but personnel moving towards training camps and the jungle battle  grounds. Priority traffic on the North Coast Line were trains filled  with reinforcements and their weapons and supplies. Sleeping and Parlour  cars were removed from the Sunshine Express and sent to the workshops  to be rebuilt as hospital trains.

Peace returned to the Pacific after the Japanese surrender in 1945  but tourism struggled to resurrect itself in a decade pestered with  dislocation and shortages. As life in the north slowly returned to  normal the Sunshine Express resumed catering for long-distance travelers  and the tourist trade. As a mail train the Sunshine service had never  in fact ceased but now with the parlour cars missing and the over age  rollingstock now painted red across the varnished timbers the luxury  spirit was never quite recaptured.