Same great steam footage as the VHS version with an extra 60 minutes of additional video.
Queensland adopted the 3ft 6ins gauge at a time when it was barely out of the experimental stage. Debate about the best gauge, and about the suitability of narrow gauge for main lines, was still raging. Whether a narrow gauge line could ascend the Dividing Range west of Brisbane and still haul useful loads was also an open question. But, short of capital, the Queensland Government saw it as a practical way to increase railway mileage cheaply.
The first line opened in 1865. By 1867 it has been extended across the Little Liverpool Range and up the Main Range to Toowoomba. But the full system was not complete until the 1920s. A 'small engine' policy was dictated by light rails and a 9 ton maximum axle load. In recent times, modernisation has brought diesel and electric traction, but some steam engines remain for excursion service.
The video shows PB15 class 4-6-0, C17 4-8-0, DD17 4-6-4T, and the 4-8-2+2-8-4 Beyer Garratt classes, plus the restored A10 0-4-2 (Neilson, 1865), preserved cane tram locos, and a restored Purrey steam tram at Rockhampton.
Approximate run time: 120 minutes.