DownsSteam Tourist Railway & Museum

DownsSteam Project 106: The Pride of Toowoomba Appeal

Slowly but surely, we're creeping ever closer to the day Loco 106: The Pride of Toowoomba, will be slowly and carefully lowered back onto its wheels in a ceremony which will mark the half-way mark in its journey towards complete restoration.
In this video, project manager Andrew Caldwell and Downs Steam life member Peter Eldridge talk about the project so far, why its so important and how you can help.

1997 Garratt Tour to Toowoomba

Queensland Railways sole surviving Garratt is shown on a Sunsteam Tour to Toowoomba on 15 March 1997. Let's hope one day that we will see her again ply Queensland's rails (maybe in time for the QR 150th celebrations!).

Two steam trains at Toowoomba station.

29th April 2017. Celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the railway reaching Toowoomba in Queensland included the arrival of two steam trains. One from Warwick, the other from Brisbane. Southern Downs Steam Railway is a volunteer operated not-for-profit group, which runs regular trips from their base in Warwick, Qld.
For more info visit our website. southerndownssteamrailway.com.au

Cobb And Co Museum Toowoomba

Can you imagine yourself on a Cobb and Co coach in the 1800s? Life was not easy.

C17 971 - SDSR Steam Train to Clifton and Greenmount - 20/10/2018

On Saturday 20th October 2018, the Southern Downs Steam Railway ran a special steam train to the small rural township of Clifton as part of Clifton Country Week.

A short local shuttle was also run to Greenmount and return for the locals to experience a ride on a steam train.

Shunting Training

Preparations are well underway for DownsSteam to begin running tourist services across Southern Queensland.

Earlier this month, our first band of trainee engine drivers took turns behind the controls of our diesel locomotive 1172 for an afternoon of shunting training at our Drayton precinct.

RM1901 and C17 971 cross at Clifton

Railmotor meets steam locomotive on Qld's Southern Line.

Pictures here:
winelander.tumblr.com

The proud and colourful history of Loco 106

Back in 1915, Steam Locomotive 106 became the last loco to roll out of the Toowoomba Foundry - at around the same time as the first Australian troops waded onto the sands of Gallipoli.

Now, a little more than a century has passed - and the once proud steam engine is sitting, semi-restored, in our Drayton shed.

In the meantime, the engine has steamed its way along more than a million kilometres of Queensland rail lines before it's found itself in the hands of our dedicated craftsmen and volunteers.

Watch the amazing story of what's happened to one of the most well-travelled characters of Toowoomba's colourful past during the last century - and why it's so important that it be offered a second chance at life.

AC16 221A hauls the Grandchester Express.1Jul 2017.

1st July 2017 and steam loco AC16-221A, an ex Queensland Government Railways loco, now part of Queensland Rail's heritage fleet, hauls a special excursion train to Grandchester from The Workshops Rail Museum. This route from Ipswich to Grandchester (first called Bigges Camp) was the first operational railway in Queensland opening in 1865.

We first see the train pause briefly just after leaving the Workshops Museum to then proceed in an impressive show of smoke and steam, through the precinct of the Riverlink Shopping Centre at North Ipswich. Unable to chase the train to Grandchester as planned I was at least able to catch the train on its return to the Museum a couple of hours later. Please enjoy.

SDSR Tour to Wallangarra

Southern Downs Steam Railway's tour to Wallangarra 01/08/15

Tim Fischer AC opens DownsSteam Shed at Drayton

Australia's best-known train buff, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer AC (The Man with the Hat) was in Toowoomba on Saturday 21st July, 2012 to officially open DownsSteam Tourist Railway & Museum's Restoration Shed. He was assisted in unveiling a plaque by Cr. Ros Scotney, chair of DownsSteam.

Scott McGregor talks trains and tourism - the perfect match

Former television personality, now rail tour host Scott McGregor brought a group of avid rail enthusiasts to DownsSteam for dinner and a tour this week.

While he was here, he took time out for a chat about how his own rail passions began, the untapped potential of rail tourism and why its one area where Queensland has it all over NSW.

Gowrie to Helidon flythrough video – August 2019

The Gowrie to Helidon (G2H) section is one of 13 projects that complete Inland Rail. This project is in Queensland and comprises 28km of new dual gauge track between Gowrie (north-west of Toowoomba) and Helidon (east of Toowoomba). It crosses the two Local Government Areas of Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley. G2H will include a new 6km tunnel to create an efficient route through the steep terrain of the Toowoomba Range.

The G2H project is nearing the end of the feasibility stage.

We have an updated flythrough video of the alignment which provides visualisations of the crossing loops, road rail interfaces, tunnel, bridge structures and cuttings and embankments.

Contact us for more information.

The fly-through video is for illustration purposes and for discussion and community consultation.

Downs Steam gets an Early Christmas Present

Christmas has come early for the team at Toowoomba's Downs Steam Tourist Railway with the delivery of four new coaches - a gift from Queensland Rail.

The two sleeper cars, a club car and a canteen car were hauled up the range yesterday and carefully shunted into Downs Steam's Drayton yards where they will be added to the railway's collection of rolling stock.

Downs Steam's Robert Ketton said the sleeper cars and club cars would eventually be used to take tourists on weekend trips to the Granite Belt wineries with unique overnight accommodation included in the package.

Steam train at Towrang, Australia

3526 and 3642 lead a Rail Transport Museum tour train through Towrang, NSW, Australia, on 5 April 2008.

SDSR tribute

Based in Warwick Qld, the Southern Downs Steam Railway started life in the mid 1990s intending to be a humble museum centred around the former Warwick roundhouse.

After circumstances led to the acquisition of a steam locomotive in the late 1990s, a 'dad's army' of volunteers put in over seven years hard work completely restoring C17 971 to running order. After completing trials and complying with much accreditation, the group began mainline running trains in 2009, north to Clifton, south to Stanthorpe and Wallangarra and the occasional train west to Goondiwindi.

As a passenger and train watcher, I applaud their achievements. Thank you for the many, many hours of hobby-derived pleasure that SDSR has enabled.

Best regards,

Rosewood railfest

Rosewood railway museum railfest, April 26 and 27 2014.

Southern Downs Steam Railway - Australia Day 2009 pt 2 of 2

The Southern Downs Steam Railway in Warwick Queensland ran steam train trips to Hendon and Clifton over the Australia Day long weekend.

This was the Southern Downs Steam Railway's first public outing since recieving mainline accreditation.

For some reason Youtube won't recognise this video as high quality, so to view the higher quality version simply add &fmt=18 to the end of the URL.