The Millmerran railway line is a 71 kilometre long

branch railway A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a Main line (railway), main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city ...

in the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generally ...

region of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia.

History

The

Queensland Parliament The Parliament of Queensland is the unicameral legislative body of the Australian state of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Queensland, and the ...

approved a railway line to link

Pittsworth Pittsworth is a rural town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Pittsworth had a population of 3,300 people. Geography Pittsworth township is south-west of Brisbane via the Warrego Highway, s ...

with the east via the Southern railway line from

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

in October 1885. The line branches off the Southern line in the township of Wyreema (then called Beauaraba) 17 km south of the major regional city of

and opened on 19 September 1887. The Southern line branched from Gowrie Junction until the opening of the Drayton Deviation from Toowoomba direct to Wyreema in 1915. Stops were constructed en route to Pittsworth at

The Hollows The Hollows series (also called the Rachel Morgan series) is a series of 18 urban fantasy novels, eight short stories, two graphic novels, and one compendium resource by Kim Harrison, published by HarperCollins Publishers, in an alternate histo ...

, Umbiram, Southbrook, Greenhills and

Broxburn Broxburn (, ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It is from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston. Originally a village known as Easter Strathbock in the medieval period, by 1600, the village ha ...

. An extension to the agricultural centre of

Millmerran Millmerran , known as Domville between 1 June 1889 and 16 November 1894, is a town and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Millmerran had a population of 1,545 p ...

via Murlaggan, Yarranlea, Cecilvale, Brookstead,

Pampas The Pampas (; from Quechua 'plain'), also known as the Pampas Plain, are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all o ...

and

Yandilla Yandilla is a rural locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Yandilla had a population of 50 people. Geography The north-eastern boundary follows the Condamine River. The Gore Highway passes through from north-east to ...

was approved in November 1909 and opened for business on 18 October 1911. Much of the line closely parallels the

Gore Highway The Gore Highway is a highway running between Toowoomba and Goondiwindi in Queensland, Australia. Together with Goulburn Valley Highway and Newell Highway, it is a part of the National Highway's Melbourne to Brisbane link. It is signed as Nat ...

. Grain traffic was substantial and has been the branch lifeblood all along. A rail motor service operated between 1928 and 1969. As occurred elsewhere, road transport took over much of the business with the result that only spasmodic grain transport remains. The line was closed following the

2010–11 Queensland floods 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. American operator

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintena ...

began operating grain trains to and from Brookstead in April 2022 on behalf of

GrainCorp GrainCorp Limited is an Australian commodity trading company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company's core business is the receiving and storage of grain and related commodities. It also provides logistics and markets these ...

. The line was laid with 30 kg/m rail with an axle load of 15.75 tonnes. The maximum grade is 1 in 50 (2%) and the minimum radius curves are 160m. The line speed is 50 km/h to Brookstead, and was 30 km/h beyond.

References

* "

External links

1925 map of the Queensland railway system

{{Railway lines in Queensland , state=expanded Railway lines in Queensland Railway lines opened in 1897 Toowoomba Region 1897 establishments in Australia

History

See also

References

External links