Overview

In the 1870s and 1880s, private groups and individuals were promoting the concept of a transcontinental railway across western Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

One of these concepts was for a private railway from Roma to Point Parker. This received the backing of the government of Sir Thomas McIlwraith, the then Premier of Queensland. Subsequently the land grant and privately built railway collapsed with the fall of his Government which would have served Cloncurry and the mineral fields of the district en route.

In 1885 a survey was undertaken for a railway between Cloncurry and Normanton, after a Glasgow based Cloncurry Copper Mining and Smelting Company decided to develop the Cloncurry mining field. The government decided to proceed with a railway from the port of Normanton, to Cloncurry and an order was placed for 160 kilometres of rail.

The first section towards Cloncurry was approved on 16th November 1886. Yet whilst these grand plans were being enacted by Parliament in Brisbane, other events were already overtaking the future direction of the railway.

The discovery of gold at Croydon in November 1885 saw a hurried change in direction of the railway with Normanton quickly becoming the port for the new bonanza. The gold field was rich and travel difficult in the hot dry conditions. The population by 1887 reached 6000.

Parliament agreed to amend the already approved plans so that the first few miles would be common whether the railway went to Cloncurry or Croydon.

A budget was approved in October 1887 for construction of the first sixty-eight kilometres of railway to Croydon. Although the government still maintained that a railway would be built to Cloncurry.

The first twenty one kilometres of the Normanton-Cloncurry railway was deviated for the new destination of Croydon. The rest of the railway to the goldfields was approved by parliament on 28th May 1889.

The first rail on the Normanton-Croydon railway was laid in 1888. To lower construction costs and to defeat the termites of the Gulf, specially patented steel sleepers were used, designed by QR Inspecting Surveyor George Phillips (1843-1921).

Phillips was a civil engineer, authorized surveyor, and explorer, who had also surveyed the towns of Normanton and Burketown. In 1878, Phillips joined the Railways Department as an Inspecting Surveyor. In 1886, Phillips retired from the Public Service, establishing himself as consulting Surveyor and Civil Engineer. 

From 1888 to 1891 Phillips supervised the construction of the Normanton-Croydon Railway. Mrs Archibald Smith Frew laid the first sleeper of the main line to Croydon on 2nd July 1888. The chief assistant engineer was Archibald Smith Frew who later went on to construct the Almaden-Forsayth line.

Less than four of the 151 kilometres were protected by side drains and only small amounts of ballast were used, despite the railway carrying normal rolling stock over some of the ?most flooded and rotten country in Australia?.

The sleepers were packed with earth when they were laid, giving extra weight and stability, and the rails were bolted to the sleepers which meant they could not move nor work loose in the same way as dog-spikes used in timber sleepers. In flood time water simply passed over the top.

Except for the cost of the steel sleepers (more expensive than timber) it was an exceedingly cheap method of construction suitable for light traffic frontier lines. The railway opened in three stages with the first to Haydon being completed on May 7, 1889, then Blackbull on December 15, 1890 and finally to Croydon on July 20, 1891. Golden Gate, near Croydon, was one of the richest production centres on the Croydon gold field.

The initial train service was worked by steam train four days a week, being reduced after 1894 to three. Every three weeks the timetable was varied to coincide with the arrival of the mail steamer to the Port of Normanton. In the early twentieth century, Special trains were run for picnic events, race meetings and even a suburban service from Croydon to Golden Gate. The last steam train ran in 1929. Since 1930, the service has been exclusively run using railmotors.

The expense and difficulties of maintaining a steam service, combined with the closure of the Croydon goldfields, saw the Queensland Railways investigate cost saving measures.

In 1922, the first internal Combustion engine railmotor (RM14) arrived in Normanton. This was a converted Panhard Levassor road wagon.

In 1888-89 the first three steam locomotives arrived by sea for the Normanton Railway. Locomotives 1, 2 and 3 were all built in England by the Vulcan Foundry in Lancashire, being supplied by the Fairlie Engine Company for what was the Central Railway. All three locomotives were built in 1877. 

Originally the locomotives had been built for use on the Central Railway, which was being extended progressively from Rockhampton west towards Barcaldine in the period of the 1870s and 1880s. They were small and underpowered for their use as passenger locomotives, and were used mainly on construction trains and for shunting work. They featured a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement which was similar to the first A10 locomotives that entered service for QR in 1865.

All the locomotives were used on construction work during the building of the railway. The three locomotives were all renumbered under the QR state wide system in 1889 and became:

A10 Number 202 Vulcan 802 of 1877 / Fairlie 602 of 1877 

First transferred to the Normanton-Croydon Railway in 1888, 202 was sold to the Pioneer Mill (gold ore crushing mill) near Croydon in 1906 and last used about 1915. The remains of the derelict locomotive were retrieved and moved to a park in Croydon in 1984 and to Croydon Station in 1991. 

A10 Number 203 Vulcan 803 of 1877 / Fairlie 604 of 1877

Transferred to the Normanton-Croydon Railway in 1888, 203 was out of use after 1895. The boiler was separated from the loco at Normanton and sent to the Clarina pump, where it remains. It is thought that the 4-wheel tender was possibly used as a water cart (together with that from 204). The tenders were reunited with the engine frames at Normanton in 1985.

After 1929, railmotors that provided the service were built on bus and truck chassis of the Associated Equipment Company (AEC). Buses in London had been built on the same type 506 chassis since 1914. Thirty-eight of the chassis were imported into Queensland from 1927-31, and fitted out with seats and bodies, and converted for rail use.

RM31: 45 horsepower AEC, built at Ipswich Railway Workshops 1928, in service Normanton Croydon railway 1929-1945.

RM32: 45 horsepower AEC, built Ipswich Railway Workshops 1929, in service Normanton-Croydon railway 1945-1960.

RM60: 45 horsepower AEC, built Ipswich Railway Workshops 1931, in service Normanton-Croydon railway, 1960-1964.

RM74: 100 horsepower AEC railmotor, built Ipswich Railway Workshops 1934, converted in 1942 to 102 horsepower Gardiner diesel engine, in service Normanton-Croydon railway 1964-1982.

RM93, the present Gulflander, is a 102 horsepower Gardner diesel engine railmotor built at Ipswich Railway Workshops in 1950.

It arrived in Normanton in 1982; the name Gulflander was painted on the sides by 1987.

DL4 (diesel locomotive): Built in 1964 by Walkers Limited, Maryborough, operated on the Etheridge railway, between Mount Surprise-Forsayth, until 1968, then transferred to Normanton 1988.

Croydon as the terminal station originally had a goods and locomotive shed. A water tank for supplying water to steam locomotives utilised a windpump. After 1895 water was drawn from the Flooded Bird in the Bush mining shaft. In 1899 the windpump was replaced with a steam pump.

The Station Master at Croydon was replaced in 1913 by a Station Mistress whose duties also included operating the crossing gates on Brown Street. In 1936 the Station Mistress was withdrawn from Croydon and thereafter the crew on the railmotor handled the business. In 1941 the empty railway residence was dismantled and sent to Normanton for use of the Officer in Charge of the railway. 

The original Croydon station was an impressive building with a 9.5 metre high galvanised iron roof (or carriage shade), 31x11 metres over the platform and two tracks. The station offices were originally 30.5x8 metres in size, which included a veranda. 

In 1966, Croydon station was re-sheeted with corrugated iron.

On November 19, 1969, a small windstorm struck Croydon, and iron sheets were torn from the station and the outer wall of the carriage shade. Then another storm on December 8 destroyed the rest of the carriage shade. The office walls, covered by tarpaulins, served as the station until a two room corrugated iron shed was built using recycled corrugated iron in the early 1970s.

In December 2002, it had become apparent that the timber framing of the station building had suffered from termite infestation. A decision was reached between QR and Croydon Shire Council whereby a new station building would be built from modern materials, but would incorporate features associated with the original station building.

These included a reconstruction of the carriage shade and veranda, similar in concept to the 1890s building.

Further information:

JW Knowles, Lonely Rails In The Gulf, Brisbane, 1993.