RM60

This little AEC railmotor is as unique at the Normanton to Croydon Railway itself.

A 45 horsepower Associated Equipment Company (AEC), built Ipswich Railway Workshops 1931, in service Normanton-Croydon railway, 1960-1964. In 1993 RM60 was sent to Townsville Workshops for overhaul, and motor was overhauled at Ipswich Railway Workshops.

The RM60 was returned to Normanton in 1994 and used for short excursions or special charters and still operates to this day.

RM60 generally runs at 230pm most days Monday to Friday throughout the months of May to October. Additional services can be arranged to suit customer needs. Some conditions do apply for these additional services, please contact the Normanton Railway Station for details.

Price is $20.00 per person. Bookings are essential.

The history of the AEC railmotors

Between 1927 and 1931, thirty eight AEC truck chassiss had been imported in to Queensland and were fitted out with seats and bodies, and converted for rail use in the Ipswich workshops near Brisbane.

Here is the story of three of these railmotors which worked the Normanton to Croydon line.

RM31 was built at Ipswich in 1928 on the extended chassis of an AEC 45hp petrol truck with a bogie at the front and rail wheels fitted to the rear driving axles. It was 7.5 metres long and weighed six tonnes empty. There were six bench seats across the body, with doors in the waist high walls and pull down side blinds. Spark plugs were charged by magneto, lights were powered by generator, and starting was a manual hand crank. With a train of twenty tones all up it consumed 26 litres of benzene per 100 kms.

It was loaded on the Kallatina by the electric crane at the Woolloongabba coal wharf Brisbane as deck cargo, and transferred to rails laid athwart a hatch on the barge Hercules inside the Norman River bar. On June 12 1929 when the tide brought the deck nearly level with the wharf at the Margaret and Jane Landing on the banks of the Norman River, each end was lifted in turn on to the wharf and placed on the rail line that ran between the wharf and the Normanton Station.

The Normanton line was now rare among railways in being operated entirely by the power of internal combustion engine. Not that there was much power: with only 45hp available, the maximum mass of train allowed including the railmotor, was only 22 tonnes. However up to 45 tonnes were moved at times.

By 1945 RM31 was dilapidated after travelling over 340,000 kilometres on the line. In October 1945 RM31 was replaced by RM32 which had gone new to the Cooktown line in 1929 and replaced in 1944 by another car. RM32 was sent to Townsville for overhaul. As the line to the Margaret and Jane landing in Normanton was no longer trafficable, RM32 ran under its own power to Forsayth. It was partly dismantled there, the body complete with engine placed on one road truck, the bogie and rear drive axle on another. These were delivered to Croydon on the same day that RM31 run the scheduled service. With the help of the track gang and the good shed crane, RM32 was assembled and left 6 hours late on the regular return service. RM31 was dismantled for similar transport to Forsayth. When it arrived in Townsville the condition was that bad it written off and parts salvaged.