Re: Townsville Shuntyards

Re: Townsville Shuntyards

In 2004 I uploaded Townsville Shuntyards to Train 2004. It was a pretty accurate rendition of the yards the way I remembered them in the 1970's and early 1980's. I returned to Townsville QLD in 2017 after being away for 34 years. It almost brought me to tears. The South Yard and North Yard are gone. No Tracks, just dirt. The yards have been sold to developers. The Townsville Station has been moved. The old building is there as heritage.
The only track bypassing the South Yard is the Main Line which carries ore and sugar trains from Western, Northern QLD.
As for the Townsville Jetty yard, you can't get down there because of the high Security now.
History gone.
Frank

It is very sad, and has happened a lot of places. You are fortunate that you actually preserved history in a way by creating it in TRAINZ, where it can live on!

Frank,

It happens all too often. Developers always win and so do management and those with pockets to fill. Where I live, developers were allowed to not only encroach upon a ROW, but also build right over it in some places even though the line was mothballed or dormant. The line now is dead and has no chance of ever being restored even with requests prior to the sell off to bring the line back in service for commuter use. What do we have instead? A lousy bicycle path instead that's under utilized and a waste of our tax money.

Sadly I've seen this as I'm working on a Townsville route, north, west and south to the first cane fields. Those yards were massive and the google images show where they were roughly. The new station building looks like a bus shelter! Didn't know about your shunt yards layout so I'll check that out as I have ben unable to find any yard diagrams anywhere. Mind you, I'm setting this in the 1940s.

@ Alikiwi. Yeah mate. There was plenty of room to move in the South Yard. It was a dangeous place to be if you didn't have your wits about you. My rendition of the yards are not exactly to scale, but the layout is correct and the road (track names) are correct. As is the North Yard and the Jetty. From what I saw of the Stuart Yards when I was there in 2017, they are miniscule to the size of the South yard. I saw a map online the other day that had where the tracks were and not sure if I saved it or not. I'll check and repost if I find it. Do a Google and search South Yards Townsville and scroll through. It's a road map other than the Google Map.
BTW: I was born in Townsville and lived opposite the Jetty end when I was a kid in the 50's and it was the same then as it was when I shunted it in the 70's and 80's. The only thing changed was it was steam then and diesel when I worked there. I would have loved to have shunted with steam.
Regards
Frank

Sorry Alikiwi. I gave you a bum steer. It is a Google Map. Here is the link below. You can enlarge it and it will show you every track that was in the South yard.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/plac...7c7ac441d95f8ac!8m2!3d-19.2660767!4d146.81906

Kind regards
Frank

A better image of anything in Queensland maps is Queensland Globe. The images are a lot clearer!

Thanks for that. I did have a broader view from the same source

Hi alby6,
I checked the QLD Globe maps out but what it shows is a modern view of the South Yard with everything ripped up and it does not show where every track was.
The link I submitted maybe only lines but it does show where every track was. Especially around the Good Sheds near the mainline. There were a lot more tracks there, albiet just lines at least it shows the layout as it was in the 70's. We used to fill Water Gins and store the empty Fuel Bowsers out ther for the Jetty Shunt to pick up on there way down. When we were one the 5am to 1pm jetty shunt we would pick up our engine, usually a DH on the Town End of the mainline in the South Yard and make up our train from those roads over where I was referring to. Then it was down to the Jetty to Shunt the Fuel Installations etc. Likewise with the Noon to 8pm Jetty Shunt. The only difference between the 2 shunts was that the Noon to 8pm shunted the installations etc and brought the loaded Bowsers back to the South Yard for the guys in the Yard to Marshall them into the out going trains to the west like 40D and 52D to the Isa.
Unless there were Bowsers for 243 a Northern Goods which was marshalled in the South Yard and left about 2.30pm if my memory serves me correct.
We used to have to hook on to the back of 243 and tow her out past Forkline usualyy on another Shunt called The Runner (6am to 2pm and 2pm shifts to 10pm) travelling towards the South and the 243 driver would give us a blast on the horn when he was clear of the points at Forkline and we would cut her off and send her on her way along the Mainline past the old Townsville Station and North Yard Shuntyards. It must have been a spectacle for the residents in Railway estate watching a long goods train being pulled out backwards every day and then going her own way.
A lot of of fond memories from back then. I loved that job. Albiet the Draw Hooks and heavy Couplings which we had to lean over the buffers side on and couple up one handed. Always stronger in the right arm than the left ;-D
Kind regards
Frank

I am currently recovering from major surgery and decided to have another look at the Shuntyards and to my eyes the layout is pathetic. If I can keep my brain in gear re pain, sitting, etc, I am thinking of redoing it with more accuracy and not putting all of the phony eye candy in. NO playgrounds etc. The old Power House was not functional at the Jetty was no functional when I shunted there but we did take the engine and fuel bowsers through it to get to the Amoco Refinery. There were no loops at any of the fuel installations either. I only put them in there so that you could reload the fuel bowsers which is what we called them. If anyone is interested let me know. But I only have TRZ2004/06 and now the 2009 Freebie with a FCT. I put my gaming computer online only to download some items. As soon as the downloadsare done It's offline again unless I upload anything. I hate windows 10 which was loaded on because Windows 7 isn't supported anymore. In my opinion it's the biggest heap of crap since God shoveled guts into Adam.

Below is a copy of a post I put in a couple of weeks back >>

I did upload this info to "Surveyors etc" if I remember correctly but not sure if anyone saw it. This link shows old Government Aerial Photos of the Townsville area in particular the Railyards in the 70's - 80's.

If any one is interested here is a link I've just found to QLD Govt Aerial Photos.

https://qimagery.information.qld.gov.au/

Open site. Do a Search 'Townsville City' and Advanced, Search Filters, Date 1971 - 1990. Hit Search again Scroll down to 'Townsville Station Yards 1979.' and click on it. Scroll through and hover over the image and it will show a square on the map of the area you want. I found that if I enlarge the images to the size I want and then right click the image and select print. The PDF will give you the area enlarged.
I hope that explains it sufficiently.
I think Alikiwi may be interested for one.
Kind Regards
Frank

Franglen said:

I am currently recovering from major surgery and decided to have another look at the Shuntyards and to my eyes the layout is pathetic. If I can keep my brain in gear re pain, sitting, etc, I am thinking of redoing it with more accuracy and not putting all of the phony eye candy in. NO playgrounds etc. The old Power House was not functional at the Jetty was no functional when I shunted there but we did take the engine and fuel bowsers through it to get to the Amoco Refinery. There were no loops at any of the fuel installations either. I only put them in there so that you could reload the fuel bowsers which is what we called them. If anyone is interested let me know. But I only have TRZ2004/06 and now the 2009 Freebie with a FCT. I put my gaming computer online only to download some items. As soon as the downloadsare done It's offline again unless I upload anything. I hate windows 10 which was loaded on because Windows 7 isn't supported anymore. In my opinion it's the biggest heap of crap since God shoveled guts into Adam.
:
:
Kind Regards
Frank

Click to expand...

Sorry for your ailment. If you can port the route into 2009 that's a good place to work on it. Should keep you distracted for days or weeks. Or months. An '09 version can also be ported up to 12 or T:ANE and only need a little work. The sessions are a different matter - in TANE, at least, it's easier just to recreate them. Anyway, the route sounds interesting. Haven't been closer than Cairns myself.

I find Windows 10 to be quite usable once you go through and uninstall a lot of the marketing apps and other crud. It seems to be a very solid system, though I admit to stalling on moving up from 7 for quite a while.

:B~)

I download several of those which give more detail than what I've seen before, thanks.

Hi again'
@ RHKluckholn............... Sorry mate. Trs2009 is as high as I am going. I will not load a program where it has to phone home to verify who I am. So 2012 etc are out of the question. I do not play games online.

@ Alikiwi, Yeah mate. I was blown away when I saw that site. Made me want to redo the Shuntyards. Also.... when I did the Shuntyards I missed a track in the North yard which was the old Coal Stage.
I'll try and do better next time. Someone once posted "If I buy another train my wife threatened to leave me. I'm going to miss her."
Mine threatened to poison the stew if I got back into this.
Looks like hot pies and Steak Burgers for Frankie from now on.
Kind Regards guys
Frank

Franglen said:

Hi again'
@ RHKluckholn............... Sorry mate. Trs2009 is as high as I am going. I will not load a program where it has to phone home to verify who I am. So 2012 etc are out of the question. I do not play games online.
:
:
Kind Regards guys
Frank

Click to expand...

My 2012 doesn't phone home. You might consider moving up, it's a step up from 2009 IMHO - better frame rates, and it will digest all your older assets.

But I did a lot of work in '09 and have not moved everything forward, so I still go back occasionally. I miss the old "Winter in Germany" route.

:B~)