Loco Shed NQ in Townsville, Queensland | History Museum

Loco Shed NQ

Locality: Townsville, Queensland

Phone: +61 414 967 285

Address: 14 Commercial Avenue, Bohle 4818 Townsville, QLD, Australia

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24.01.2022 Tomorrow marks a year since we gave you any real update. I guess we were waiting for some good news to pass on. We’ve had false-starts and disappointments over the last year, together with a couple of organisational distractions. We can’t help but notice however that our Facebook following has steadily increased to over 1K ‘Likes’ and even more followers. In grateful recognition of this we’ll try harder with the communication good news or bad. Over the next few days (pe...rhaps weeks) we’ll update you topic by topic. You can expect to see in no particular order discussion on What’s happening with 1263 Where did 1104 go Progress on track laying Volunteer critical mass ARHS membership costs reduced by 35% Surplus section cars Rationalisation of the resource centre Stay tuned

24.01.2022 With COVID-19 plans in place we are now open again on Mondays and Wednesdays

24.01.2022 A small side note to progress on 1150. We lifted one of the plywood floor panels in the cab, just to see if anything had changed since 2000. Well..... After clearing out the rat's nest, built with newspaper and the wool insulation from the sidewalls, we discovered fairly significant corrosion damage, especially towards the outer walls. That's now had the full treatment - needle scaler, vacuum, metal prep cleaner, industrial grade rust converter and sealer, and primer. You can see the resultant dimple finish on the floor but there is still plenty of metal there. More to come.

24.01.2022 A quick question for anyone who operated 1150 - or sisters - up here in the North. What was the paint colour of the cab interior? The photo, taken 20 years ago, shows some vellum paint applied to the cabinet but it looks like the standard interior off-white in the process of being cleaned off of the front face. We'd just like to be sure we get it right.

24.01.2022 1263 Status It's been a fairly unsettled few weeks since our last post. It seems that whenever we're about to publish an update, something changes. We have just had confirmation that QR Heritage still want 1263 and that she will be moved to Ipswich. If we find out when, we'll let you know.

23.01.2022 Progress continues with the exterior of the nose and cab. We couldn't have worked on this portion of the loco without the provision of painter's planks by Harry of "Townsville aluminium trestles and planks" - Garbutt. We also need to say at this point that all of the industrial coating (paint) we need is being supplied as we need it, by the Dulux Trade centre in Woodman Court, West End. Ryan and his team there have also provided a lot of technical advice to we amateurs. More about the paint and techniques at a later date.

22.01.2022 Minor progress. The first rough primer coat on the nose section. It's taken a while because there was a lot of corrosion control work to be done. Compare with photos from last year. The strip around the base is just a different brand.

22.01.2022 In an effort to be more accessible locally, starting tomorrow we'll have someone at the Bohle each Saturday from 0930 to 1330. Drop-in visitors will always be welcome.

21.01.2022 Just a quick update on 1150 for our followers. All of the removable doors on the fireman's side are off the loco and stored in our MALY. About half of the driver's side are also off. A lot of our effort over the last week has gone into assessment of the work needed. Effectively figuring out what has changed during the 15 years or so of storage. We'll keep you updated.

21.01.2022 Earlier this year (2019) the North Queensland Committee negotiated the acquisition by our friends at Downer EDI of Tasmanian 11 Class diesel hydraulic locomotive 1104 with the view of restoring and returning it to revenue service at their Maryborough facility. Downer recently provided the Committee with an update as to the progress of the restoration by them: The wheels were a bit of a challenge whilst all new electrics for 24v have been installed. Next year should see the loco running. The two images, provided by Downer, depict the great job they are doing with 1104.

19.01.2022 Update It's been a long time since we gave you an update. We still don't have permission to actually make permanent changes to the site but we have re-distributed some of the hardware, and we have had some great advice from a track engineer. We've moved two panels of track into the main shed and just laid them on the compacted floor. We also lifted some light equipment onto this track - just temporarily. We will have to lift it again to lay some ballast - but hey, it makes for convenient, more attractive storage. More soon.

18.01.2022 This locomotive was built by International General Electric in Schenectady NY USA. It entered service as 1210 in November 1952. The class was renumbered twice, with the class leader eventually becoming 1150. Condemned in February 1988, it was purchased by the ARHS in 1995. Restoration work began in Townsville in 1998 but was halted indefinitely in early 2005 with the loss of our workshop facility. It will be our first priority when tracks are in place. Project leader for this restoration is Ian Ellerton.

15.01.2022 Restoration of 1150 back on the rails. LocoShed NQ is once again in full possession of its Diesel Electric Locomotive No. 1150. With the support and assistance of A. Gabrielli Construction Pty Ltd and Universal Cranes NQ, earlier this month 1150 + MALY + TLV were relocated into out facility at the Bohle, Townsville.... 1150 is now undercover and out of the elements, allowing some very keen members to re-start work on restoring the locomotive. Persons interested in joining in on the restoration or any other aspect of preserving the railway history of North Queensland are more than welcome.

15.01.2022 Recently Mr. Adrian Gabrielle of A. Gabrielle Constructions was an honoured guest at Locoshed NQ, during which Adrian was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation from the team for his and his company’s generous support and encouragement in the relocation of DEL 1150 + associated rollingstock into the shed at the Bohle, Townsville. Thanks Adrian!

13.01.2022 Mrs and Mr Goldammer from Germany were recent visitors to Loco Shed NQ. Seen here outside our shed with three of our hard working members.

11.01.2022 Christmas Break We have decided to take a short break over Christmas/ New year, so we are effectively closed now until Monday 11 January 2021. We had hoped to get just a little paint onto 1150 before the end of this year, but there has been quite a bit of corrosion control and surface preparation involved, so progress is just behind our hoped-for schedule. We'd like to thank all our followers for your interest during 2020, and wish you all and your families a happy and safe festive season. See you in 2021.

10.01.2022 It's a long time since we gave you an update. We are still in the process of gaining approval to actually lay track. We only have approval to bring materials on-site. In the mean time Ian has taken the lead in re-arranging some of the material piles. We have two 12.2 metre track panels assembled and will continue with this work; ready for when we can put them in place. The shunt tractor we bought back in March has needed TLC and some of this has been done externally. The fu...el pump and injectors have been overhauled as has the radiator. Next we need to find $350 to replace a totally destroyed hydraulic drive coupling. Kerry and Rule have done most of this work. Our spot tamper (MMT15) is coming back together in case it can be used during the track construction. Kerry and Alex are working on this. BTW, we may have sourced some screened ballast for the right price. We'll bring you some photos and more news over the next few days. See more

08.01.2022 Looking for a local plumber. If one of our Townsville local followers is a licensed plumber willing to donate about 30 minutes, we have a small but important job. As a not-for-profit we try to save every dollar we can but we always acknowledge donations of services, even if only on this page. If you can and would like to help us here, message us using the button in the box below or call our compliance coordinator (fancy name for dog's body) on 0417612913 - or call the contact number on the main page. We would love to have more local people involved but understand that time is a real issue these days.... so we'll be asking for more one-off assistance in the future.

08.01.2022 We want to wish all of our followers a happy and safe holiday season. We do appreciate your interest in what we're doing, even though there hasn't been much progress of late. We've spent the last couple of weeks cleaning the yard area and the interior of the main shed; just in case Santa wanted to bring us a new railway. Seriously, there are negotiations in the pipeline. May you all have a very prosperous 2018.

08.01.2022 Recently, the North Queensland Committee (NQC) were happy to donate two de-mountable buildings to our friends at The Youth Network NQ INc., a not-for-profit service that provides a voice for young people and the issues they face in the community. Whilst in much need of repair and refurbishing after the "rain event" in February and beyond the current capacity and financial viability of the NQC to do so, the buildings will provide The Network much needed accommodation in which to support two of the capacity building activities it offers the youth of Townsville. Another example of the NQC working with the community of North Queensland.

07.01.2022 For the time being, LocoShed NQ is operating in a "Stop Work" mode.

06.01.2022 Townsville Bulletin some months back

06.01.2022 Have you heard our advertising jingle on Triple T 103.9 FM, community radio. It sounds great and brings a greater awareness to the people of North Queensland of the NQC's activities and objectives here at the Loco Shed. Worth a listen!

05.01.2022 At the moment (November 2019) we have eight section cars at the Bohle. Not all belong to us. Some are privately owned and are just here temporarily. A couple are privately owned and available for disposal. Our intention is to have one of each of the three main types in our collection. We are not in the business of operating these or even testing them on track; but we will restore them to the maximum extent possible. Click on an image to view the caption.

04.01.2022 August 2019 update #1. Rail Progress This afternoon we took delivery of 20 m3 of road base gravel to start some track outside of the shed. This is a very much appreciated donation by Adrian Gabrielli, MD of Gabrielli Construction. Adrian is very keen to see us resume progress on our project. The plan from here is for us to level and compact the road base over a 40m. stretch out from the shed. When that is complete (mainly manual labour) Adrian will donate ballast to over...lay the base. After we have levelled that, we will lift into place 3 x 12m. track panels constructed (manual labour) from the other side of the yard. This will give us track onto which we can lift loco 1150 and possibly a couple of other items from the adjacent QR siding, so they can be moved into the shed. Keep watching as half a dozen of us wield shovels and push wheelbarrows. See more