Queensland's Imported Railway Stations

NOTES

• 1865 . Times “Railways in Australia,” (London), October 20, 1866. Previous upbeat articles had appeared in The Times linking Sir Charles Fox and Son with the railways of Queensland. Fitzgibbon wrote, for example: ‘The construction of the road and the various appliances employed are in all respects equal to any railway in the world.’—”Southern and Western of Queensland,” The Times, November 2
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• 1865 . The Engineer “Railways in Queensland,” 22 (October 12, 1866): 271. The article includes detailed drawings of the Bremer Bridge (on p. 270), attributing the design to Sir Charles Fox. The description of the difficult Queensland terrain is taken verbatim from Fitzgibbon's detailed report to the Legislative Assembly, dated July 31, 1865.—Queensland Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly (QVPLA), Sessions of, 1237–40.
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• 1867 . The Builder “The Toowoomba Railway Station, Queensland,” 25 (June 1,): 391.
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• The Times See note 46 below. It is most likely that Sir Charles Fox engaged Frederick Braby & Co. to design the stations sent out to Queensland. In October 1865, Braby and Company issued a prospectus offering shares in a limited liability company under the Companies Act of 1862. J. & R. J. Fisher are listed (on p. 4) as Engineers to this company in October 13, 1865. Braby had been trading as a manufacturer of galvanized and contractors for roofs and other structures since 1839. One of the major assets described in the prospectus was an agency for the Vieille Montagne Zinc mining Company of Belgium. This company is known to have supplied the roof for the Queensland Parliament building which was in course of erection while the railway was being built. Original negotiations for the Parliament's roof designed by Charles Tiffin involved James Edmeston in London, but his illness and subsequent death in 1867 probably resulted in the appointment of J. & R. Fisher to liaise with existing customers requiring design advice. The elaborate French Renaissance zinc roof with prominent mansards for the Parliament arrived in 1866 in a partially prefabricated form in “33 large cases”. The materials were found to have manufacturing defects, provoking a lengthy and inconclusive contractual correspondence. For information on Queenslan.'s Parliament building, see Bruce Buchanan & Associates Architects, “The History of Parliament House, Queensland: A Report prepared for the State Works Department,” unpublished report, Ipswich, June 1983, esp. 7.6, “The Roof”. Edmeston's involvement is recorded in The Builder: ‘The roofs are to be covered with Vielle Montagne Compan.'s zinc, which was all prepared and fitted in London under Mr Edmeston's superintendence previously to shipment.’—”The New Houses of Parliament, Brisbane Queensland,” The Builder 24 (December 1, 1866): 885. J & R Fisher are also listed in an 1869 Braby catalogue as ‘Architects and Engineers to the company.’ They had offices in Great George Street, Westminster, close to the Institution of Civil Engineers and in proximity to the offices of a number of influential consulting engineers with British and overseas contracts. Later (1895) Braby catalogues proudly record offices in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Adelaide.
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways,” The Builder 25 (June 1, 1867): 393. Sir Charles Fox is better known as the principal partner in Fox, Henderson & Co., the contractors that built the Crystal Palace. After 1857, following the failure of the contracting firm in 1856, Sir Charles Fox became a consulting engineer in partnership with his son. See note 30 below.
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways.”
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways.”
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways.”
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways.”
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• Illustrated London News (ILN) “Queensland Railway Stations,” 53 (July-December 1868): 364.
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• “Queensland Railway Stations.”
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• Watson , Don . 1984 . “A Century of Distant Accommodation: Building Prefabrication in Queensland 1824-c1920,” . In Historic Environment 4 no. 1: 10.
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• 1866–67 . “Light Railways in Norway, India and Queensland,” . In Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MPICE) Charles D. Fox, 26, 54.
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• 1860s . The John Oxley Collection of the State Library of Queensland has several photographs of stations erected on the Southern and Western Railway as well as of the Rockhampton terminus on the Northern Railway. Photographs of the Ipswich terminus include a view from the same position as the image engraved for the ILN (neg. 22794). The same photograph seems to have been the source for a slightly more idealised woodblock engraving published in the Illustrated Sydney News (neg. 143605). Other views show later additions to the station (negs. 151010, 17257, 122108 and 22795). The backgrounds of the earlier images show some workshop buildings that may be those mentioned in note 10 as having been imported as complete structures. Of the smaller stations, there are photographs of Laidley station dating from the late. The two-storey building has station offices on the ground floor, parallel to the platform, with residential accommodation above, verandahs front and back accessed via an external staircase on one of the short sides (negs. 142417, 176849, 22807, 22808 and 33209). Photographs of the Rockhampton terminus show that the main station building is similar in style to that sent out to Toowoomba, albeit on a much reduced scale. The shed covering the tracks and platform stands to one side of two-storeyed station building.—Negs. 2118, 6042, 12016, 13908, 13859, 14026, 22612, 22613, 22812, 23579 and 89347.
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• Fox . “Light Railways in Norway,” . 62
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• 1867 . Queenslander “The Opposition and Government,” May 25
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• QVPLA William Mason, C. E. (Acting Engineer-in-Chief for Railways in New South Wales to Parliamentary enquiry), “Report upon the Southern and Western Railways of Queensland, 1868,”, 1868, 512–14.
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• Mason . 1868 . “Report upon the Southern and Western Railways of Queensland,” 513.
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• 1867 . Queenslander 'Well, then. We will alter the statement and say it was estimated to cost £32,000. Possibly that (£15,000) is the price at the manufacturers in England. Add freight, preparation of site and laying stone foundations, expenses of erection (remember what had to be done in Ipswich before one iron pillar was set up) also a hundred other preliminary expenses, and it will be found that the estimate of £32,000 was probably correct.'—January 26, 6.
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• Queenslander . 1867 . The Builder February 23, 5. Note that these reports about changes in plan for the station at Toowoomba occur at least four months before the article in (note 1), where no hint is given of any difficulties at the destination of the large prefabricated terminus. The Queenslander, on the same day noted: ‘The first portion of the ironwork for the Toowoomba station has arrived, and the Government have called for tenders for the erection of it. It will be a duplicate of the station at Laidley.’ Some considered even the station at Laidley extravagant: ‘The opening of the Second Section. The first train reached Gatton at half past eleven, and the second at about twelve—having stopped at different stations. That at Laidley was much admired. It is a very elegant and pretentious two-storey imported iron building, in the same style as the grand Terminal at Ipswich. Its cost we believe, was £3,500—a sum far out of proportion to the requirements of the place. The station at Gatton is more in like that at Bigg.'s Camp: It cost £1,500, and yet affords every facility likely to be required for many years to come.’—Queensland Times (Ipswich), June 2, 1867, 3. Tenders were called for the erection of a modest station at Toowoomba in February 1867. The Queensland Daily Guardian carried a notice on February 14 ‘[for] the erection of an iron station at Toowoomba, similar to that erected at Laidley.’
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• Queensland Daily Guardian . March 14, 1868, 2.
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• 1868 . ‘Cost of present station buildings. as erected in lieu of that proposed—£3,957.’—Mason, “Report upon the Southern and Western Railways of Queensland,” 513.
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• 1994 . “Francis Drummond Greville Stanley,” . In Queensland Architects of the 19^th Century Brisbane : Queensland Museum . Don Watson and Judith McKay, in, 166–78. These pages contain Stanley's biography and illustrations of his works. Toowoomba station is illustrated and described on p. 169. It survives to this day.
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• 1867 . QVPLA Letter from Henry Plews (Engineer-in-Chief for Railways) to Sir Charles Fox & Son, dated Rockhampton, June 10, included as evidence in “Further Correspondence on Defective Plant and Material, Queensland Railways. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Excellency the Governor,”, 1867, 421.
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• Mason . 1868 . “Report upon the Southern and Western Railways of Queensland,” 513.
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• There are 21 drawings in this set. They are drawn in black ink on linen and some have a light colour wash. They are archived in the collection of drawings at the Queensland Railways 259/557: “Plan of First Floor.” ⅛ in. scale. Includes details of cladding and internal linings drawn to a larger scale, 1½ in. scale. 260/597: “General Plan of Upper Floor of Two storey Building” (showing standards of ground floor). ⅛ in. scale. Coded to show locations of different girders (wooden and cast iron), also various joist types. 261/598: “General Plan of Roofs.” ⅛ in. scale. Iron bargeboards, rolled joists at pediment, principals of roof, T-iron at ridge, louvre girders, purlins, gutter at top of standards, wood framing, gutters, and lattice girders all identified separately. 257/555. “General Elevations.” ⅛ in. scale. Russel Street Elevation: Six and a half bays plus wider centrepiece with segmental pediment. Finials only appear on the raised parapet of the centrepiece. New Street Elevation: Thirteen and a half bays, ending in a gabled end, rather than a hip as at the Russel Street corner. Longitudinal section through Roof over Line DE: Shows internal gallery at first floor level and extent of station roof (one bay less than length of two-storey wing facing New Street). Louvred ventilator over Station shed eight bays long. Section FG: Cross-section through station shed looking towards Russel Street. Shows section through two storey wing, access galleries, stairs and cut through station shed, showing ventilator, and extension of roof over the side platform. The roof spans over four lines of track, with only two served by platforms. 674/667: “General Plan Shewing Erection Marks.” ⅛ in. scale. Each column position is identified with a letter and number. No grid system is used. 262/598b: “Plan of Roofs.” ⅛ in. scale. All sheets are shown in this drawing. It gives quantities of each of the twelve types of roof sheet used. This drawing also locates different types of gutter and downpipe. 691/643: No title. ⅛ in. scale. Drawing showing exact positions of all corrugated iron sheets used to clad the walls. This drawing is larger than the others. A number identifies each sheet of the cladding. 263/556: “Section BC-AB.” ⅛ in. scale. Detailed section through Russel Street two storey building: Shows portico in side elevation, to focus on section of the verandah. The drawing is accurately dimensioned and the exact shapes of structural components are drawn. The cast iron columns are bolted through masonry footings. Verandah columns are hollow and connect to rainwater pipes below ground. The columns in the outer walls of the two-storey building are of H section, with ledges cast into them at regular spacings upon which the timber girts are carried (five per storey). The web of the columns is perforated, presumably to lighten the castings. The roof structure over this building is of wrought iron angle construction, with simple connections via riveted gusset plates. Timber ceiling joists are shown supported from the bottom chord of the truss. 693/611: “Gable end Two Storey Building.” ½ in. scale. Meticulously drawn elevation, showing windows with architraves and brackets. Corrugated sheeting is carefully set out. The internal structural frame is shown in broken lines. The end return half bay of the verandah is shown the detail of the balustrades and cast iron lattice girders, brackets and columns. 265/611: “Gable end Two Storey Building.” ½ in. scale. Identical to 693/611, except for the omission of a window. There are however additional details of the projecting timber eaves and bargeboard at a scale of 1 ½ in. 270/593. “Gable of roof over lines.” ½ in. scale. Shows special 52' 6” truss at end of main station roof. Barge boards detailed at 1 ½ in. scale. 264/561: “Diagonal section GK Two Story Building.” ½ in. scale. Taken at comer of two main wings. 267/573: “Roof over Line.” ½ in. scale. Section across tracks. Large roof trusses show all junctions at 1 ½ in. scale. Louvre standards also described at the same larger scale. One bay of the roof is shown in elevation to clarify the relationships between the various components. 268/572: “Section of Roof Over Line.” ½ in. scale. This section runs at right angles to the span of the roof. It shows the junction between the shed roof and the two-storey station building. 269/574: “Section of Roof over Departure platform.” ½ in. scale. Shows columns with brackets supporting timber framing. 271/609: “Gable end of roof over line against Building.” ½ in. scale. 272/586: “Details of Column for Roof over Line and Louvre King Standards of the two story Building.” 1 ½ in. scale. 266/639: “Detail of Pediment” (sections and elevations). 1 ½ in. scale. 274/581: “Details of Brackets and Balcony Standards.” 1 ½ in. scale. 273/640: “External Doors and Windows.” ½ in. scale. Shows doors and windows with their perforated zinc fanlights. Plans and sections are given to clarify relationships with cladding and position in the wall. 693/662: “Plan Shewing Drainage, Water Supply and Marks for erection on ground floor.” ⅛ in. scale.
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• “Station Buildings of Queensland Railways.”
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• “The Toowoomba Railway Station, Queensland,” Builder, 393.
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• QVPLA . 1868 . QVPLA 449 See also “Report upon the Buckling of Iron Bridge No. 49A Southern and Western Railway, October 29, 1867,”, 1867, 473–75.
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• QVPLA “Further Correspondence on Defective Plant and Material, Queensland Railways,”, 1867, 421–32. ‘With respect to the railway plant which has recently been forwarded to the Colony, much labour and expense has been incurred from the manner in which the shipments have been passed by Sir Charles Fox and Sons; and, in consequence, the Government have decided on deducting, from the commission payable to Sir Charles Fox and Sons, the cost of the alterations which have been rendered necessary, owing to the negligent inspection of meterial.’—Letter from the Colonial Treasurer to R. G. W. Herbert, Queensland's financial agent in London, September 20, 1867, “Financial Agency of the Colony of Queensland (final correspondence),” QVPLA, 1868, 69. Fox's appointment as consultant by the Queensland Government for its railways was.'strongly recommended' by The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer at the (1864) and future Prime Minister (1868) in a letter to Herbert, who was (in 1864) leader of the Colonial Parliament.—QVPLA, 1867, 197. Sir Charles Fox, like many other British contractors and engineering consultants, was aware of unforeseen risks associated with contracts abroad. His contracting company, Fox, Henderson & Co., which had built the Crystal Palace, Paddington Station and many other prominent projects, went into liquidation in October 1856 over problems in a Danish railway contract and declared bankrupt in February 1857.—Times, October 30, 1856; February 12, 1857. After this setback Fox gave up contracting and became a consulting engineer.
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• 1867 . QVPLA “Mr. Brady's Report on the Bremer Railway Bridge, March 7,”, 1867, 359–61.
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• 1867 . QVPLA “Termination of Mr. Fitzgibbon's Contract (Correspondence respecting the),”, 349–52. Also, in the same volume: That your petitioner's professional skill and integrity having been assailed, he is naturally anxious to be afforded the earliest opportunity, and the most effectual means, of publicly defending himself, and in the opinion of your petitioner, those conditions can only be fulfilled by his early examination at the Bar of your honourable House.”—”Construction of the Southern and Western Railway (Petition from Mr. Fitzgibbon),” 353. Fitzgibbo.'s examination was gruelling. It involved many hostile witnesses and supporting documents totalling 116 pages of evidence.—QVPLA, 1867, 503–619.
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• MPICE Obituaries of Abraham Coates Fitzgibbon and Sir Charles Fox.—89 (1888): 466–70; 39 (1874): 264–66, resp. Colonial bridges of the type developed for Queensland continued to be published: Andrew Handyside & Co., Derby and London, Works in Iron (London: Unwin Brothers, 1868), 14–15; Ewing Matheson, Works in Iron (London: Unwin Brothers, 1872), 170–74. Details of the Bremer Bridge are prominent in this latter example.
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• Wakeling , Peter . 1965 . A Century of Service: The Story of the Queensland Government Railways Brisbane : Consolidated Printing Company . ), unpaginated. Wakeling mentions the total cost of the Ipswich-Dalby line at just over £1 million. The costs had overrun by a mere 10%.
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• 1850 . Railways: An Introductory Sketch, with suggestions, in reference to their extension to British Colonies London : John Weale . Rowland Macdonald Stephenson, 36–38. This discusses the costs of Colonial lines with a table indicating budgetary allocations for various elements. For a line between 50–100 miles (80–160 km) costing £8,000 per mile and about £1,000 for ‘stations and watch house.’ (12%). For the first part of the Southern and Western Railway in which the controversial stations were included, the original estimate for the construction of the line (Ipswich-Toowoomba) had been £614,000. 12% of this figure, if allocated to stations, would give a figure of about £74,000, just under twice the cost of all the stations on the line with the addition of the Toowoomba terminus. Mason calculates the costs of all the stations on the line at £31,700, excluding the Toowoomba terminus but with the addition of its short-lived replacement. With an additional figure of £18,000, the calculated extra-over cost of the Toowoomba iron terminus, the figure would have been closer to £40,000.—Mason, “Report upon the Southern and Western Railways of Queensland, 1868,” 513–14.
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• 1867 . QVPLA In lengthy and increasingly difficult correspondence with the Queensland Government, Sir Charles explained that cost overruns and defects were comparatively minor when considering the overall value of the Railway works in Queensland for which he had been engaged as consulting Engineer. Consider a sample of this correspondence: ‘We have been greatly annoyed that the Government should have had any cause of complaint; but we should wish to call attention to the fact that we have now shipped to Queensland materials to the value, with freight, c, of £350,000 or thereabouts, and that the total sums expended in the colony, which it is considered might have been saved do not much exceed £1,000, of which at least £300 can be or has been recovered from the makers, leaving say £700. This, it will be seen, is less than one-quarter per cent. upon the shipments; and we are sure that a careful inquiry would lead to the conclusion that so small a per centage of rejections is rarely obtained, even by the most careful inspection.’—Included in evidence in “Correspondence relating to defective railway material imported into the Colony,”, 1867, 419. The letter from Sir Charles to the Commissioner of Railways is dated March 26
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• Wakeling . A Century of Service.
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• Hoch , Isabel . 1992 . To the Setting Sun: A History of Railway Construction Rockhampton to Longreach 1865–1892 13 Brisbane : Robert Brown & Associates .
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• 3 ft, 6 in is just over 1 metre (1.0668 m). “Standard gauge” is 4 ft, 8 ½ in., or 1.435 m.
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• Times '70.8 kilometres of rail to every 10,000 people.'—”The Railways of the World,” February 4, 1885, 4. The article quotes from a report produced by the German Ministry of Public Works: Archiv für Eisenbahnen. No date or place of publication are given, but its latest figures are for 1883. Measurements in the article are in metric.
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• Burton , Anthony . 1994 . The Railway Empire 191 – 92 . London : John Murray . 155 miles is approximately 250 km.
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• Matheson , Ewing . 1898 . Aid Book to Engineering Enterprise 67 London : E. & F. N. Spon .
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• Wakeling . A Century of Service. 4 672 miles is just over 7,500 km.
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• 1863 . QVPLA Abraham Coates Fitzgibbon, quoting from the Westminster Review (October 1862) in his first report to on the Railway to the Queensland Legislative Assembly—”Report from A. Fitzgibbon Esq., C. E. upon Proposed Line of Railway from Ipswich to Dalby and Warwick via Toowoomba, July 9th,”, 1863, 596.
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• Matheson . Aid Book, 684–85
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• Their advertising (1869) reads: Frederick Braby & Co. (Limited), Sole Manufacturing Agents for The Vieille Montagne Company in Great Britain, India, and the Colonies. Instructions for, and Examples of the application of Zinc for covering houses, Railway Stations, Platforms, Sheds, Farm Buildings, Verandahs, Conservatories and other structures. Offices and works: Fitzroy Works, Euston Road, N. W., Ida Wharf, Deptford, and 17 Gracechurch Street, E. C. Architects and Engineers to the Company J. & R. Fisher, 17, Great George Street, Westminster, S. W.
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• 1885 . The Engineer Examples of calls for tender by the Indian Railways include: “Contracts Open—Iron Roofs, South Indian Railway.”—60: 316. These roof trusses to a span of 25 ft. were minutely detailed, as was the corrugated roof sheeting. “Contracts Open—Workshop Roof for Indian State Railways.”—The Engineer 63 (1887): 413. These roofs included a glazed section in the form of a semi north light. The drawings include all the fixings window bars and roof sheeting in corrugated galvanized iron. “Contracts Open—Roof of Bandora Station.”—The Engineer 64 (1887): 447. This roof to cover a building 164 ft., 6 in. x 62 ft., 11 in. clear span included ornamental castings and guttering as well as all the structural ironwork.
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• The Railway Empire Monumental and elaborate Central Railway stations became a highly desirable building type for rapidly growing capital cities outside Europe and the USA, both of which had already made these parts of the urban repertoire. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, South American cities imported large impressive structures from British and European engineering companies. Examples include the Central Station in Montevideo, Uruguay; Retiro Station in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the Estação da Luz in Sao Paulo, Brazil.—See Burton, 110.
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• Matheson . Aid Book 55
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• Brisbane Courier . 1873 . October 30
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• Brisbane Courier . 1873 . October 30
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• Brisbane Courier . 1874 . January 14
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