Queensland Rail - CityTrain Suburban Network Quiz

Answer: Roma Street

Roma Street Station is the point from which all distances are measured in Queensland. For example, distance marker 33 at Dakabin Station represents 33 kilometres to Roma Street. It has six suburban platforms and three others that cater for interstate or intrastate passenger services. Although Roma Street officially has ten platforms, Platform 3 is not used.

Central Station is unique as it is reached from either direction by tunnels. Brunswick Street Station is located in the northern inner city suburb of Fortitude Valley. Gloucester Street Station no longer exists. It was formerly located on the Beenleigh line between South Bank (formerly Vulture Street) and Park Road Stations, but was closed by QR (Queensland Rail) in November 1978.

Answer: 3 Feet 6 Inches (Narrow Gauge)

The entire CityTrain network, and indeed all of QR's operations within the State of Queensland, are operated on narrow gauge. Whilst standard gauge tracks do run form the New South Wales border to Roma Street Station, these tracks are owned and operated by the Rail Corporation of New South Wales. There are, and never have been, any broad gauge tracks in Queensland.

Answer: Northgate

Sometimes referred to as Northgate Junction, this station exists in a suburb that consists of housing and light industrial development. The name Northgate was created by the Railway Department in approximately 1890. It is a hybrid name representing the North Coast rail line and Sandgate.

The Caboolture line extends all the way to the north of Queensland, never veering too far inland from the coast. The Shorncliffe line, at the time of naming, only extended to Sandgate.

Answer: Corinda

Corinda station is located on the Ipswich line and is the junction for the connecting link to Yeerongpilly. Quadruplication works commenced in 1950 and were completed between Roma Street and Corinda in 1963.

The project to complete the other end to Northgate stalled a number of times due to political reasons and was finally completed in..1996! During this long period, travellers on the Caboolture and Shorncliffe lines were treated to the spectacle of platforms at Toombul and Nundah that had no tracks to serve them.

Answer: Diesels and Steam Locos to pass this signal on green aspect only

A majority of the CityTrain network operates on "four-aspect" signals. An aspect in this terminology refers to the colour of the lights. In order of least danger to most danger: Green - Double Yellow - Yellow - Red.

In the inner city area, you may also see a single flashing yellow aspect. This tells the driver that the next signal is red and there is a train in the following section. In standard operational running, there are two consecutive red signals with a blank section of track in between. The flashing yellow aspect is primarily used in peak hour situations.

In regard to the signs prior to the tunnels, green effectively means that the train will be able to emerge from the other end of the tunnel without stopping. This provides a measure of safety from smoke or dieseline exhaust inhalation for the train crew and passengers.

Answer: It is the highest station above sea level

At 59 metres above sea level, Keperra narrowly beats Ferny Grove and Altandi Stations (both 58 metres) for the honour. The track alignment between Keperra and Ferny Grove skirts the boundary of Keperra Golf Course.

Keperra does not have a rail/bus interchange. A number of stations on the Ferny Grove line only use a single platform and all lines on the CityTrain network use light signalling, although some semaphore signals remain in place.

Answer: Albert Bridge

The Albert Bridge is one of four bridges that span the Brisbane River between Indooroopilly and Chelmer. It was the first bridge to be built in this location. The current Albert Bridge was built in 1895, replacing the original which was destroyed in the 1893 flood. The original bridge, completed in 1876, was named after Prince Albert.

Until the completion of the Walter Taylor Bridge in 1936, the Albert Bridge was used by pedestrians as well as trains. The bridge is now sandwiched by a second (and, intriguingly, un-named) rail bridge, and a dedicated pedestrian/cycle structure, the Jack Pesch Bridge.

Answer: Exhibition

Exhibition Station operates every year during Brisbane's Royal National Show, more commonly known as the "Exhibition" or "Ekka". The station, located on a line that links the southern and northern suburbs of Brisbane by bypassing the inner city stations of Roma Street, Central and Brunswick Street, lies dormant for the rest of each year. As a boy visiting the Ekka in my younger years, I got more fun out of watching the goods train and light engine movements that interspersed diesel and carriage combinations delivering patrons to the station.

Although Exhibition shows on QR route maps, it is a yearly irritation for rail users that their weekly and monthly tickets do not cover them for trips to and from the station. Furthermore, the cost of a ticket to Exhibition from the nearest station in either direction is, to put it nicely as possible, disproportionate to travel on the rest of the network. QR take note! The peasants are unhappy!

Abattoir no longer exists as a station. It used to be on a branch line which left the Cleveland line just after Cannon Hill Station, and existed to serve the needs of the workers of the Brisbane Abattoir. Willowbank Raceway exists to the south-west of Ipswich but is not serviced by rail. Mortuary is the name of a closed station in Sydney.

Answer: Ebbw Vale - Bundamba - Booval - IPSWICH

The answer lies on the Ipswich line. The correct sequence is Ebbw Vale - Bundamba - Booval - East Ipswich - IPSWICH. The people of East Ipswich will not be happy if this question gives QR any ideas!

Answer: Wynnum-Manly

The sequence of the real stations is Wynnum North - Wynnum - Wynnum Central.

Wynnum-Manly is better known to Brisbanites as a local Rugby League team.

Answer: Edmondson tickets

Edmondson tickets were of a rigid cardboard design, approximately 1 by 2 inches in size. Om QR, the tickets were colour-coded: Pink for adults, blue for children. A weekly ticket was really special, it was half-green, half-yellow. Return tickets had a prominent "R" marking. When issued, the railway employee would insert the ticket into a press, which would emboss the date onto one end. Each ticket had an individual number on the other end, which was used by the station staff for accounting purposes at the end of the day. The tickets numbers sold since the previous day had to be multiplied by the cost of the ticket, and match with the cash on hand.

Historically, the use of Edmondson tickets date back to Australia's links with Britain. A Lancastrian named Thomas Edmondson came up with the design which was subsequently adopted by many railway systems around the world.

Answer: Caboolture line

Situated between Geebung and Carseldine stations, the suburb of Zillmere was named after Johann Leopold Zillmann, a settler who arrived in the area in 1838.

Answer: Tennyson

Located near the old powerhouse and Moolabin rail yards, Tennyson was named after a residence built by one of the early settlers to the area. The house was originally known as Softstone but changed to Tennyson in 1897. It could be reasonably assumed the name was inspired by the death five years earlier of the noted English poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson.

The link from Corinda to Yeerongpilly is vital to QR's operations in Brisbane. Whilst it has little impact on the CityTrain network itself (although some services run to Corinda via South Brisbane, thereby providing a purpose for Tennyson station's existence), prior to the construction of the Merivale Bridge, it was the only link between the Northern/Western lines and those running on the south side of the city. The link continues to provide access for coal trains from the west to the Port of Brisbane.

Answer: Trinder Park

At the date of the accident, the line between Kuraby and Beenleigh was single track. Just north of Trinder Park station the two trains met at a combined speed of approximately 50 kilomteres per hour. The Driver and a passenger on the southbound train were killed. Unfortunately, the crash occurred on a curve with restricted visibility.

The exact cause of the accident was never fully determined. One theory is the the driver of the northbound train passed a red signal. Another theory is that the signals were not working proply at the time of the accident. The section of track in question has now been duplicated.

Answer: Yes

In fact, many of the lines on the CityTrain network extend beyond the city limits. The Ipswich line crosses into the Ipswich City Council's boundary at Gailes. The Shire of Pine Rivers is crossed by the Ferny Grove line just prior to Ferny Grove, and also by the Caboolture line as it crosses the South Pine River just after Bald Hills. The same line then enters Caboolture Shire between Dakabin and Narangba.

The Beenleigh line crosses into and out of Logan City, and eventually into the boundaries of the Gold Coast City Council. Finally, the Cleveland line leaves Brisbane and enters the boundary of the Redlands Shire Council between Lota and Thorneside.