It’s touted as an attraction for tourists, but the locals love it just as much as any visitor – getting on track for an old-fashioned train ride.
The Downs Explorer heritage rail journeys have a number of expanded routes on offer from Warwick this year. The experience includes both steam and diesel locomotives for passengers to enjoy half-day, full-day and even multi-day journey in vintage carriages.
The destinations include Stanthorpe, Wallangarra, Clifton and Goondiwindi. Special weekend events are run during Jumpers and Jazz in Warwick in July, the Carnival of Flowers in Toowoomba in September and the Miles Back to the Bush event, also in September.
The next major scheduled events are Saturdays, 20 May and 24 June, when the train will leave Warwick for Stanthorpe and Wallangarra for a full-day tour. But not everyone is in Warwick for the “All aboard”. Quite a few people are waiting at the Stanthorpe platform to take the train to Wallangarra for just the fun of the train journey or to have a two-course lunch at the historic Wallangarra Station before making the return trip.
On Saturday 3 June the locomotive will set off in the late afternoon for a trip to Clifton, dinner at a pub and a night train journey home.
The tours are run by the Southern Downs Steam Railway Association, which was formed in 1996 as a not-for-profit organisation to keep the heritage of steam alive. Trains run on two lines. The southern line stretches from Wallangarra near the border of New South Wales to Toowoomba and the south-western line goes west from Warwick to Inglewood, Goondiwindi and Toobeah.
The latest news is that the group’s C17 locomotive is still receiving maintenance but there is a chance that one of the Queensland Rail heritage steam locos might be available for a trip in the near future. In the meantime, the diesel DH45, itself a piece of heritage machinery, will pull the vintage timber carriages for their historical railway adventures.
