I was misled in my red on yellow recollection, but I was given a lot of material by many posters (Brian, David B, John B, Rob B, Paul H, Paul K, Barry P & Arthur S) to the Queensland railway yahoo group qrig.
QRX was not a part of Queensland Railways. QR was contracted to haul QRX freight from Moolabin [Brisbane] to Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Mt Isa. From time to time there were the odd wagons to Bowen and Gladstone from memory. It started in May 72. As part of my duties, I was responsible for arranging the transit of what was then called Agent's Contract wagons. I was the first person to occupy this position. At the very beginning there were no more than 6-12 wagons per day but it grew quite rapidly until the job of Agent's Contracts Clerk was created in its own right. It grew to the point where QRX had its own train - a daily night departure from Moolabin, train 277. The amount of freight that QRX moved by rail continued to grow and in addition to 277, I also took over the responsibility for 275 which was a limited-load express freight train that departed from Roma St pfm 3. QRX would have wagons attached to this train as well. 275 was restricted to 560 t and I had to seek permission from the district superintendent to exceed this restriction even if it was only a couple of tonnes, because this approval had to be issued on a train notice as authority for the crew to exceed the load limit.
Over time, QRX added a second freight train that departed in the mid-afternoon, 249. Also, on Fridays, a second express freight ran to carry the overload after 277 had departed; it was 279. QRX was not the only agents contractor: Brambles at Acacia Ridge also loaded a few wagons, generally ~6 per day but on Fridays they also loaded a larger number causing an express freight to start from there, 281. It was not uncommon for 249 and/or 277 to be doubleheaded.
It was a very busy job, and I was still doing it in 1975 when the office was relocated. In the late 1970s, I moved on to other jobs.
As far as I can remember, QRX never had their logo on any wagons. They loaded whatever wagons were given to them - mainly QLX louvre vans, BLC louvre (or box) vans, CO and even HO, WHE and WHA open wagons when there was a shortage of box vans.
Finding the history of QRX on Google isn't easy...the company's full name is Queensland Railfast Express and was a privately-owned freight-forwarding company from the outset, along with NQX in North Queensland. They did buy the 50 CLO louvred wagons in 1978 and I recall these carrying the QRX corporate logo during the 1980s. QRX may have also leased the fifty CO wagons
built for the Mt Isa line, some of these were carrying the QRX logo in the early-mid 90s. A lot of the container traffic on the north-coast line during the 80s
was QRX, the B, BR, BRM, BMM and B series container wagons were used mostly on QRX trains. QRX went 100% containers sometime around 2000, they were purchased by Toll sometime during the late 90s and all of their business went to Pacific National Queensland in
2005, which uses the old QRX freight terminals at Moolabin, Rockhampton and Cairns - it uses new ones at Mackay (I think) and Townsville.
QRX and NQX were owned by Carpentaria Transport Group, which was majority owned by TNT.
Some logos, although only on trucks.
www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/re...numerisation0015.jpg
www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/re...numerisation0011.jpg
R & H Transport Services in NSW was 50% owned by Carpentaria Transport Group.
Here's some YouTube clips that might help...there's a few QRX trains in amongst the others in these clips from 1996 and 1988.
At the very end of the second clip is a CLO carrying a QRX logo.
An advertisement for QRX from 1980 when it sponsored West Panthers in Queensland Rugby League.
As the day continues (now 14.56):
The thing which used to piss a lot of QR employees off was that a lot of traffic heading south for QRX as supposedly empty wagons had the doors sealed and the springs nearly squashed to their maximum. There was an incident during the 1980s when a QRX train stowed at Bundaberg over the weekend was broken into and numerous items stolen from the supposedly empty wagons. When police went to investigate, QRX didn't want to know about it. At Emerald, one stationmaster became suspicious of a QRX wagon which was obviously heavily loaded; it was destined to travel over a B-class line which restricted it to only about 30t. It was close to 50t. He reported the matter, and was then suspended from duty for weighing the wagon.
The whole QRX operation was very political, and they got away with anything and everything.
There were similar stories in Maryborough about overloading and not being allowed to weigh QRX wagons during the 1980s. There was also the yarn about
the 1270 [a loco class] climbing the hill from Monkland to Gympie at 2km/h with a QRX train that was supposedly under the loco's tonnage rating...according to the
paperwork.
I did hear a story about an expensive car going south in a CLO wagon on an 'empty' QRX train. I think it got shunted quite a bit on the way to Brisbane and was a wreck by the end of the journey.
They also had a pair of leased DH locos in their white and red QRX livery at their Woree depot in Cairns from 1994 to 2001. These were DH37 & DH45.
picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/lcuong97CQJnR3vYPzkIlQ
picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6aFVBxJO8nrvy74MbqMS1w
[Grain loaders are notorious for overloading; coal and mineral loaders less so. At Broken Hill, freshly-loaded wagons go through a weighbridge and trim crane: not just to reduce an overload, but to trim the load sideways for balance].
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor
