Mt Isa Line, Charters Towers to Townsville

Welcome to the third and final page on the Mt Isa Line. This page features the line from Charters Towers to Townsville, most of the history of this line is covered in the second page of this series.

2159 leads the Inlander to Townsville after crossing the Burdekin River about thirty kilometers east of Charters Towers.

2841 + 2612 arrive at the west end of Mingela at 09.01 after crossing the Burdekin River at 08.34 Tuesday 5/4/05. Mingela was once the base for banking engins used to assist trains up the Mingela Range but today a few closed shops, a pub and a few houses and a police station are all that remains.

The same train as the above photo starts the steady descent of the Mingela Range just east of the crossing loop.

2841 + 2612 crossing the Reid River at 09.45 heading for Townsville. 05/04/05
You can find a video of thes train in the Video page just go to the links page, you will find the link at the top.

2834 drops down the grade just west of Calcium about forty kilometers west of Townsville in the Mt Isa Line. 16.00 Sat 11th April 2004. The load consisted of 14 open mineral wagons and thirty-four container wagons.

The train previously sighted at Calcium is seen here several kilometers west of Stuart Yard. 16.38

A Mt Isa freight arrives at South Yard 07/04/05 around midday
the line to the right is the NCL that goes to Cairns and just out of shot the new Townsville Station. The line in the fore ground allows trains from the yard acces to the NCL traveling north.

2827+2602 arrive at Townsville South Yard with a mineral train from Mt Isa at 07.30 while 2847 cools its heels with a container freight for Brisbane. The two mango trees in the middle of the shot block out the new station.
Wed 06/4/05

The original GNR station in Townsville no longer serves passenger trains but still houses train control staff and administrative staff.
27/11/04

Townsville South Yard from the hill in the center of Townsville. You can see in the bottom of the picture the original GNR station while passenger services have been moved to a new station train control and other services remain here. The line to the port runs around the southern part of the yard.

The port of Townsville is served by an extensive rail network to transport sugar, minerals, fuel and containers as well as other goods.

The Inlander parks behind the northbound tilt train at the new Townsville Station.

A loaded coal train with 2195F + 2139 in front of a rake of loaded GOMB and GOMC gondolas arrives at Partington Yard on the southern approaches to Townsville. The train is bound for Yubri Refinery about twenty kilometers north of the city. This photo was taken fron the Bruce Highway overpass looking south. The photo below is from the location looking north. 27/11/04