The Last Days of South Brisbane Terminus 1978
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Scenes around South Brisbane Station in its last days as a terminus. Mostly 1720 class and some 2000 Class. Also shows signal box in use. Ends with opening of the Merivale Bridge on 18 November 1978.
Copied from my Super 8 movie film.
Thanks for posting this great footage which rekindled many memories as travelled the Lota line in those days.
It's kinda unbelievable that those like our family who lived on the southside of Brisbane couldn't travel directly into the city by train until many years later. We had to catch a train which terminated at South Brisbane and walk across the Victoria Bridge to get to the city.
The area around South Brisbane station for many years was quite run down and not a great place to be at night! It was like the proven to be corrupt Bjelkie-Peterson government was more concerned with other matters and a priority on snuffling out any outcry or public criticism against the government, rather than fixing the glaring issues in an antiquated and ineffective public transportation system.
I recall those aged "brown carriages" (as we called them) which were long overdue for replacement even when this footage was shot, having to be structurally strengthened in the 70's due to actual and visible flexing when coming to stops at stations. I recall a story in The Courier Mail in the mid 70's which basically called the old brown carriages "death Traps" that would dramatically splinter in case of an impact causing horrific injuries/ death toll. As a kid i just loved them as they were obviously from the 1930's. And painted inside that awful caramel colour!! Then QR put old long distance passenger carriages from the 20's into service on Southside lines in the mid 70's. Pretty run down but time capsules of travel from a bygone era! I note we NEVER rode in those more modern and much safer aluminium carriages which were only utilised on Northside lines. Talk about those who lived on the Lota and other southside lines feeling like the poor cousins!!
Some absolutely wonderful shots, Graham. Pity we can't wind the clock back. Love the Quick turn arounds. Gives new meaning to changing ends.
Shorts with long socks, Mini skirts and 1720 Class Clydes.....the world was good back then! Such a great colour on the locos and I remember going for rides on the weekend and hoping to get a 1460 or English Electric if you were really lucky!
Working for QR as a Signal sparky for 20 yrs, but just missed the good times -(.
Thanks for these great memories!
CHeers Gregg.
Also, don't forget our Queensland Railways Walkers Green (DH Diesel Hydraulic) Locomotive Diesels were something were also the real very good times & also very good days as well too of course.
@@GaryLorenz-t7c The DH's were pretty cool and sounded good when working hard! A few live on as cane train locos but look very different !
@@FishplateFilms Also a couple or so of our other old Queensland Railway DHs were sent to Vietnam for the Vietnamese Railway in which they had brought as well too of course.
OUTSTANDING. What a time to be alive.
My brother and I caught old red rattlers from Roma St to Nambour to stay with our grandparents. This video brought back memories of diesel fumes, hot metal and lumpy seats. My grandmother said she had to do a school project on the red carriages when they were introduced as a major advance - that must have been in the late 20s or early 30s.
Haha I still remember the fumes at Central Station!
Lots of memories there Graham thankyou for sharing and posting!!!
I was too young when it was operating as a terminal.
1720s rule the roost. It was great to see those sets with low numbers!
It did trigger my memory helping the ARHS dismantling the signal box for its new home. Sad how that ended up.
Wow. That takes me back, got memories of sitting on the platform when we were down in Brisbane for a wedding.
Thank you Graham. As a kid who lived and grew up in South Brisbane in the 70s, this brings back some memories! I'll be sure to check out the rest of your videos for our local station, Gloucester St. That Super 8 film scrubbed up pretty well!
Brilliant to see. More please Graham!
I worked at SBE from '10 to '12 or so. We had an awesome team then. I would look around for any signs of history, other than the station building itself. A few little clues here and there, but otherwise, they did a good job of stripping away 99% of it. When they were getting ready to do the restoration I suggested they put up bill boards on the ConCen side so if you stood on the platforms facing west, you could see how it was on the bill boards. Also pictures in the pedestrian tunnel...
I was amazed that it took until then to actually build a bridge across the river to Roma St.
Its amazing to see the river foreshore before they built the Riverside expressway. I only remember glimpses of brisbane as a kid but this takes me right back to how Brisbane used to feel like a big country town. Love to see it.
The Riverside Expressway was built before this footage, it just did not get in frame.
I miss those days. Brisbane was amazing back then, totally loved it. Now it's overcrowded, overstressed and doesn't feel like home anymore.
Totally agree!
"The past is a foreign country..." 😢
@@FeiBenZhu That is a very nice expression. Thank you.
We take sooooo much for granted these days.
They were the good old days, none of this work place health & safety crap. You can see guys jumping on & off trains, crossing rails between platforms, wearing shorts & short sleeved shirts, none of that hi viz crap, etc. It just goes on & on.
We seemed to do ok in our day without all this bureaucracy gone crazy, didn't we? Look at all the comments, see how people loved the old days, most wished they could have them back after seeing all these good old videos. Thank you Graham.
Nobody believes this era to be superior. That I promise.
……caught the old ‘woodies’ Cannon Hill to STH Brisbane, & return, every work day July 1974, to when the Electrics’ came in to service in 1978. Of an afternoon, a train left STH Brisbane, which ran Express Park Road to Murrarie, at 4:55pm. Those weeks’ which my work shift would allow to catch this, I’d leave work at 4:30pm, & walk to STH Brisbane Station. Got to Murrarie at 5:15pm, wonderful!
Best original footage I seen. Thanks for sharing. 👍
As a relatively recent arrival (19 years ago) who has known nothing but concrete city this was fascinating.
Brisbane has changed enormously since, say, the 70s and 80s when it was called a "big country town" which was not far from the truth. Sure it looks "old" when you see vids like this but it was way more chill and more enjoyable imho.
@@item6931 My wife was born here so I hear the stories of pre Expo, etc. I still like Brisbane to visit but also like living an hour away out "in the sticks" (which is also rapidly changing).
@@MatthewJohnCrittenden Yeah, it's like a tidal wave that is just flooding everywhere.
Awesome, thanks for putting this up 👍
Interesting views of the mechanical signal box. There were not many like this one between here and Tweed Heads 108 km of line all up but Dutton Park and Yeerongpilly were the exceptions. You didn't come across those huge bracket signals after Bethania much either sans for Ernest Junction. Even in the era of this kind of QR lineside infrastructure everything looked smaller after there. It wasn't that long ago either when this area was like this. James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver were making the Aliens movie just before all this was closed and re-configured for World Expo 88.
I remember as a kid hearing and feeling those Clydes thunder through my body on the platforms of Darra. I could hear them through the night over at Jamboree Heights
Superb footage here, good sharpness and exposure for film and original sound. The QR livery then was the best and despite the coaches being hot, noisy and likely having hard seats I would prefer travelling in those trains above all modern trains as this was an experience and not just a quiet movement from A to (B)risbane.
The silver DMUs in the film look very similar to the NZR 88 seater, only those were 2 instead of 3 car units.
Around 3.30, a couple of carriage cleaners are visible. I recall being told by staff members at Central when I started in QR in 1982, that when the southside trains began coming through, they were continually frustrated by passengers leaving all the doors open of the wooden sets as they departed the train. A porter who had recently been transferred to Central from South Brisbane was able to inform them that when trains came into South Brisbane the carriages were swept while in the platforms and that the passengers would helpfully leave the doors open for them.
Brilliant video!
He tried to promote hydrogen power for cars...a few decades too soon.
remember all this so well
Great video!
I remember going to South Brisbane station.I was going to South Brisbane Tech Colledge where South Bank is now
Ah... South Brisbane looks beautiful back then compared to the concrete jungle its has become now.
you're kidding right??
It was a dump
Rough as guts, but human, not sterile
Joh Bjelke-Petersen driving a train... now ive seen it all!
Don't you worry about that!
He was just off to feed the chooks……..🤣🤷♂️
What you probably don't know is as he sat their in the window he was thinking "I bet we can get a compact nuclear reactor inside one of these things"
Big memories starting in 1980 travelling from Gailes to South Brisbane or Vulture Street to attend Brisbane State High School. Does anyone know where to find related historical rail records? We "lost" a student that was hit by a train carriage door in the Roma Street tunnel. We both punched-on earlier the day before putting that aside to play rugby together at another school on the Beenleigh line after school then he was never seen again.
And the new bridge to roma Street 😮
Great video! It's interesting to see quite a bit of litter blowing around on the platform and track bed. Was there less focus on tidiness back then?
Back in the days before electric trains 😮😊
My wedding day 18/11/78
bring back diesel with the sliver carrier's
Was there a 4' 8" line coming into south Brisbane?
@@rocknral Yes since 1930. It was extended to Roma St in 1986.
Queensland, Still building the cross River rail in 2024.
are those tunnels still there?
Yes
Use to catch the train from Wynnum to South Brisbane and get of walk across the Victoria bridge the rial bridge between south Brisbane to Roma Street wasn't made then.
There was something about the 70's that was just great to be alive. Nostalgia can be a funny thing, but unless you were there it was the best decade and half (early 80's) but after that society as a whole has turned to total and utter complete crap.
14:58 a real hands on Premier