C17 No.974 Goes To Yandina

2014 was special for yours truly, in that it was the year I was qualified with Queensland Rail Heritage as a Steam Driver. The first oppportunity I got to drive was on C17 974 on the return leg of a excursion that went first to Nambour, conveying passengers to the Nambour Flower show and then on to Yandina where we turned the engine on the angle.
I quite enjoyed the challenge of firing the C17's as their firebox is long, flat and narrow as opposed to the other QR Steam Locomotives which had square fireboxes and sloping grates.
Built at Walkers in 1951, C17 No.974 spent most of its working life on the Mount Isa line and was based at
Cloncurry, Charters Towers and Townsville at various times before being withdrawn from service in the late 1960s.
I felt a bit of a connection with this old girl as I had started my Railway career in Cloncurry in December 2000, I thought it was fitting that a Boy from the Curry was working a Cloncurry Engine.