"The Shed"

The steel was produced by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Pennsylvania, USA and brought out to Australia during 1942 by the American troops. It was erected at Oakey as a hangar for Spitfire fighters. In 1947 it was dismantled and used as the then Toowoomba Electric Light maintenance shed in Duggan Street. The shed was again dismantled in 1988 and stored at the old Bridge Street quarry before being donated to DownsSteam in 2012.

Drayton Station

Railway stations are so much more than functional buildings. They are places of welcomes and farewells. Imagine as you walk along the platform how many children were packed off to boarding school, how many soldiers set off to an uncertain future, how many sweethearts parted or were reunited.  The present station building was donated by Queensland Rail. It was originally located at Yuleba, 50 miles west of Miles or 231 miles west of Toowoomba. Westbrook Correctional Centre rehabilitation program inmates dismantled and re-erected the station building at our Drayton site. It is typical of hundreds of small stations dotted around the state. With its hanging baskets, breezeway waiting area, ticket office, toilets, station masters office this design was replicated on rural lines all over Queensland.

Turntable

DownsSteam's Drayton turntable is a 60 foot model built in the UK in the late 1800's for Pinkenba in Brisbane. It was last used for turning diesel locomotives operating Suburban SX services in the early 1990's, before being relocated to Beaudesert in 2002.  Downs Steam acquired the turntable in 2011 and set about designing and building a new bearing and super structure consisting of 27 cubic metres of concrete at our Drayton precinct with an estimated value of $50,000. We would like to thank the generous donations and tireless work of our volunteers in achieving the first installation of a turntable in Toowoomba since the 1880's.

Cream Shed

The Cream Shed at the front of the Drayton Railway Precinct was originally located at Gayndah on the farm owned by Robert John Martin and was donated to the society in January 2006 by his executors. After being pulled apart the shed was transported to Drayton where it was reconstructed between February and July 2006. This shed now forms the entrance to our site and the interior has been decorated in various pieces of railway memorabilia. As you enter don’t forget to sign the visitor’s book situated inside.

"Westinghouse" Shed

The Westinghouse brake inspection shed was possibly constructed around 1910-15 and originally located in the outer areas of the Toowoomba shunting yard just to the north east of Toowoomba Railway Station, a position it occupied for well over half a century.  In 2006 it was donated to DownsSteam by Queensland Rail and dismantled and re-erected in its present position by DownsSteam volunteers in 2009.

The Westinghouse Shed is a modest corrugated iron building with a barrel vaulted corrugated iron roof that originally covered a long rectangular brick-lined pit. This is unusual as most locomotive/carriage inspection pits that survived into the twenty first century tended to be of concrete construction. The building contained boards detailing brake examination schedules, and a workbench. Of particular significance was the checkboard placed on wall of interior of this shed, listing passenger car brake examinations and overhaul dates. Most vehicles listed have now been withdrawn or disposed of as rollingstock, but identified carriages regularly allocated on trains such as the Sydney or Brisbane Mail (Wallan-garra).

The shed cladding was painted red for many years or rust coated as time went on, sheets were replaced and lined to ground level over time to protect workers from weather.