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The Queensland Railways ordered two different types of steel bodied air-conditioned carriage stock, both built by Commonwealth Engineering at their Rocklea plant. Over the years these carriages have been used on many different long distance Queensland Rail services.
All Queensland Rail Travel (formerly "Traveltrain") services are now operated only with L Series carriages.
| M series | |
|---|---|
 MCC 1520, one of the M series carriages built | |
| In service | 1953–2014 |
| Manufacturer | Commonwealth Engineering |
| Built at | Rocklea |
| Constructed | 1953–1955 |
| Number built | 99 |
| Operators | Queensland Rail |
| Specifications | |
| Track gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) |
In January 1950, Queensland Railways awarded a contract for 99 steel bodied carriages to Commonwealth Engineering, Rocklea. These were purchased to operate the Lander series of trains, The Inlander , The Midlander , The Sunlander and The Westlander entering service between 1953 and 1955. [1]
The original order of 99 cars was for: [1]
In 2007 as well as 2010, Queensland Rail decided that the 80 remaining M-series carriages would have to be removed from service by December 2013. [2] With the replacement of The Sunlander by the Spirit of Queensland , the M-series carriages were retired in December 2014. [3]
The known ownership/location of the remaining M series lander cars is as follows:
Allocated to Ipswich Workshops Rail Museum:
Allocated to DownsSteam Tourist Railway & Museum: [4] [5]
Allocated to Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway at Swanbank:
Four of these cars have undergone work to return them to traffic as the Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway Dinner Train, which runs over 7 km of scenic railway track at Ipswich, and sport the original blue and white livery they first wore in 1953.
The Q Train, based at The Bellarine Railway, have obtained carriages for the purpose of their restaurant train.
Gayndah Heritage Railway
| L series | |
|---|---|
| In service | 1981–present |
| Manufacturer | Commonwealth Engineering |
| Built at | Rocklea |
| Constructed | 1981–1985 |
| Number built | 30 |
| Operators | Queensland Rail |
| Specifications | |
| Track gauge | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) |
Between October 1981 and October 1985, Comeng built a further 30 carriages. These were built out of stainless steel. [7]
The original order was for 5 x LBL class second class sitting cars (48 seats).
Subsequent orders added an additional:
In 2007 as well as 2010, Queensland Rail projected that the 30 remaining L series carriages could operate for a further 15 years, pending refurbishment. [2] In July 2014, tenders were called to reconfigure 11 L series carriages. [8] With The Sunlander withdrawn, this allowed The Inlander , Spirit of the Outback and The Westlander to be converted to L series stock. [9]
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The Spirit of the Outback is a long-distance passenger rail service in Queensland, Australia, operated by Queensland Rail's Traveltrain division.
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This article is intended as a catalogue of sleeping carriages used by the Victorian Railways and successors.
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