Opened June 1866 Character Passenger, Freight Operator Queensland Rail | Traffic Train Length 537 m | |
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Location Grandchester, Queensland, Australia Route Grandchester to Gatton Narrow gauge railway | ||
The Victoria Tunnel in Queensland is the longer of the two oldest railway tunnels in the state, the other being known as the 'Six Chain', either because it is 6 chains (122m) long, or is situated entirely on a 6 chain (~120m) radius curve, or both. The Victoria Tunnel was named after the English Queen of the day. Both are situated on the Main Line from Brisbane to Toowoomba, being part of the first narrow gauge main line in the world.
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History
The 537 m long tunnel (together with 'Six Chain') was built through the Little Liverpool Range on a section of narrow gauge railway from Grandchester to Gatton. The railway opened in June 1866, being delayed when the excavation of the tunnel revealed unexpected geological difficulties, requiring the tunnel to be lined with 3 layers of bricks. That resulted in the tunnel having restricted clearances, which limits the loading gauge (size of rolling stock) on this section of the Queensland Railways network, and the floor of the tunnel was lowered by 150mm in 1985 to improve that situation.
Tunnel floor lowering
The are a total of 11 single track tunnels on the line between Ipswich and Toowoomba, all built around the same time in 1865, all with a tight profile that are too small to take 2.9m high (9'6") ISO shipping containers. It is now proposed to improve the loading gauge of these tunnels by lowering the floors.