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The Sandstone Railway Culvert is a heritage-listed railway culvert at Wulkuraka, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was built . It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 June 2005. == History == The separate colony of Queensland was established in 1859. The few inhabitants of the new colony looked to intensify economic exploitation of the land and increase the size of the population. The building of railways was seen to facilitate both of these aims and as such was given a high priority by the new Queensland government. Consequently, the Southern and Western Railway Bill was introduced to parliament in August 1863 and the government appointed Abram Fitzgibbon, an Irish engineer with international experience in railway construction, as Chief Engineer (later Commissioner for Railways). Fitzgibbon's first task was the construction of a railway between Ipswich and Toowoomba.〔 Planning for the new railway meant serious economic and geographic challenges had to be overcome. Earlier railway construction in the southern Australian colonies was modelled on the railways of Great Britain and featured broad gauge, double track, easy grades, wide radius curves and substantial station buildings. It was quickly discovered that the construction costs for such a rail system were beyond the budget of the fledgling Queensland colonial government. The natural geography around the Darling Downs also precluded an easy grade, with any railway requiring a steep ascent of the eastern escarpment of the Great Dividing Range and the crossing of several creeks and streams.〔 Fitzgibbon proposed a radical engineering solution to these challenges through the adoption of a narrow 3 feet 6 inch (1067mm) gauge. Standard gauge at the time was 4 feet 8? inches (1435mm) and was in itself considered narrow when compared with other broad rail gauges then in use throughout the world. By using narrow gauge, savings on construction costs could be achieved. The disadvantages of such a decision meant sharper curves on ascending ranges, lower speeds, lighter bridges and as a consequence, smaller locomotives and rolling- stock. The use of narrow gauge was largely untried anywhere else in the world, except for small-scale narrow gauge operations in New Zealand and Wales.〔 Substantial cost savings were also to be made through the use of standard designs for bridges, buildings, houses and yards. At this time, the quality of Queensland timber was largely unknown and little was to be used on the first railway, except for sleepers. Bridges were to be built of iron with brick and stone culverts. It was only later that Queensland became a leader in wooden bridge design, with the emergence of elaborate timber designs and later more economical timber structures.〔 Construction of the railway was contracted to Peto, Brassey & Betts, a firm with considerable railway construction experience worldwide. A fixed sum contract was negotiated for the construction of the first line between Ipswich and Bigges Camp (today's Grandchester), with a follow on contract for four other sections of line between Bigges Camp and Toowoomba. Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of the first Governor of Queensland, turned the first sod of earth for the first section of railway on 25 February 1864.〔 The first consignment of construction materials arrived in Ipswich by steamer on 15 August 1864. An initial line was laid down to the wharf in Ipswich to receive consignments of materials and move them to a workshops site on level ground above. Public pressure for a bridge across the river resulted in a change of plan and the terminus was moved to South Ipswich in the business centre. A bridge was constructed to carry both road and rail and was just completed in time for the opening of the first section of rail to Grandchester.〔 The first trial run along the line with a train was on 13 April 1865. The first section of line between Ipswich and Bigges Camp (a distance of twenty-one miles) was officially opened to traffic to great public fanfare on 31 July 1865. The line ran from the Bremer Bridge and passed the original workshops and running sheds (North Ipswich Railway Workshops) to the west and crossed Wide Gully. Extensions to the line were later made to Toowoomba (1867), Dalby (1868) and Warwick (1871).〔 The building of the Sadliers Crossing Railway Bridge and deviation, which opened in 1875, made the old line via Mihi Creek redundant and it fell out of use except for a short section to the Ipswich workshops and to service a coalmine. The line was officially closed on 26 April 1875.〔 Queensland Railways demonstrated the viability of the use of narrow gauge, thereby influencing other countries including Japan, Africa and New Zealand to also adopt the technology. The construction of the Ipswich to Bigges Camp railway, of which the Sandstone Railway Culvert at Wulkuraka is a part, set the precedent for the construction and design of the many lightly constructed and sinuous narrow gauge railways that have since been built around the world.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sandstone Railway Culvert, Wulkuraka」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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