QR Locomotives

The first railway in Queensland opened in 1865 from Ipswich to Grandchester, and most of the early railways ran inland from the coast. The North Coast line wasn't completed until the 1920's. Currently, most of QR's freight tonnage (around 90%) is coal, and QR carries over 100 megatonnes per year, mostly for the export network. There were two "revolutions" created in the railway industry by the demand for export coal, firstly the opening-up of the Bowen Basin in the 1970's, and then the huge electrification scheme in the 1980's. As a result, QR has probably the largest electrified network in the Southern Hemisphere. The QR network is the largest of the government networks, at around 9400 km, and has some 500 locos running on it. It is also the least likely to be privatised at this stage.
QR have expanded interstate - they bought the freight section of Northern Rivers Railroad, and the new company (at that time) was Interail. This has allowed them to operate on the standard gauge network.

Those locos in NRR/Interail livery are 42103, 42105, 42107, 42109; 42202, 42206; 42301-42304; L265 and L271.

Those locos in the new QR National livery are 2163, 2170, 2173, 2184-2185, 2188, 2190, 2212-2213; 2254-2274; 2472-2474, 2477-2478, 2480, 2482, 2484, 2486-2492, 2494, 2496-2500; 2804, 2808, 2811, 2819, 2821-2823, 2827-2850; 3502-3503, 3505, 3507-3508, 3510, 3512-3513, 3516, 3518, 3520, 3522, 3523-3526, 3529-3530, 3534, 3537-3539, 3541, 3543, 3545, 3566-3567; 3918, 3920-3922, 3924-3930; 4002, 4016; 42103; 42305-42306; G516, 534, and the 3700, 3800, 4100, and 5000 classes.

AC1520-1521, DD2355-2356, 2358, DFZ2404 and 2406 are in the ARG livery (for use in WA).

In turn, in early-mid 2005, QR's coal and freight sections were combined with Interail to become "QR National". They have also acquired locos from Freight Australia and have bought CRT.
In February 2006, QRN bought most of the operational part of ARG (all WA and part of the SA loco fleets). This will see railway operations in Australia now become a 'two-horse race' at the top-level, as the purchase allows QRN to better compete with PacNat. This will give QRNational around 730 locos in all (with the booming coal lindustry helping boost loco numbers).

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