Mount Morgan railway station

Mount Morgan Railway Station is a heritage-listed railway station located at Railway Parade, Mount Morgan in the Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. The station was constructed in 1898 to service the former goldrush and gold mining township of Mount Morgan and its mine. The station was designed by Henrik Hansen, who also designed the Archer Park, Rockhampton Central, Shorncliffe and South Brisbane railway stations. The station operated as a functional railway station from 1898 until 1987, after which it was restored as a Railway Heritage Museum.

The Mount Morgan railway station was connected to Rockhampton in 1898. The Mount Morgan to Rockhampton line initially used a combination of adhesion railway and rack railway due to steep inclines in the Razorback Ranges.

The rack railway section of line operated through the Razorback Ranges, between Moonmera and the Mount Morgan township. It was built at half the cost of a conventional railway to Mt Morgan at a time when the longevity of the ore deposit was unknown, but added significant operating cost and time delays to the journey. A special purpose steam locomotive needed to attach to the train for ascent and descent of the rack section. Although only ~2.4km long, the rack section speed of ~10km/h and the time for the rack loco to attach and detach added 40 minutes or more to the journey compared to a conventional line, and the maximum load was limited to ~130 tons. The engine was typically coupled at the lower side of the train, when ascending and descending the incline to prevent runaways if wagon couplings broke. The steepest grade was 1 in 16.5 (~6%), double the steepest grade on a conventional line and three times steeper than the usual maximum grade.

The Rack Railway system was developed in Switzerland and was one of three used in Australia. The remaining two are the West Coast Wilderness Railway, a former mining line rebuilt as a tourist attraction located in Tasmania and the Skitube Alpine Railway serving the Blue Cow skifield in NSW.

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