A Snap Shot from the Maryborough Fitters and Carpenters Shops

The history of Section Car Repairs and Maintenance is something that appears to be not well recorded from my research so far. I guess its interest in days past was mostly confined to the men who did the repairs as their daily job but as for recording it for posterity, unfortunately this appeared to be far remote in their minds. Rod Burfoot from Rockhampton had the vision back then and his recordings of some maintenace activities are in his 1st booklet but apart from Rods information I gathered most records are lost

....but sometimes you are pleasantly surprised....

I was sorting thru a bunch of old paper work recently that came with a box of spares I obtained some time back when I discovered a rare gem....Inside an old QR Telephone book was a work list written by a local Fairmont fitter working out of Maryborough, Queensland. The hand written list quoted the numbers of the Section Cars needing his attention, what problems they had and in some cases where they were stationed in the field. The list is reproduced for you below and gives a small insite to maintenance activities at the time.

Another small note pad with this lot was from the Carpenters Shop at Maryborough...it needs more study but already I have found a few Section Car repair details in it and I will list them in due course.

Section Cars needing attention some time in the 1980's

MT14 419, Crankcase cracked, carby and brake repairs

MT14 594, Broken Crankshaft, located at 'Proston'

589, Will not start - cleaned mag, carb, plug, seals replaced.

MT14 726, Engine and gearbox overhaul required, located at 'Bundaberg'

ST2 694, Hard to start, gearbox and muffler faulty, located at 'Eidsvold' and allocated to the Special Bridge Gang

832, Motor for attention, (lists an Allan Walker as contact person..anyone know of this gentleman???)

903, Just lists a question mark

MT14 728, Chassis fault, muffler, decompression valve, lighting, located at 'Nikenbah'

MT14 756, Cannot start...then says OK

699, Lack of power - seals faulty, body work needs attention, located at 'Murgon'

504, 395, 256 and 231 were also listed but nothing recorded next to their numbers...also no class listing so except for 504 they could have been from any of the three, M15, MT14 or ST2 class with 504 an MT14 or ST2...an educated guess would say the latter three were probably M15's

The only car I have been able to locate from the list so far is MT14 728. It ended up at MT Morgan with the historical group, stripped of its motor and some parts then left to rot.It was scrapped a couple of years back as it was beyond repair.

If you know of any other locations of section cars when in service, history of them, what happened to any of these section cars, wish to add more cars to the list or know Allan Walker feel free to drop me a line. Contact by Email

Mark - August 2006