03/10/2026
🚂 TWO DH SISTERS REUNITED — DH41 & DH45 DOUBLE-HEAD TO THALLON! 🚂
There is something very special happening on Queensland’s rails this weekend.
Two volunteer heritage railway organisations — DownsSteam Toowoomba and the Southern Downs Steam Railway, home of the Downs Explorer — are bringing together two remarkably closely related locomotives for DownsSteam’s journey west to Goondiwindi and Thallon.
At the head of the train will be DownsSteam’s DH41 and Southern Downs Steam Railway’s DH45, working together as a double-header.
And these aren’t simply two old diesel locomotives.
They are members of the same Queensland Railways DH class, both built by Walkers Limited at Maryborough and both dating from 1969. In fact, surviving records place DH41’s entry into service around August 1969 and DH45’s on 9 September 1969 — meaning these two locomotives began their railway lives only weeks apart.
More than half a century later, their paths are coming together again.
🛤️ From Queensland Rail yards to heritage passenger trains
The DH class was introduced by Queensland Railways in the 1960s. Eventually 73 locomotives, numbered DH1 to DH73, were built by Walkers at Maryborough. Designed principally for shunting, they became familiar sights in railway yards across Queensland and were also used on short-distance freight workings and lightly laid lines.
The original class was diesel-hydraulic, with a Caterpillar engine and Voith hydraulic transmission. In original specification the locomotives weighed about 37 tonnes and developed approximately 347 kW.
As Queensland's railway operations changed and yard shunting requirements declined, members of the class began disappearing from regular railway service. A number went on to second careers in Queensland's sugar industry, while others eventually found their way into preservation.
🔧 DH41 — a remarkable return
DH41 has had a particularly interesting journey.
Records show it was Walkers builder's number 623, built in 1969, and later passed from Queensland Railways to Bundaberg Sugar, which acquired it in 1995. Interestingly, historical sugar-industry records continued to list DH41 as a 1067 mm gauge locomotive, rather than one of the former QR DHs converted to the much narrower cane railway gauge.
In September 2024, DownsSteam acquired DH41 from Bundaberg Sugar, and the locomotive arrived at the organisation's Drayton railway precinct the following month. That marked the beginning of another major chapter in its life.
What followed was not simply a coat of paint and a tidy-up.
The restoration has been described recently as an extensive volunteer-led rebuild. In an August 2026 feature on DownsSteam, Operations Manager Andrew Caldwell said DH41 had reached the final stages of commissioning following that work. DownsSteam has identified the locomotive as an important recovery locomotive within its operational fleet.
That makes this weekend particularly significant: after decades away from mainstream railway work and an extensive restoration effort by DownsSteam volunteers, DH41 is once again doing what a locomotive was built to do — working out on the railway.
🚂 DH45 — the Downs Explorer workhorse
Then there is DH45, a locomotive very familiar to Downs Explorer passengers.
DH45 entered Queensland Railways service on 9 September 1969. Published locomotive records show it remained associated with Queensland Rail until the 1990s, including a period in departmental service as MMY045. It subsequently spent time in heritage operation, including at the Mary Valley railway, before becoming associated with Southern Downs Steam Railway operations.
For Downs Explorer, DH45 has become far more than a shunting locomotive.
It has hauled heritage passenger trains across the Southern Downs and Granite Belt and north towards Toowoomba, and has provided vital diesel motive power while C17 steam locomotive No. 971 has undergone major overhaul work. Southern Downs Steam Railway currently identifies Warwick Railway Precinct as the operational base for both C17 971 and DH45.
So this weekend brings together a recently rebuilt DH41 with a DH45 that has accumulated considerable experience hauling heritage passenger trains on the Queensland Rail network.
🤝 Two organisations — one railway heritage
Perhaps the best part of the story is what this represents for heritage rail in southern Queensland.
DownsSteam and Southern Downs Steam Railway are separate volunteer organisations, but both are working towards the same fundamental objective — keeping Queensland's railway heritage alive, operational and accessible to the public.
DownsSteam is a volunteer-driven heritage railway based at Drayton, while SDSR is a volunteer, not-for-profit railway based at Warwick and operating publicly as Downs Explorer.
Sharing locomotives, knowledge, crews, experience and resources strengthens both organisations — and creates opportunities that neither organisation necessarily needs to achieve alone.
📸 How rare is DH41 + DH45?
We haven't found a published historical record confirming that DH41 and DH45 themselves ever double-headed a train together during their Queensland Railways careers.
And that is what makes this combination so intriguing.
The DHs were primarily shunting and short-haul locomotives rather than locomotives normally associated with long-distance double-headed passenger trains. So seeing two 1969-built members of the class working together on a substantial heritage passenger journey more than 55 years later is certainly an unusual sight.
For railway photographers and enthusiasts along the route, DH41 and DH45 together at the head of the train will be a sight worth watching for.
🌾 And the destination has history of its own
DownsSteam's South-West Rails: End of the Line Tour runs from Saturday 3 October to Monday 5 October 2026, travelling from Toowoomba through the Southern Downs to Goondiwindi, with the journey continuing west to Thallon.
DownsSteam describes the tour as marking the return of heritage passenger rail to Thallon after a decade, with the program incorporating the Thallon Rail Heritage Centre and the community of Thallon.
So there are really several railway stories coming together this weekend:
Two locomotives built in Maryborough in 1969. Two very different journeys through more than five decades of Queensland railway history. Two volunteer heritage railway organisations. And one train heading deep into Queensland's south-west.
🚂 DH41 + DH45 — together again on Queensland rails.
Congratulations to the volunteers at DownsSteam Toowoomba on the tremendous work that has gone into returning DH41 to operational railway service, and to the volunteers from both organisations whose cooperation has made this weekend's operation possible.
From all of us at Downs Explorer and the Southern Downs Steam Railway, we are delighted to see DH45 joining her sister locomotive for what should be a memorable weekend of Queensland heritage rail.
Keep an eye out along the line — this is one double-header you may not see very often! 📸🚂
