Queensland Railways steel carriage stock


Two types of steel bodied air-conditioned carriage stock have been used on long distance Queensland Rail services.

M series

In January 1950, Queensland Railways awarded a contract for 99 steel bodied carriages to Commonwealth Engineering, Rocklea. These were purchased to operate the Lander series of trains, The Inlander, The Midlander, The Sunlander and The Westlander entering service between 1953 and 1955.
The original order of 99 cars was for:
In 2007 as well as 2010, Queensland Rail decided that the 80 remaining M-series carriages would have to be removed from service by December 2013. With the replacement of The Sunlander by the Spirit of Queensland, the M-series carriages were retired in December 2014.
Five cars were purchased by the DownsSteam Tourist Railway & Museum. Four other carriages were purchased by the same museum in October 2015 . MBS1473 has been preserved at Cecil Plains railway museum, located at the former railway station..
Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway at Swanbank were gifted six coaches upon the retirement of M class from Queensland Rail. The coaches gifted were:
Four of these cars have undergone work to return them to traffic as the Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway Dinner Train, which runs over 7 km of scenic railway track at Ipswich, and sport the original blue and white livery they first wore in 1953.

L series

Between October 1981 and October 1985, Comeng built a further 30 carriages. These were built out of stainless steel.
The original order was for 5 x LBL class second class sitting cars.
Subsequent orders added an additional:
In 2007 as well as 2010, Queensland Rail projected that the 30 remaining L series carriages could operate for a further 15 years, pending refurbishment. In July 2014, tenders were called to reconfigure 11 L series carriages. With The Sunlander withdrawn, this allowed The Inlander, Spirit of the Outback and The Westlander to be converted to L series stock.