Grandchester Railway Station

Grandchester is the western terminus of the first section of railway in Queensland  and is the first section of the Main Line to Toowoomba.

Grandchester was initially a railway construction camp known as Bigge’s Camp. When the first section of line was officially opened on 31 July 1865, the name was Latinised to become Grandchester (Bigge became grand and camp became chester) at the suggestion of Governor Bowen.

J. Pickering was the successful tenderer for the contract to build the passenger station but the construction was undertaken by N. J. Smith. When the station opened in July 1865 only half of the station had been completed.

A goods shed was built in 1875. The water tank was relocated from Laidley in 1876 and a locomotive was stationed here from 1885 to assist trains over the Little Liverpool Range. An engine shed was built c1885 and the stationmaster’s house was built in 1913.

By 1961 the complex included the station building and signal cabin, 2 tanks, cream shed closet, pumphouse, SM’s house, forkline to cattleyards, engine shed, coal stage, trolley shed. The engine shed had been demolished by 1963 and the trucking yards discontinued in 1991. The Signal cabin was out of service in the late 1980s, possibly in 1988.