High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rail transport in Queensland began in 1865. Today it is the second-largest narrow gauge railway network in the world. The first line was surveyed while the colony was still part of New South Wales, but the colony of Queensland had separated before railway proposals became really serious. At that time, the colony had a tiny (European) population in a vast territory of 1.8 million square kilometres (695,000 sq mi), and the question was how to build inexpensive and affordable railways. The nascent Queensland Railways was persuaded that the way to build low cost railways was to use a narrower gauge than the standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1?2 in). A prototype existed in Norway. The proposed narrow gauge railway would have very sharp curves of 5 chains (100 metres) on the long climb to Toowoomba at about 900 meters (2,953 ft) above sea level. If the railway could only manage a top speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), then it was thought that it would be sufficient for a hundred years.

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