Community & Business
2 October, 2025
Iconic loco star of festival
A WELL-KNOWN and popular Ravenshoe icon will be honoured as part of this year’s annual Torimba Festival.
Ravenshoe’s D17 locomotive, fondly named “Capella” after the township from which it was “rescued”, relocated, rebuilt and restored, will clock up a century since its manufacture at Ipswich Railway Workshops in 1925.
Designed for the Brisbane suburban passenger service, the D17 Class comprised 30 locomotives built in three batches of 10 each.
The first batch was constructed in 1924 by Walkers Limited, Maryborough, followed by the second and third batches built at Ipswich Railway Workshops.
The last batch came 12 years later, between 1937 and 1942.
The D17 class locomotives became known as “Black Tanks” and featured a superheated boiler and used the same 17” cylinders as the 4-8-0 C17 class, but with the cylinders aligned horizontally rather than inclined.
Ravenshoe’s D17 (No.268) entered service in April 1926 and was withdrawn in October 1968 after a working life of 42 years hauling Brisbane suburban trains.
After a plan to preserve one of the D17 ‘Black Tanks’ in Brisbane never eventuated, only two were spared from scrapping - No.268 was plinthed in a park at Capella in Central Queensland, while No.855 was similarly placed at Murgon, both far removed from their home service area in Brisbane suburbs.
No.268 was later restored to operation by RAILCO and employed on their tourist railway on the Atherton Tablelands from Ravenshoe to Tumoulin.
It wears a lined blue livery probably inspired by “Thomas the Tank Engine” rather than its original black livery with red buffer and silver handrails.
RAILCO Ravenshoe operations are currently suspended, pending track and bridge upgrades, with No.268 and rollingstock stored at their Ravenshoe station depot in the interim.
Torimba Festival committee’s president Anne Harron said that in honour of the town’s iconic loco, this year’s festival will be themed “100 years of Steam and Iron” around the well-known Ravenshoe resident.
A full 14-day Torimba Festival program of events starts on Saturday, 11 October, with a host of activities including “Capella” steaming up and travelling a short distance under her own steam over a recently upgraded section of track.
