A rail ambulance is a vehicle used for medical transportation services on railway lines. The first rail ambulance in Queensland, Australia, was introduced in 1918, with the last withdrawn from service around 1990.
Blackall rail ambulance, September 1989
The rail ambulance was usually a specially equipped petrol engined rail inspection trolley, funded by a local community, with a railway employee volunteering to drive it when necessary. The initials QATB stand for Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade.
Queensland is a vast, relatively unpopulated area, where providing services to remote communities in a cost-effective way has been a continual challenge. Railways were built from 1865, and in many areas provided the major form of transport until a significant road improvement program was commenced by the Queensland government from the 1960s.
It was in this context that the mining community of Blair Athol introduced the first rail ambulance in 1918, in order to enable injured people to be transported to the nearest hospital at Clermont.[1]
rail, ambulance, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, 2018, lear. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Rail ambulance news newspapers books scholar JSTOR May 2018 Learn how and when to remove this message A rail ambulance is a vehicle used for medical transportation services on railway lines The first rail ambulance in Queensland Australia was introduced in 1918 with the last withdrawn from service around 1990 Blackall rail ambulance September 1989 The rail ambulance was usually a specially equipped petrol engined rail inspection trolley funded by a local community with a railway employee volunteering to drive it when necessary The initials QATB stand for Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 References 4 External linksHistory editQueensland is a vast relatively unpopulated area where providing services to remote communities in a cost effective way has been a continual challenge Railways were built from 1865 and in many areas provided the major form of transport until a significant road improvement program was commenced by the Queensland government from the 1960s It was in this context that the mining community of Blair Athol introduced the first rail ambulance in 1918 in order to enable injured people to be transported to the nearest hospital at Clermont 1 The idea rapidly spread with rail ambulances being introduced at Dalby 1919 Mount Mulligan 1920 Roma and Charleville 1922 Goondiwindi and Baralaba 1923 Cloncurry 1925 and Blackall 1941 Other towns known to have had a rail ambulance at some stage include Charters Towers Pentland Atherton Ravenshoe and Millaa Millaa The last rail ambulances were withdrawn in 1990 from Mareeba and Blackall as by that stage road ambulance services were available through the State See also editHospital train Railway surgeryReferences edit Kerr J Triumph of Narrow Gauge Boolarong Publications 1990External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rail ambulances 1925 map of the Queensland railway system Photos of the interior of a rail ambulance 1 nbsp This rail transport related article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rail ambulance amp oldid 1190323532, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
