Wallangarra railway station opened on 14 February 1887, when the Queensland Railway's Southern line was extended from
Stanthorpe to Wallangarra. On 16 January 1888, the New South Wales Government Railways' Main Northern line was extended from
Tenterfield to Wallangarra, thereby opening an inter-colonial rail link between Brisbane and Sydney. Because of the
break-of-gauge, the Wallangarra railway station was built astride the state border with a single island platform with one building, with the western side for by the narrow gauge line from Queensland and the eastern side by the standard gauge line from New South Wales. Each side of the building sported the awnings and signage of Queensland Railways and New South Wales Railways respectively. Even though the two lines shared a common station at Wallangarra (which sits astride the border), the New South Wales side of the station was initially named
Jennings after the town on the New South Wales side of the border but ultimately became known as Wallangarra. Temporary buildings were first erected with the permanent buildings being erected from 1887 to 1890. In May 1878, Queensland surveyor
George Phillips and New South Wales surveyor Mr Francis agreed the best place for the two railways to meet was at the border at the location that is now Wallangarra. In 1884, after confirming the border crossing location with the New South Wales Government, the Queensland Parliament approved plans for extension of the line southwards from Stanthorpe to the Queensland-New South Wales border via
Ballandean. In May 1885, the Queensland Government announced the sale of land in the new border township of Wallangarra, with 179 town lots to be auctioned at a starting price of £8 per acre. On 29 June 1885, the sale of the land was an "extraordinary success" with all lots sold for prices ranging from £26 to £131 per lot (about £500 per acre). In February 1886, Queensland provided New South Wales with the detailed plans costing £28,000 for the railway station at Wallangarra, but in March 1886 New South Wales declared the cost too expensive. The New South Wales Premier,
Patrick Jennings, then proposed that Tenterfield rather than Wallangarra should be the meeting point and break-of-gauge for the two railways. Even within Queensland, there was support for Tenterfield with the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce arguing that a Tenterfield break-of-gauge would open up new markets for Queensland in northern New South Wales (as the transhipping cost at Wallangarra would be avoided). In October 1886, the New South Wales railway extension to Tenterfield was opened; only the gap between Wallangarra and Tenterfield remained to be complete and that remained subject to the break-of-gauge dispute. However, even as the issue of the location of the break-of-gauge was still being hotly debated in the newspapers, the Queensland Government pushed on with constructing the railway according to the original agreements. The Queensland Commissioner for Railways gave instructions on 18 November 1886 for a smaller permanent station to be constructed wholly on the Queensland side of the border at Wallangarra at a cost of £6,000 but with the platform and station yard layout designed to incorporate the eventual extension of the New South Wales standard gauge lines to the border. . The New South Wales government completed its railway line to the Wallangarra station in January 1888, although it did not erect awnings over its platform until 1890. On 17 January 1888, the first Brisbane-to-Sydney service left Brisbane. The transhipping station and yards of the Wallangarra railway station led to the creation of two townships on the border, Wallangarra on the Queensland side and Jennings on the New South Wales side. Several years after the railway station was opened linking the two state railway lines, the border township of Wallangarra was described as being of "quite a pretentious appearance consisting of butchers, bakers, blacksmiths and with an aerated water factory". By 1884, the train travelling between Brisbane and Stanthorpe had been referred to as a "Mail" train running with a
Travelling Post Office. The opening of the inter-colonial line in 1888 saw the introduction of a regular train service between Sydney and Brisbane, known as the "Sydney Mail" (26 Up) and (37 Down) were the premier service of the era. The timetable was improved in 1894 and remained unchanged until 1908, when a more powerful
locomotive C16 class was introduced. In 1923, a new and heavier Sydney Mail train was constructed consisting of nine carriages including a parlour car based on observation platform at the rear of the train, to be hauled at what was the time the most powerful locomotives on a narrow gauge in Australia. However, in the same year, Queensland Rail installed a
gantry crane formerly used at Clapham Yard in Brisbane. The line northwards of
Guyra in New South Wales, and then
Armidale was progressively mothballed by New South Wales's State Rail Authority. In March 1994 the Assistant Station Master's and Ganger Residences at Wallangarra were sold. The Station Master's residence was sold in 1994–1995, and the Station Officer withdrawn in 1995. The Southern line south of Warwick was threatened with closure in 1993–1994, but the link was retained due to community protest, and a twice weekly goods service was still operated. In recent times trains have only been run on an as required basis, and all station staff withdrawn leaving Wallangarra as an unattended station. The
Australian Railway Historical Society operated a twice yearly service to Wallangarra as
The Winelander. It last ran in February 2014 before the withdrawal of the
carriage stock. It is a popular destination for steam locomotive hauled specials, with
Downs Explorer (formerly the Southern Downs Steam Railway) regularly operating services from
Warwick. == Description ==