An historic steam train has rolled into the state's west, as part of a journey to celebrate Queensland Rail's 150th birthday.

"Bety" is the pride of QR's heritage fleet, and is making the long journey from Brisbane to Longreach, stopping at regional centres along the way.

The 1956 locomotive and nine carriages pulled into Barcaldine station yesterday and will complete the journey to Longreach this afternoon.

Thousands of hours went into restoring the train and its carriages for QR's milestone.

Bety the steam locomotive was built in 1956 and is taking a nostalgic journey in Queensland's west. ( Queensland Rail )

QR's historian Greg Hallam said the train was a piece of living history, with some carriages more than 100 years old.

"The last carriage, it was built in 1902," he said.

"It is an Edwardian, I won't say relic, it is an Edwardian piece of living history.

"The dining car, it's modern, it was built in 1935.

"So if you look through this train, we have got 1902, and those other carriages are about 1910, 1911 and 1912 and the old sleeping car from 1924."

Mr Hallam said about 1,200 people have enjoyed the trip on Bety during the journey west, including about 900 who took a short trip during a stop at Emerald earlier this week.

"Everyone has got a great railway story, and the further west you go, the wilder they get and as far as I am concerned the more entertaining they get as well," he said.

The driver in charge of Queensland Rail's heritage department, John Broderick, took Bety out west. ( ABC News: Chrissy Arthur )

Mr Hallam said many people who visited the train or took the rare chance to ride it had enjoyed the experience.

But he said he was hoping people also reflected on the role of rail throughout Queensland's history.

"It looks like around about a quarter of a million railway workers, since 1865 have been employed in some form or another throughout Queensland," he said.

"At one point there about 8 per cent of the Queensland population was directly employed or impacted by the Queensland railways, back into the 1940s and 50s even, so it was a huge enterprise."

Train driver John Broderick is a third generation railway man and in charge of Bety on her trip west.

He said the big challenge in driving the steam train was keeping water and coal stocked up.

"They use, I've been told, an estimated 100 litres [of water] per kilometre," Mr Broderick said.

"We used about 50,000 litres of water easily from Emerald over [to Barcaldine].

Volunteer Laurie sits inside the restored carriage that was built in 1909. ( ABC News: Chrissy Arthur )

"We had to get a water truck at Alpha, a water truck with 25,000 litres to top us up.

"We had to get the maintenance guys also to top us up with coal at Alpha."

Mr Broderick said the best thing about driving the vintage train was working with a team of people who were passionate about rail and rail history.

"The best thing about it is the mateship, we all work well together and there is good comradeship," he said.

"The steam train needed some diesel assistance to get up the Drummond Range, east of Alpha, but otherwise has been travelling well.

"This engine is capable of doing 80 kilometres and hour legally, but we only do 60 kilometres an hour maximum out here.

"It is slow, but we have got a fair bit of weight behind us, we have nearly 300 tonnes of weight behind us too," he said.

About 250 people are expected to ride the train today around Barcaldine, before Bety heads west to Longreach where the service terminates.

The train will be moved to Winton this weekend where it will be used for a World War I troop train re-enactment starting on Monday.