In the past NGRs have been assigned to Gympie North runs but when it arrived at Caboolture there was a same platform transfer to board an IMU for the Caboolture-Gympie North section however today wasn’t that case and it was going to be an NGR all the way there. It seems to be the norm now with NGRs being assigned to the Gympie North corridor. Even watching the MotoGP Free Practice for the Indonesian GP followed by Formula 1 Free Practice for the Singaporean GP wasn’t enough to distract from how terrible the seats were on the NGRs. And we weren’t the only ones suffering. Pretty much everyone on the train was. The train was far from crowded leaving Central and only continued to get emptier with every stop. Some (3 of them) in the next carriage resorted to laying on the floor, others had sat sideways with legs hanging off the seats into the aisle, others were doing regular walks along the carriage and some even used the horizontal hand rails around the doors as a seat. This was a stark contrast compared the old ICE trains that used to operate the Gympie North services. Or compared to 7 days earlier when we did the trip on the Electric TiltTrain from Brisbane to Bundaberg where we arrived at Gympie North station 45 minutes faster than what the NGR took and 13 minutes ahead of the ETT’s own schedule. It was enough that passengers on the train were allowed off for a photo and smoke break while the driver cleaned the windshield and chatted with station staff. Unlike with the IMUs or SMUs its Queensland Rail’s policy to not stow the NGR sets at Gympie North over night so rather than move it to the siding as has been the norm for the last 25+ years and the crew go home the crew quickly changed ends and headed off back to Brisbane out of service before people had even exited the station gate. After we left the station gate we made the short trip into town.

At least the chairs padding was stiff enough to wedge the phone to watch F1 Free Practice on the train.

Originally the ride was supposed to start at Kilkivan station on the Kilkivan Kingaroy Rail Trail (KKRT) but we decided to start at Kinbombi station 20km to the west. For the Kilkivan-Wulkuraka ride we have multiple variations of different routes with different elevation gains and distances. The obvious route would be via both the Kilkivan Kingaroy Rail Trail (KKRT) and the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (BBRT) but that would be the longest route. There is also branching to the east of Wondai/Nanango over to the Western Branch but having done the BVRT and KKRT routes a number of times now the routes we are mostly interested in exploring are in the valley along the Eastern and Western branches of the Brisbane River. Either heading towards Jimna and over to Linville via the Monslidale stock route or through the Elgin Vale State Forest/Mount Stanley Forest Reserve/Gallangowan State Forest. This ride we ended up heading to Linville via Elgin Vale and Manumbar Road. With the new starting location the first section of the ride would end up being 105km with 1600m of elevation gain.

The start of the ride from Kinbombi Siding on the KKRT.

Bronwyn standing next to the Kinbombi Station sign (someones farm/property and not related to the former railway station and siding).

Empty undulating country roads.

A disused house.

Cloud cover provided some interesting photo opportunities every now and then.

Bronwyn riding along Kilcoy-Murgon Road.

Riding towards Elgen Vale along Manumbar Road.

Road Ends. Uh-oh.

Freshly graded dirt roads allowed for some fast speeds on the downhill sections.

Having ridden the Condamine River George and the Eastern Branch and all their crossings we can now cross off the 37 Western Branch crossings on our list of crossing to cross. Just like the ride down the hill the area was starting to dry out. Over the next couple weeks there would be some hazard reduction burns and heavy rains leaving much of the landscape black and vivid green.

Some burnt scenery amongst the somewhat green grass.

 

A log still smouldering with some flames licking out.

 

Bronwyn crossing one of the thirty-seven river crossings.

 

West meets East. The Western Branch meets the Eastern branch.

 

Bronwyn getting swooped.

 

Bronwyn gesturing to the cow to move.

 

 

 

Entering the northern portal of the Harlin tunnel on the BVRT.

 

A railway bridge south of Toogoolawah.

 

 

 

A railway bridge north of Esk.

 

Before departing Esk we stopped into the IGA to stock up on some fluids for the rest of the ride back to Wulkuraka. 5L of cold water to cool our backs, a bottle of coke and my favourite some chocolate milk. Towards the end of the climb up to Mount Hallen Bronwyn was starting to feel the effects of the heat, lunch, a couple mouthfuls of coke and the remainer of the chocky milk that she interpreted as drink the rest of while I went to put empty bottles in the bin. With Coominya-Lowood/Fernvale quite open, hot, exposed winds and Bronwyn chugging through her water we made the decision to stop in at Coominya to cool down and let the temps drop a bit before we continued on. Luke raced ahead to get some water and was a bit surprised to find out the largest bottle of any water the shop sold was 600ml with a vast choice of larger sized energy and soft drinks to choose from so he popped over to the servo where the smallest bottle of water they had left was 1500ml and a limited selection of soft drinks. Quite unusual.

 

Bronwyn riding along the BVRT south of Esk.

 

After about 70 minutes sitting underneath the trees at the Coominya railway station the cool afternoon change started to come through so we decided to head off. We had decided to stop at Fernvale and use the toilets there but south of Lowood Luke checked out the train times so we had a rough idea of when to be at Wulkuraka and decided to do some quick maths on timings with the train and realised that we had 2 options. Take it easy and get the 5:20 train or push it and get the 4.20 train. The push option meant we would have to make up about 6 minutes plus whatever time lost stopping at Fernvale and an extra 2 minutes to allow us to get on the train before the doors closed but a 27kph average should allow us to get there a couple minutes before. Bronwyn opted for the take it easy option. But only for a single km. If that. Once we got to Vernor the push option was back on the cards. We thought we’d go a little harder to see what time we get in to Fernvale and then if it was still an option. After the toilet/chamois cream break at Fernvale the push option was given the green light and the race against the clock was on. Once we left Fernvale the ETA at Wulkuraka settled down to 4.28. 8 Minutes after the train would have left but we had a target to beat. As long as our average speed was above 27.5kph we should have been okay.

 

Stats. Distances. ETA. Average Speed.

 

 

 

 

Time to go home.