2020 BRISBANE VALLEY RAIL TRAIL EXPLORATION RIDE 01 – IPSWICH RAILWAY STATION-CLARADON RAILWAY BRIDGE-WULKURAKA RAILWAY STATION 

ipswich – ipswich railway workshops – wulkuraka – fERNVALE – lowood – claradon railway bridge

 

1

days

87

kms

560

meters climbed

The first of our return rides since the start of Covid-19 lockdown was to the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. The trip to Ipswich on the train was a very quiet one with only a handful of people getting on and off the train. The majority of the trip from Brisbane it was just us two. From Ipswich Railway Station we made our way to Wulkuraka Railway Station for the start of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail via the Ipswich Railway Workshops and the old Western Railway Line alignment at Mihi Junction. While on our way there we checked out the Ipswich Railway Workshops which is progressively in the process of stripping and scrapping 89 Queensland Rail Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) and InterCity Express (ICE) trains. After a short look around we made our way to Wulkuraka Railway Station for the start of the ride along the rail trail to the Lockyer Creek Railway Bridge. 

Queensland Rail Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) and InterCity Express (ICE) trains sit throughout the yard in various states with doors, pantographs and air conditioning units missing as they await scrapping at the Ipswich Railway Workshops.

Despite recent rain the first part of the ride to Fernvale still showed how dry the landscape was with our legs and bikes covered in a thin layer of fine dust even before we arrived at Fernvale (in Bronwyn’s case her CX bike still had dried mud from the ride to Mount Mort).  

After having a quick mini lunch at the Claradon bridge and getting more drone shots we headed back to Lowood for a proper lunch at the Lowood Bakery before continuing onto Wulkuraka Railway Station.

As we left Fernvale the jets continued to do their fly bys and practise landing approaches above. We had plenty of time to make the 23km ride back Wulkuraka Railway Station before the train departed but after some drone flying and sight seeing we noticed that we were cutting it quite close to making the train. We ended up covering the last 8km in approx 15mins and arrived at the station about 4 minutes before the train departed. Basically enough time to tag on, get a photo of our dirt covered legs and the usual bike against the station name sign photo before the train arrived.