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 in the next carriage resorted to laying on the ground, 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.

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 (not related to the former railway station).

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.

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

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.

Next Page – Day 02 – Linville To Wulkuraka.