Buderim is the next station on the line, to the SW of the previous shot. The aforementioned Comeng stops here, as well as a weekly food train up from Daintree. Due to the grades on this line, the train must be kept short, as diesels are still rather expensive, and the expense is not warranted on such a backwater.
The experts give this new line 5 years to start turning over a profit, or it will be closed down. Money became tight about half way through construction, and so the line was completed, and the cheapest rolling stock used on the line. The Comeng is the newst stock on the line, recyled from a failed commuter service when it was commissioned, at the start of 1956.
Most of the freight stock is re-used stock from old branch lines to plantations or mills that never recovered after the market crashed in 1944/45. Some of the smaller ones blame family that was killed in the war, others just never turned a profit again and closed their doors. This explains all the abandoned branch lines around the place. In other places, production is still down, and trucks have replaced rail.
The oil sidings in the valley, ARE still used, despite the trucks there. These tracks lead onto the main southern corridor (all of the one track it is), and take oil down to the St. Tambaville Refinery, the second largest refinery in the region. The trucks are taking oil to another siding, this one servicing Mareeree Refinery, THE number 1 producer of fuel oil in the region.
This is to ensure that there is as little oil wasted as possible, and to keep on good grounds with the clients
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got them now.
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