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Description of the line.
The line starts from the the town at Shenanigan's Wharf, located on Oyster Bay.
All ships off-load their goods, sometimes including, visiting locomotives or rail wagons, onto the oddly named
Grasshopper Siding,
the derivation of that name was known to only a few local founders of the railway and is lost in time.
Trains leave the coastal town heading inland over the coastal plain and crossing back and forth over
Goanna Creek before commencing the accent of the foothills.
The first noteworthy bridge, Brumby Bridge, is a Heritage Listed one-of-a-kind eight bay truss built on site by local bridge carpenters.
It is a fine example of simplicity, well-selected timber and skilled timber construction. This structure spans
Brumby Gully,
so named when wild horses were found watering there some days after they broke out of a poorly built split log fenced paddock near the town wharf.
They had been mustered and driven to the wharf, destined for loading on a ship for use by the state military detachment.
All attempts to re-catch these Brumby's failed and they were never seen again.
From that bridge, the line then curves over a timber trestle and next passes Lizard Rock,
which simply resembles a Lizard's head when viewed from the train by imaginative people and children when approaching from the East.
Travelling through heavily wooded flat country we come to Finch Haven that reflects the large numbers of
Finches that populate this grassland at the start of the foothills. The line starts to climb around Hammock Hill
named for a hammock where a local youth used to lay and read alone. Trains proceed on what is nowadays known as the
Hammock Bypass, a tight radius curve forms a 240 degree horseshoe bend that replaced
the initial more circuitous alignment.
This bend is known as Hellsgate, the flanges of railway wheels and the brake blocks squeal so annoyingly that
the ladies on the trains say it is like entering the gates of Hell.
Surveyors found in more recent years, since the initial construction of the line, that a deviation could avoid some steep gradients.
The Mosquito Flats Deviation allows express trains to avoid those older steep gradient and yet it also bypasses
some of the communities along the older alignment.
Back on the longer run mainline, before long we cross Purgatory Bridge, then we are at the next station that is located just at the start of the steep accent on the mountain range ahead,
it bears the onerous name Purgatory Scrub. The crews of descending trains dreaded this last steep grade
before braking to a halt at this station that serves a village of that name. Here the residents are mostly railway fettler's families and this is where
all the raw materials for repairs and maintenance are held in the railway yard and depot. While it may seem at first glance a sleepy and boring little place,
it is quiet and the abundance of rainforest bird life here is truly amazing, to just stop and listen is a wonderful,
unforgettable experience that brightens this area.
Now the trains begin the hard slog up the steep and winding alignment, the terrain becomes more heavily timbered here.
Soon we are in tropical rainforest with the incessant sounds of tropical insects that only add to close atmosphere of wet tropic heat and humidity.
A brief respite in the gradient and close rainforest heat is a clearing and cool area called Frog Hollow though on
occasions their noise can be deafening.
Here we cross yet another Heritage Listed truss bridge Frog Bridge, over Goanna Creek. On the other bank of the creek there was once a locality called
Jumbuk Junction, here the line used to diverge with a branch line that travelled up a valley following a tributary creek to a sheep farming region
part way up the escarpment. The sheep industry did not prosper and the junction and rails have since been removed.
The line now veers to the right through more beautiful tropical forest that is in fact more like a garden than mere hillside forest.
The line straightens out before crossing Goanna Creek again over a heritage listed timber truss bridge. It replaced an earlier sandstone arch viaduct
known as Lapstone Bridge, that was washed out in the severe floods of 1894.
Having crossed the bridge the next locality is called Devil's Pinch and while the line does turn sharply
(the usual meaning of a 'Pinch' is a tight pass or squeeze) to the left through heavy rainforest, the railway gangs who built the line called it
Devil's Pinch for a different reason. The lush tropical palms in this area have long thorns that spicked the men as they worked through the jungle to
clear the way for the line.
The track continues to climb and heading more westerly now we go around Possum Bend the last curve on the
final leg of our journey on the approaches to the town of Tabletop.
The end of the tracks actually run out onto Tabletop Wharf on Goanna Creek. A dam had been constructed on the
outskirts of town that made the creek navigable from here and back upstream. Flat bottom boats delivered farm products to the rail head, however,
in recent years, that trade is now carried by road trucks.
While this is the end of the line, it is just the beginning of some popular tourist attractions.
Here disembarking passengers descend the mid platform stairs to enter the unusual sub-terrainian station offices and refreshment rooms.
Hand cut tunnels take passengers either, out into the town streets, out onto the rainforest walks and the
Treetops Boardwalk or directly into the world famous Crystal Caverns that criss-cross beneath the town.
An underground stream slows down within these hot caverns, there are several natural hot pools that are enjoyed by young and old for their
therapeutic, mineral rich indulgences.
  
In the town, there are specialty shops, markets, a museum, an insect hot house, and pleasant walks to a mountain top lookout.
There one can look back down to the coast and occasionally through the heat haze you can make out Shenanigan's Wharf on the distant horizon.
  
This breathtaking view reminds us all of the natural barrier this terrain imposes and the effort exerted to achieve this awe-inspiring railway.
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