Redbank-Bundamba Loop Line and The Swanbank Extension

In 1881, Lewis Thomas received parliamentary approval[1] to build a 2 km tramway from Bundamba to his coal mine known as Aberdare at Blackleg Gully.

A 10 km line from Redbank to a point originally known as '3 Mile 8 Chains' (now Box Flat Junction) was opened in 1904.

From that time a succession of shunt trains serviced the numerous private sidings serving the new mines.

Workers travelled in carriages attached to early morning and late afternoon shunt trains.

The Swanbank line (as the remainder became known) services the Box Flat mine (which began exporting coal through the Port of Brisbane in 1983) and the Swanbank power station, though with the recent conversion of the power station to burn natural gas, the line now sees little traffic.