From time to time I have stood on the platform of the small, yet restored railway station at Deepwater, NSW and looked down at the slowly rotting sleepers covered with long grass and weeds and thought about all of the men and women who working on the Main North Line (Maitland NSW to Wallangarra QLD/actually one half of Wallangarra QLD is Jennings NSW. The border of the two States runs right along the platform of the station dividing the overall township into two towns)...about their dreams and their hopes and the sweat and the hardship they went through to build and maintain this once vital link to Queensland (when you look that deep, you can get quite teary. Men and women suffer heaps on such rugged bush endeavours).
I am also inclined to say, "What a total waste of time and effort and pain if we dont continue to look after these national heritages, as true treasures".
With so many young couples having to move to the country, just to buy a reasonable house, do these old railway lines offer the possibility of encouraging growth into country areas? In unsettled regional times are these railways of importance to national defence? As oil gets scarce is there a value in polishing up the old coal burning railway locomotives to help one day service regional areas...maybe even build a few new "clean" coal burners for the task? Do you have a railway story?

Gotta agree with you on this one Gibo. The old railway station at Wallangarra's pretty priceless, and if you've visited the weekend markets they hold there you'll know what I mean.
There's definitely scope for some of these old tracks to be used for a tourist route, though getting the costings to stack up would be a formidable task.
I'm hoping they proceed with the Melbourne-Brisbane railway line, and that somehow as an offshoot of that, restoring these old lines becomes a viable proposition.

Instead of increasing truck numbers on our long-suffering roads (many of which were not built to withstand the loads that they now carry), rail would be a sensible option for bulk freight in many areas. use trucks for domestic area delivery, rather than for long-haul purposes. Might even help to reduce the road-toll. The latest proposition in NSW is B-triples - ridiculous when most of the road surfaces cant properly handle B-doubles, and the driving population struggles with handling B-doubles.

Wallangarra is a beautiful railway station as you say TurnRightThenleft. Was there recently, in the museum attached. They have even got a Dr. Who police box to show the differences between the different ages. My main concern about preserving the old railway lines is national defence. If an invader lobs at sometime in the future, soldiers will have to travel on something and fuel maybe short. People might also have to move south on something. Im a bit prejudiced on this need to preserve lines for national defence because of the number of visions and prophecies I have collected on an invader. Though many christians believe in an invader; Gods Allowance because of the sins of the people, Id still like to see northern residents to have a fair chance at escaping south. As with all prophecy we just have to wait and see if these revelations actually come to pass. From what Ive observed I still think christian revelation is more reliable than old Nostradamus. I think he was working for the dark ones of the spirit world. His prophecies are chaotic and many almost impossible to understand.

Youre right about the trucks on the roads Country Gal. Rail is looking more viable each year. Lets hope the penny drops with State governments. A massive injection into rail would keep many country towns from dying. The truckies always seem to be doing 120 plus k's when they pass and police never seem to be much around when its going on. I see a day coming when the roads become so clogged with trucks and cars that panic will set in as economies collapse. Rail would be handy then.

Rail will make a major comeback over the next 20 years.
The track itself and station building is not where the value is but the
permway itself. The right of way into towns must be preserved as they
will be badly needed and it would be a shame to have to start
demolishing homes. All those branch lines that were scrapped were in
place before cars and trucks for a very good reason and those reasons
will be valid again.