Walkers/MTU Diesel Tilt Train

In August 1999 Walkers was awarded a contract to build two diesel tilting trains for the Brisbane-Cairns run, and the two sets, City of Cairns and City of Townsville, entered service as the Cairns Tilt Train on 15 June 2003. Each train has a power car at each end, and each power car carries two German MTU engines driving the axles through a hydraulic transmission rather than electric traction motors. The diesel-hydraulic layout has long been used in Germany and was at one stage preferred there over diesel-electric. The trains run at up to 160 km/h where the track allows.

The livery uses silver, yellow and maroon as its main colours, which the Electric Tilt Train also adopted during later overhauls. As built, the government chose not to buy sleeping cars, which drew criticism for a journey of around a day, and made the train better suited to shorter trips such as Townsville to Cairns than the full Brisbane-Cairns run.

On the night of 15 November 2004, City of Townsville derailed north of Berajondo, between Bundaberg and Gladstone, after entering a 60 km/h curve at 112 km/h. All 157 passengers were injured, two seriously. The train was rebuilt by Downer at Maryborough at a cost of around $30 million, and all the tilt trains were held to 100 km/h until automatic train protection was fitted, with full-speed running resuming on 15 June 2007.

Tragedy struck on 27 November 2008, when the northbound Cairns Tilt Train collided with a loaded B-double at the Rungoo level crossing, about 19.5 km north of Ingham. Both drivers were killed. Power car DTD5403 was written off in the accident.

In October 2010 the Queensland Government awarded Downer a contract for a third diesel tilt train to replace the locomotive-hauled Sunlander, and the two original sets were refurbished and lengthened. The contract was extended in November 2010 to a fourth new power car, so the project delivered four: two for the new set and two spares, allowing a new power car to lead each of the three trains for safety and keeping services running while others were in maintenance. The power cars are now numbered DTD5401 to DTD5409, and with three sets in service there's always a spare, which is whichever power car is sitting at Mayne at the time. The project was scaled back in 2013, dropping the planned luxury sleepers and restaurant cars, but the refurbished trains did gain RailBed sleeper seats. The first refurbished train entered service in October 2013 as the Spirit of Queensland, and the third set followed in October 2014. The diesel tilt trains continue to run the Spirit of Queensland between Brisbane and Cairns, a journey of just under 25 hours, five times a week.