Tourism icon the Big Pineapple has suffered a blow to its re-opening of the sugar cane train ride after the deliberate act of sabotage on the train’s tracks.

After being closed for the past two years, tourists were keen to experience the 15-minute ride that journeys 2.4km past a rainforest and 100-year-old bamboo plantation before making its way to the animal farm.

However excited tourists were turned away less than an hour before the ride was set to open after theme park’s management discovered oil had been applied to the track at the critical point below the steepest gradient.

General manager Brendan Weatherill said the damage was detected at 8:30am on Saturday after a section lap checking the track before the train was taken for a test run.

Mr Weatherill said they check the nuts and bolts but never expected to find someone to have laid grease on the tracks.

"When we took the train up the first hill we realised something wasn’t right when we started to slide and slip backwards,” Mr Weatherill explained.

"Someone knew exactly what to do to make this train not go up.”

The general manager said he had to regrettably turn away tourists that had travelled from as far as the Gold Coast, and with 210 tickets booked for the train, there were a lot of disappointed people.

Nambour CIB, forensic officers and local police are investigating the incident still after a person of interest was interviewed on Saturday but not charged.