RailTrail Queensland 😊👍

My first job in 1964 was in an office building across Darling Harbour. With the windows open, sometimes the 19 class could be heard shoving about the goods trucks. Bliss!

Same haha good days

😊👍

You will find all the rest of the 4,000 kilometres in my Playlist. It is all rather wonderful.

I knew that most if not all canefields used secondhand government railways rail and assumed it to be from Queensland Rail but I suppose that if there was a shortage, they would have got it from anywhere affordable. I don’t think many could afford new rail.

Yes, these cane railways are impressive. Trains are not used in preference to road for sentimental reasons. They are simply cheaper to move multi thousands of tonnes of sugar cane each season. As I replied to someone else earlier, derailments are expensive and a few thousand tonnes of cut cane can be lost in a big crash. So track, locos and bins are kept in as good order as possible. They are not public carriers as such. Generally the railways are owned by the sugar mill connected to it, the customers being the local farmers. If the subject interests you further, if you check KZfaq for ‘Cane Railways Queensland’ you should find a lot more of my videos covering the other mills/towns.

Glad you liked it. In fact there are around 4,000km, 2,500 miles of such lines in Queensland, dormant until the second half of the year when harvesting starts. I have put on KZfaq scenes of all 20 or so mills here. Just look for ‘Cane Railways Queensland’.

That’s all it has to do. I expect that the number of bins attached to an engine is carefully controlled so that trains don’t get stuck due to overloading.

Great! I have quite a few more Cane Trains videos if you are interested.

As you have seen, cane trains run anywhere and in general lines are not fenced. It is up to parents to teach their children to keep off the tracks. Accidents seem rare. Even some electric train lines through the suburbs in Melbourne have no fences. See my Unfenced Rail Lines Video. If you have any links to Indian cane trains that would be interesting. Steam disappeared here by the 1970s.

Sorry but I expect it is still needed here. At the moment that engine may be under flood water. Much of the cane railway is flooded right now. I’m happy that you like the train anyway.

I knew a little about sugar beet trains due to my interest in the Belgian SNCV but never went chasing these railways, now all gone. Glad you enjoyed the video but it is just one of about 20 videos. Check out ‘Cane Railways Queensland’. Unfortunately preparing my own videos usually takes a lot of time,leaving me little time to watch other people’s videos but I will take a look at yours when I can.

What helps increase the size of these cane train loads is the fact that all the cane bins (wagons) have roller bearings on their axles but more importantly that the lines are fairly flat, few places having any really noticeable hills. And the bins have no brakes...

Having flat ground definitly helps. As for brakes... I do a lot of stuff with trailers IRL. Had a box trailer once that was almost at the limit of the pickup I had at the time. If it's difficult to stop thst in the rai, I hate to think of all that cane on steel. What's the usual cruising speed of a loaded rake and how long does it take to stop?

And are they connected using chain linkages like Europe or knuckles similar to the JP and NA trains?

From memory the maximum speed is 40km/h (25 mph). Sooner or later you may see that shown in one of my cane movies. Train control is all part of the skill of a driver. He ‘knows the road’, that is, hills up and down and dives accordingly. Most mills use radio controlled brake wagons on the back which also help control the train. But time to stop in an emergency, I don’t know but it won’t be quick. In some places couple locos are used. Sometimes these are smaller locos permanently coupled.

Interesting. Not too many places uses either a Caboose or brake van anymore. Well, they're neat to watch and it's certainly different than what I'm used to seeing. Very nice videos!

You gotta think of a new comment 😊 If you have not yet found the Cane Trains Playlist, you will find video there of all the other mill railways.

There are no other crops that use the trains. The season starts between June and July usually and runs to November or December depending on how much rain delays harvesting. Rarely does the harvest go after Christmas as apparently the amount of sugar in the cane drops off. Only if you are very lucky might you see a trackwork train out of the cane season.

Gary Bowser It is a radio controlled brake van to help stop the trains. The cane bins have no brakes. Most mills use them.

Something new for me plus Over Canada on CN Rail line.. 2 Locomotives front of the train and 1 more of Locomotive is DPU middle of the train!!

Yes. I saw that mid train loco system used only at that one mill, but others maybe do the same. If you look at my ‘Electric Coal Trains’ video you will see some trains with one loco at the front, another 1/3 the way along the train and another 2/3 the way along.

Sounds good bud!!!

The no brakes simplify coupling, they seem to just back up and pull

It was a situation I only ever saw that once. It’s quite possible that the driver was just putting on a show for the camera, but certainly scraps of sugar cane, dirt etc on the rails did not help, both for the engine getting adhesion and the bins being ‘bogged’.

The vast majority of railways of all kinds in existence today that were operating more than 50+ years ago started life with steam locomotives.

@@tressteleg1 I don’t think you understand what I said.

Dillon Trinh Studios Anybody who has any knowledge of the history of railways would expect that steam ran here in the past.

Yes, and to confuse the issue, at some mills they are 4 wheelers, others they are bogie (double truck)! Some mills may even have a mix of both. I forget now.

I've seen videos of trains consisting of all three types (short 4-wheeler, long 4-wheeler and bogie).

You have sharp eyes. The size of bins is also limited by the size of the tippler unloaded at the mill, usually 2 small bins or one double size big one. It all makes for interesting watching.

While I remember taking the scenes, I really can’t remember the name of the bridge. If I did not earlier name line I was on, I can help you no further sorry.

@@tressteleg1 thanks for replying. After further research I found it on Google Earth. The track is not shown on map view, but once I found the junction on sat view, I followed the line to the bridge. It's Elphinstone Pocket Rd.

Good work. If you have Apple products, if you choose the map rather than satellite version of the maps many but not all cane railways are shown in Queensland but you have to be careful not to confuse QR lines which cane lines. If you don’t have Apple, ‘Fuel maps Australia’ also shows them, probably the same cartography as Apple.

No I have not been back, and probably won’t as there is not much change from one year to the next. However if you check the channel of ‘John Phillips’ I know he has been at least some of the way up the coast doing cane railways more recently than me.

The last time there was a major line closure was 2003 when the mill at Nambour, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Brisbane, was shut by its foreign owners. Sometimes other sugar mills have closed but the cane is simply sent to another mill nearby. Most mills are connected by rail to others in the region. New track is sometimes added. Grand total is about 4,000 km. However all lines only operate during the harvesting season, around mid June to whenever all the cane is cut, usually November or December. You could be in trouble with the police if you pinch one of those signs :-)

yes I realize that I wouldn't do that noooo but I'd love a used one tho

I thought you would be a good boy like that. I once ‘stole’ a tram stop sign in Sydney a few hours after the very last tram went past, but when I worked on the trams in Melbourne I made and PUT UP a sign naming a tram junction. My sign stayed there for years! Gradually ‘Port Junction’ became officially recognised and still is in some situations.

kool Course hard will be to get one since I lives in USA! lol

@@tressteleg1 what gauge is it? Specifically around 9:59

I’ll have to check but would be rather certain that it would have been a Bo-Bo.

Excellent video, Here in the UK all we have is a few thousand acres of sugar beet dotted about the country. Eukaryon is right, that diesel is classified as an 0-8-0, - the bigger 'bogie' ones are Bo-Bo's. I loved the old steam engine painted green and yellow towards the end. Your Country has a bit of a reputation amongst 'old vehicle buffs' as still having some old vehicles dotted about here and there.

I checked with a local authority on the cane were always of Queensland and he said that it would be a diesel hydraulic B - B stop

That escaped. He is an authority on cane railways and said the 4 axle locos are Diesel Hydraulic B-B.

I know just a little about sugarbeet growing in Belgium. The main reason you can’t grow sugarcane in Europe or the UK is that simply the climate is too cool. It’s only the north part of New South Wales that’s warm enough as well as Queensland.. I spoke to a local authority on cane railways and said the 4 axle locos are Diesel Hydraulic B-B. If you can give the location on the video where that loco is seen, it could help me a little. Also who is it that believes that it is an 0-8-0? Sharp corners here and there would be a problem for fixed axle locos. I presume you’re talking about ancient rail locomotives still in use. The privatisation of the railways produced a number of companies that bought old junk at least as a starting point. Not that fans are complaining.

A good spot 😊

Sorry but you have lost me there. Are you referring to one of those train driving computer games? If so, it would be an interesting different type of drive.

DJHazzarddm

www.farming-simulator.com/

DJHazzard Thanks for sending that but I never have time to play any games. Preparing videos takes up many hours of my time. I expect that other viewers will take your advice.

They do have some power, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway with cane railways, if one loco lacks the beauty there is a good chance that the next one will look quite different!

All these Mill railways are in Queensland Australia. Victoria Mill is at Ingham, north of the city of Townsville.

All of this is in Queensland, Australia. Do not confuse with Austria in Europe :-)

It's a good question. Obvious enough to those who know, but the description says just "the nation's biggest", without any clue as to which nation.