Queensland Sugar Railways

[Wayne Laepple]

Here's an interesting chart detailing the sugar-hauling two-foot gauge railways in Queensland, Australia.

Translations:
3688 kilometers of line equals 2,298 miles
27 million tonnes of raw cane equals 29.7 million tons
119 kilometers equals 74 miles
2000 tonnes equals 2200 tons
40 kilometers per hour is 25 mph

[Roger Cole]

And here is an interesting video clip of a grade crossing accident on one of the two-foot sugar cane railroads.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-train-collision-sugarcane-video

[John Kokas]

I see it was on one of the Wilmar sugar lines, shame - nice people.  Just goes to show we (US) don't have a monopoly on stupid drivers when it comes to grade crossings. 

[Wayne Laepple]

That may have been one of the sugar company's own cane cutters. It runs along the rows of cane and cuts the stalks, Tractors towing large trailers drive alongside the cutter and receive the cane via the conveyor. They drive to a loading site and dump into a similar machine that travels alongside a string of cane cars and loads them. Looks like the impact turned the locomotive almost completely around.

[Rick Rowlands]

More than likely 58 would have stayed on the rails!   

[Benjamin Richards]

That may have been one of the sugar company's own cane cutters. It runs along the rows of cane and cuts the stalks, Tractors towing large trailers drive alongside the cutter and receive the cane via the conveyor. They drive to a loading site and dump into a similar machine that travels alongside a string of cane cars and loads them. Looks like the impact turned the locomotive almost completely around.

Somehow the tone of the article doesn't match up. Unless they're trying make an example out of an internal incident. Or maybe the harvesters are contracted.

Train always wins.

[John Kokas]

#58 would have made scrap metal out of that harvester.

[Roger Cole]

I poked around the different Queensland Sugar Railways threads and did not see where the link to this video had been posted.  Here's a very interesting 42 minute video of a steam trip on many of the 2-foot lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jb4o8cstGs

[John Kokas]

I've watched this a couple of times and just loved it.  It is a very well done documentary, I encourage all to see what a BIG 2ft railroad looks like.  WOW

[John McNamara]

Wow, indeed! Perhaps there is a good reason to visit Australia!

[John Kokas]

If we could put a members trip together and take in narrow gauge RR in Hawaii, Japan, and Australia, I would be all in for that.  I'm rather surprised that with the extensive network and good condition of the trackage that someone has not put together excursion packages that could run during the off-peak (from harvest/crush) season.

[Wayne Laepple]

It's my understanding that the sugar railways do not have any accommodations for passengers, and during the off season, the majority of the employees are either rebuilding track or maintaining equipment or go elsewhere for employment.

[John Browning]

Just for the record, the cane harvester involved in the collision was owned by a contractor. There is not a great deal of cane grown on mill estates in Queensland. Most cane is grown by independent farmers and most (but not all) harvesting is done by contractors.