I miss cane trains and cane fields. We used to have so much fun as kids riding motorbikes through the fields and waiting for cane trans to catch a lift on the back for a bit of fun, just to walk all the way back 😂
Well apart from Nambour, just about all the other cane railways are still in full operation but purely diesel these days. I can imagine the fun kids had jumping onto the back of a train and standing on the coupling. Would have beat walking.
Agreed. People who ignore fascinating operations like cane trains are missing out on a great part of the hobby. I barely call them rail fans. I guess you know that the smaller diesel locos in Fiji mostly came from Australia.
Wow, another nostalgic masterpiece captured on film, thank you kindly for sharing tressteleg1 (BTW, I grew up and lived around Nambour, QLD and still today, miss the old Moreton Central sugar mill and it's 'once' extensive tramway / cane train network)
Glad you liked it. I’ll never forgive those Belgians for closing the mill and tramway. While the tramway was the ‘scrappiest’ in Qld, it was by far the most interesting with its mingling with suburbia etc, lift bridges ... I took a lot of VHS video over the years. Maybe I should post some. It includes the later steam train running for the cane festivals.
Two things I love about these cane tramways: 1 - the really really light wagons - no brakes, buffers or anything, yet they still (obviously) worked (and still work) pretty jolly well. 2 - how even with the gauge being only 2', the cane is stacked such that it would probably be almost as wide as a QR 3'6" gauge train. Looks like it'd turn over if you went too fast or hit some bad track, but as above, it still seems to work.
Larger locos have to you watch their speed on sharper curves or they can tip, but this does not happen often. Derailments are very expensive on cane railways. The cut cane must be processed within 18 hours of harvesting or else it goes off. So bad track generally does not exist. Anybody who claims they are a railfan but does not appreciate the unique nature of cane trains and other oddities is no real railfan in my eyes. By the way, one mill does use 3’ 6” gauge.
@@tressteleg1 that must take a bit of work in the off-season to make sure the track is good. I would certainly agree that the cane tramways are not your average railway. I can't imagine an NR class or an SD70 rumbling through the canefields! Lumping them with the rest seems to me a bit like saying that chocolate ice cream isn't different to vanilla or rum and raisin. Not that they'll be everyone's cup of tea - I do think that personal interest and appreciating the diversity that exists are key to railfanning.
All the mainlines and many sidings have concrete sleepers so this must lessen the maintenance burden. Nevertheless at least some mills use track tamping machines by Plasser, little brothers of the state railways versions. While everyone clearly has their favourite Railway or Tramway, to turn their backs on anything that runs on rails that is different I think is rather shortsighted. Often there are far more fascinating things around the world than your own railways in some respects. While you are never likely to see NR class running in the canefields, certainly former QR DH class and NSW 73 Class have been modified and converted.
Dillon Trinh Studios This is all I have in this video. I did not live in Queensland so could not go there easily for anything like the last steam loco, even if I heard about it.
@@tressteleg1 In Ingham North Queensland they have & use a steam locomotive for special occasions, it is housed under an awning outside Victoria Sugar Mill, they run it on the lines already in place that they haul the sugar cane on to mill.
I knew about Homebush but not whether it was still operating for those special events. Years ago when I was involved in the Albion Park steam museum south of Wollongong, they got sister engine Cairns, fitted new boiler tubes and ran it in service for years. At present it is awaiting funds for a boiler overhaul.
@@tressteleg1 still is when they have the Australian/Italian Festival & Maraka Festival & for when they have Christmas Party for mill workers families & children.
![ABC Weekend Magazine 1980 - 'Sugar & Steam' [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uZZnrxvQTzI/mqdefault.jpg)
I miss cane trains and cane fields. We used to have so much fun as kids riding motorbikes through the fields and waiting for cane trans to catch a lift on the back for a bit of fun, just to walk all the way back 😂
Well apart from Nambour, just about all the other cane railways are still in full operation but purely diesel these days. I can imagine the fun kids had jumping onto the back of a train and standing on the coupling. Would have beat walking.
great to see a bit of millaquin mill and qunaba i still work at millaquin mill during the crushing season
Always good to hear from present day mill workers. I suppose all the old steam men are long retired or worse by now.
@@tressteleg1 yeh all gone now the last to drive a steamer retired about 5 odd years ago
Thanks for that. Hopefully he and others will be around for quite some time yet.
@@tressteleg1 Some driving locos at the botanic gardens.
Yes, I have been there a couple of times.
Had a look at the can trains on Fiji a few years ago when i was there, amazing ... thats my main love in trains the oddities
Agreed. People who ignore fascinating operations like cane trains are missing out on a great part of the hobby. I barely call them rail fans.
I guess you know that the smaller diesel locos in Fiji mostly came from Australia.
Wow, another nostalgic masterpiece captured on film, thank you kindly for sharing tressteleg1
(BTW, I grew up and lived around Nambour, QLD and still today, miss the old Moreton Central sugar mill and it's 'once' extensive tramway / cane train network)
Glad you liked it. I’ll never forgive those Belgians for closing the mill and tramway. While the tramway was the ‘scrappiest’ in Qld, it was by far the most interesting with its mingling with suburbia etc, lift bridges ... I took a lot of VHS video over the years. Maybe I should post some. It includes the later steam train running for the cane festivals.
@@tressteleg1 Please do post any film you have. There's all kinds of interesting stuff there.
Part 2 around Ingham will follow before too long.
Two things I love about these cane tramways:
1 - the really really light wagons - no brakes, buffers or anything, yet they still (obviously) worked (and still work) pretty jolly well.
2 - how even with the gauge being only 2', the cane is stacked such that it would probably be almost as wide as a QR 3'6" gauge train. Looks like it'd turn over if you went too fast or hit some bad track, but as above, it still seems to work.
Larger locos have to you watch their speed on sharper curves or they can tip, but this does not happen often.
Derailments are very expensive on cane railways. The cut cane must be processed within 18 hours of harvesting or else it goes off. So bad track generally does not exist.
Anybody who claims they are a railfan but does not appreciate the unique nature of cane trains and other oddities is no real railfan in my eyes.
By the way, one mill does use 3’ 6” gauge.
@@tressteleg1 that must take a bit of work in the off-season to make sure the track is good.
I would certainly agree that the cane tramways are not your average railway. I can't imagine an NR class or an SD70 rumbling through the canefields! Lumping them with the rest seems to me a bit like saying that chocolate ice cream isn't different to vanilla or rum and raisin. Not that they'll be everyone's cup of tea - I do think that personal interest and appreciating the diversity that exists are key to railfanning.
All the mainlines and many sidings have concrete sleepers so this must lessen the maintenance burden. Nevertheless at least some mills use track tamping machines by Plasser, little brothers of the state railways versions.
While everyone clearly has their favourite Railway or Tramway, to turn their backs on anything that runs on rails that is different I think is rather shortsighted. Often there are far more fascinating things around the world than your own railways in some respects.
While you are never likely to see NR class running in the canefields, certainly former QR DH class and NSW 73 Class have been modified and converted.
The Condong Fowler diesel was never a steam loco, just a very early diesel, built 1936 I think!
I used to hitch a ride on these in th 197o,s ere.what wonderful memories
You might find today’s diesels a bit faster to jump onto 😊
Do you took any photos of the last cane railway to use steam locomotives?
Dillon Trinh Studios This is all I have in this video. I did not live in Queensland so could not go there easily for anything like the last steam loco, even if I heard about it.
@@tressteleg1 In Ingham North Queensland they have & use a steam locomotive for special occasions, it is housed under an awning outside Victoria Sugar Mill, they run it on the lines already in place that they haul the sugar cane on to mill.
its name is Homebush
I knew about Homebush but not whether it was still operating for those special events.
Years ago when I was involved in the Albion Park steam museum south of Wollongong, they got sister engine Cairns, fitted new boiler tubes and ran it in service for years. At present it is awaiting funds for a boiler overhaul.
@@tressteleg1 still is when they have the Australian/Italian Festival & Maraka Festival & for when they have Christmas Party for mill workers families & children.