Model Trains and Things

It’s sugar cane season in Queensland … in fact cane cutting starts in May and runs right through to December every year although the start of the season is staggered and the further south you go the later the season starts.

This year though the cutting season in the southern part of the state has started earlier than usual. The cutting and crushing season usually starts sometime in July but this year Bingera Mill near Bundaberg began crushing cane in the last full week in June, the Isis Mill near Childers began crushing shortly after that and the Maryborough Mill began crushing around the second week in July.

While crushing at the Bingera Mill might have commenced late in June cutting didn’t commence at the same time in all localities served by the Mill.

On Saturday June 28 the cane lines in the eastern part of Bingera’s extensive rail network were showing signs of use but at Wallaville … the mill’s western out-depot … the rust was still thick on the rails even though Rubyanna and Burnett were locked in the compound.

A week later the western end of Bingera’s network was still not operating seven days a week although there were clear signs that the lines had seen some use during the week. On that day there were two locos locked in the compound but by this time Rubyanna had been replaced by Invicta.

The following week saw more action on the western end of Bingera’s rail network with a number of locos being heard calling Control as they collected full bins that had been brought into Wallaville by the locos assigned to the out-depot.

Invicta is an 0-6-0 and was originally built by Comeng in 1956 (b/n A1513) as a diesel-mechanical loco and was rebuilt as a diesel hydraulic by Bundaberg Foundary Engineers Ltd in 2001. Here we see it in the compound at Wallaville on 3rd July 2010

Rubyanna is an 0-6-0 diesel hydraulic and was built by E M Baldwin & Sons P/L of Castle Hill in Sydney (b/n 3406.17.70) in 1970 for the Fairymead Mill. When Fairymead closed Rubyanna was transferred to Bingera in 2002. Here we see Rubyanna in the Wallaville compound on 28 June 2010.

Burnett is an 0-6-0 diesel hydraulic built for Bingera Mill in 1963 by Comeng (b/n AH2967). In 1980 Burnett was transferred to Qunaba Mill and in 1986 when that mill closed it was transferred to Millaquin Mill. Sometime after the 2007 it was transferred back to Bingera and here we see it in the compound at Wallaville on 28th June 2010.

If you want to hear what has to be some of the most intense narrow-gauge action anywhere in the world you can tune in to the Bingera Mill’s radio network by heading over to RailroadRadio.net and drilling down to the Bundaberg Sugar Cane Operations channel.

My thanks to John Browning and the Light Railway Research Society of Australia for the loco information given here.

It’s an epic battle of man and steam engine trying to shift tonnage up a steep grade and it used to happen every day in Nambour Queensland during cane season on a 2 foot cane railway that ran up the centre of the main street in town.

Sadly it’s all gone now … steam was phased out many years ago but one loco came back to make it all happen in 1999. Turn the volume up because this loco wants to be heard.

Brian Millar from the On30 Conspiracy group on Yahoo! drives a cane loco in north Queensland during the cane cutting season.

Here is some video he shot from the cab of his 40 tonne Eimco diesel. The track gauge is 2 feet or 610mm.

We headed off to Bundaberg again yesterday for our regular stationary fix at Office Works. Between Childers and Bundaberg the highway crosses several cane lines at crossings that are well-protected by flashing lights and bells.

Both crossings are on long straight stretches so it’s pretty hard to miss the lights and bells but, as I mentioned here after our last trip to Bundie, there are idiots who do miss them and once again, yesterday was no exception.

We were bopping along with nothing very close behind when the lights at the first crossing out of Childers went off. Toni began to slow as I started rummaging around for my camera … and the lumbering 4WD that was a couple of hundred metres back before we began to slow started to overtake.

Fortunately the driver of said 4WD finally woke up to what those flashing lights and ringing bells really meant and managed to pull up just before he got past us. That meant that instead of photographing a bloody mangled mess - and possibly having the wreckage pushed into our car - I got to grab this photo of Isis Mill Number 5 heading for the mill with a very long rake of loaded cane wagons.

I am now coming to the firm believe that the size of the vehicle that some people drive is in direct inverse proportion to the size of their penis and the size of their brain … both of which are probably so small they would be difficult to find without the help of some visual aids.

If you never paid much attention in high school science you might have missed the bit about Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and if you did then let me give you a brief explanation.

Darwin suggested that all creatures evolve and it’s the smart … the strong … the cunning of each species that survive and of course that means that it’s the dumb … the weak … the stupid members of the species who don’t get to breed and die out. And this morning Toni and I almost got to see Darwin’s Theory of Evolution actually occuring.

It’s cane cutting season at the moment and will be right through into December and there are signs along the highway that tell you this is the time of year that the cane is being cut and there are slow moving vehicles about.

There are also plenty of ads on the television warning that cane trains are out and about and a cane train can’t stop in a hurry so drivers should be prepared to stop at those spots where the cane trains have to cross the highway.

And just in case you haven’t noticed what season it is and you don’t know what a cane train looks like there are flashing lights protecting the crossings and these lights are triggered by approaching trains. Just like you see here:

At the front of the line is a Greyhoud bus (actually it’s an old McCafferty’s bus but Greyhound bought them out). Behind the bus is our prime example of why Darwin’s theory of evolution probably is the real deal … and then there’s us.

We’d been following this turkey for quite some time and he’d made some passing moves that … well an experienced and switched-on driver wouldn’t have made. Then we caught up to the bus and as we approached the crossing the flashing lights went off.

The bus started to slow and boofhead in the wagon went to overtake … just as I was about to drop my camera and reach for my phone to call 000 boofhead suddenly woke up that there really was a train approaching and that noise he could hear was the driver blowing the loco’s horn as a warning to motorists that there was a train coming.  Somehow he managed to get back in behind the bus and stop in time.

Unfortunately this guy has already been breeding and there were kids in the car … I’m so glad Toni and I didn’t have to get out and render aid … it wouldn’t have been the first time I’ve had to pull a bloodied child out of a smashed car and it’s not something I ever want to have to do again.

So guys … remember … at this time of year there are cane trains out and about and the railway crossings are used regularly so when the warning lights go off stop before the oncoming cane train takes you a long way down the track and you prove Darwin and his theory to be correct.

I’ve been sitting here all day writing articles for clients and I just finished the last of them a few moments ago and decided that it was time post something here. So I put my hand in my drawer of photos and pulled this one out.

This photo shows Isis #3 crossing the Bundaberg-Childers Road with a string of empty cane bins. Isis #3 started life as number 18 of the Queensland Railways DH class. Back then it was a 1067mm / 3′6″ gauge locomotive of 347 kW / 465 hp.

It first entered service in December 1968 and was subsequently sold to the Isis Mill were it was extensively rebuilt for use on the mill’s 610mm / 2′ gauge railway. This photo was taken on 15 October 1996 when the loco was 28 years old.

The photo comes courtesy of Brad Peadon and it’s appropriate because he’s just annnounced a series of postings coming up soon that will look at the old Moreton Mill system at Nambour on one of his blogs