The Earnslaw, a coal fired steamship.
Queens town, N.Z.
I think this is Nambour.
Grab shot.
Let's head back to the cane fields.
This should be Townsville.
More great info ! Thank you again!
Postwar Paul In the days of steam.
In the days of steam.
Checking the shape of the footplate around the cylinders this locomotive appears to be the older "B15 Converted" type rather than the later PB15 type. I seem to recall that the last of this type in service were in Cairns.
Peter
Postwar Paul
Perth is totally unrecogmisable from this view...
Here we are looking West on the North side of the station towards the "Horseshoe Bridge". Only the bridge is still there. Additional platforms have taken the place of the storage sidings and an overall roof has replaced the canopies. The semaphore signals are long gone, and the lines are electrified. There are two underground platforms serving the lines to the north and south which I think were not there in 1980.
The railcars have all gone, replaced by electric multiple unit trains. The older railcars on the right, classes ADG, ADH and ADX, most built in the UK, have all been scrapped. The stainless steel cars on the left classes ADL and ADC, and in the centre, classes ADK and ADB, moved to Auckland to keep the system going until the recent electrification. I saw these in Auckland in 2000 and 2003.
The original station frontage on the south (city) side has been retained which provides a link with the past.
I'm glad the cane fields are still intact. That's the way I'll always remember Queensland. Some things still feel like yesterday, it's only when I think of how much has happened since...
One of the more obscure mental exercises is to remember the names of Queensland sugar mills and the towns closest to them....
The mill at Nambour is Moreton Central, that at Sarina is Plane Creek, south of Cairns is Mulgrave Mill, located at Gordonvale. One story I've been told is that the mills were established before the towns grew up around them.
It has always struck me that sugar growing areas have a much more "urban" appearance than the surrounding countryside.
I think the "season" for sugar is spring, from about September, although I think the harvesting starts in the warmer areas to the North and moves South.
Wow ! This gets even more interesting ! 42" gauge locomotives rebuilt for sugar cane service. Big power in the cane fields !
It's a very seasonal operation. We went up the coast in January '80. Plenty of cane fields, and tracks, but no trains. Went up again September '82, saw a cane engine working, another on a siding. I guess has to do with the cycle of harvest. I saw an engine house, I think it was in Nambour. I still remember many of those town names going up the coast, they have stuck in my mind. There was a huge mill in Bundaberg. There was even a tourist train we went on . Something like " Sunshine Coast Sugar Cane Train".
My introduction to Mangos was in QLD. And "Queensland nuts" , which are called Macadamia in Hawai'i.
Paul
The sugar cane lines are 24" gauge.
They are still in place (except at the most southerly mill in Nambour where trucks hauling cane in rail wagons on a trailer with rails are used - a sort of reverse piggyback)
Many of the 42" gauge diesel hydraulic locomotives, including several of the green and grey QR locomotives that you saw in Townsville, have been extensively rebuilt to operate on these 24" lines.
Because the electrification of the North Coast line ends at Rockhampton, not many views are available of double track electrified lines running through cane fields. There is a stretch of line where the Goonyella coal lines join the North coast line just south of Sarina where shots can be obtained of electric coal trains running past cane. With luck you can get photos of electric coal trains and narrow gauge cane trains together.
The big storage and inspection yard for electric coal trains at Jilalan (near Sarina) is in the middle of cane fields but you need a drone (or to shoot from a road bridge over the yard) to get the full effect.
This has been very informative! Thank you again. I remember mile after mile of sugar cane fields in QLD. Is it still like that ? I never got out and measured the tracks, but it looked to be 18" , or 24" gauge at most.
Hopefully those cane trams are still running.
Postwar Paul I appreciate it ! I learned a lot today about English Electric. Don't know how this builder slipped through my radar for so long. Don't mean to ask too many questions, but the railfan in me perks up when talking about prime movers, and such...
I appreciate it ! I learned a lot today about English Electric. Don't know how this builder slipped through my radar for so long.
Don't mean to ask too many questions, but the railfan in me perks up when talking about prime movers, and such...
I am looking at your book on the Google review. wow ! Everything is there, including the "Pendennis Castle". The 38's, pb15, T, R, QR Garratts. And the diesels.
Australian diesels have great paint schemes, and different from what we would see here.
Also, on that '82 trip, I did not stop in Rockhampton, but I did stop in Townsville. So, by default, this should be Townsville. I remember switch rods running near my feet when I took the photo, but after 35 years, I can't swear to it. They don't show in any of the photos. The near switches all have hand throws. At least the Fremantle shot shows the switch rods...
Postwar Paul Peter, this is Townsville ?
Peter, this is Townsville ?
A similar photo could be taken in Rockhampton, but I really think that is Townsville. The big loco, 1294 is an English Electric, built in the Rocklea factory.
English Electric was, more or less, the equivalent of EMD in England. They were the third largest builder in Australia after Clyde (the EMD licencee) and Goodwin (the Alco licencee). GE were an early entrant but left the market between 1954 and 1977. I don't think English Electric and GE can be viewed in the Google review.
The small loco in the view is one of the very early (1954) GE units, intended as a branch line locomotive. It has the engine from the early GE 70 ton unit, the FWL-6T but weighs close to 60 tons. It also is a prototype that has a feature on many O gauge toy trains, the coupler and pilot beam are mounted on the truck and turn with the truck in curves.
There isn't a short answer to all the questions.
There is a long answer. I wrote a book on the subject:
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=qUBXAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA22&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
This google entry appears to include my summary of local builders and the listing of locomotives with EMD engines.
While this counts as an advertisement, I guess, I get less than $2 for each book sold (don't give up your day job). My publisher tells me sales have been bad this year. An E-book is available from the publisher for about half the price of the paper copy and would arrive much faster.
And the google review is free, and includes a lot of the book.
And people tell me I tend to repeat what I've written when talking about locomotives anyway...
Anyone who is still reading this, feel free to check out the book on the google review.
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