I enjoyed the article on Florida sugar trains in the September 2009 issue. In 1990, I had the good fortune to spend some time watching sugar train operations near Bundaberg, Australia.The day before the harvest we went out on a controlled burn, the purpose of which was to burn off waste and reduce haulage costs. They told us it also helped kill off bandicoots and poisonous snakes. Many of the Aussie farmers worked barefoot saying that it was "too hot to wear shoes which just wore out anyways". The sound of the fires, the heat and the height of the flames was caught on video as nobody at home would have believed the magnitude of it. The next morning, we rode the combines that cut the cane. The harvesters had very little storage capacity so every few minutes a tractor came along side pulling a rubber-tired trailer. On the trailer deck were two rails and chained on the rails was a four-axle cane car. When the car was full the tractor pulled away to be replaced in minutes by another. Later in the day, we road with a tractor down dusty roads to a railhead. The trailer was backed to an elevated stub siding where the cane car was released to run down hill to join up with previously assembled cars. Nearby was another siding of empties where cars were released to coast down hill onto waiting trailers to return to the fields.
Later, a small locomotive arrived, picked up a cut of loaded cars and we were off for what we thought was the mill. It was not quite the case as the mill was on an island and at this location there was no bridge, just a ferry slip. Shortly after we arrived a ferry barge docked and the locomotive was kept busy breaking the cars into cuts that would fit on board. It was amazingly effecient and it was no time before the ferry cast off. In minutes it was on the other shore where we could see the mill in the distance.
The process was repeated in reverse on the far shore and the cane had only a short trip before it reached the mill
Much of the production went to the distilling of rum. Bundaberg rum is well known in Australia and for a time (although I think no longer) it could be purchased through the Liquor Control Board of British Columbia in Canada.
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