Re: light gauge railway

[Rod Gayford <rjaygee@smartchat.net.au>]

A lot of second hand rail from the old narrow gauge Central Australian rail line
ended up on sugar cane lines after the standard gauge line opened.
Cheers
Rod Gayford

canetram59 wrote:

> David Bromage <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in message
> jVc84.56$Xu1.315491@news0.optus.net.au">news:jVc84.56$Xu1.315491@news0.optus.net.au...
> > Rod (comtrain@mpx.com.au) wrote:
> > : 2 ft gauge Cane Trains used to run on 7 lb and 14 lb rail and it was
> welded
> > : up like Triang set track and placed through each paddock, just before
> > : harvest and moved as the cane was cut. This is no longer done, and I
> guess
> > : that they would use much heavier rail now.
> >
> > Many of the Queensland sugar cane lines are being relaid with second hand
> > 45lb or even 60lb rail. This was necessary when they started buying diesel
> > hydraulic locos off QR and SRA.
> >
> >(snip)
>
> > Cheers
> > David
>
> The portable track used on cane railways in Queensland was usually made with
> rail up to 14lbs/yard whilst early main line track was laid in 30lbs rail.
> When larger steam locomotives were introduced the mills turned mainly to
> 42lbs rail at least for their main lines. Since diesels have taken over main
> line track is now mostly laid in at least 60lbs rail and even 80lbs in some
> cases with 42lbs being used on lesser used branch lines.
>
> canetram59