Saturday 31 July Semboro and Olean

Yesterday, we were supposed to make a major visit to Semoboro Mill but the requisite permission had not come through. After a delay of over a month it arrived midway through the day of the intended visit. Such were the attractions there that a change of plans occurred and it was decided to make a 3-hour dash there today for a brief visit before retracing the journey backto Olean Mill.
Semboro has two delightful 700mm gauge fireless steam locomotives that are charged up with steam from the mill's boilers.

On arrival, there were also two other locomotives in steam, apparently in prospect of a charter being organised for a fat fee. The charter had not been ordered and no deal was done. As a result these two locomotives did not move all day. A shame.
Not in normal service, this beautifully-presented Mallet was in steam outside the shed.















The working locomotives here were the best turned out of any mill we have visited. There are multiple clean and shiny diesels at work on field lines as well as around the mill.

There is also a Chinese locomotive that was apparently new in 2009.

I took the decision to leave on the early bus as I had not visited Olean Mill, fabled for its field steam workings, and was not sure that the second bus would make it back in time. It was a slightly unlucky choice because I did not have time to thoroughly take in Semboro with its spacious shed full of discarded steam locomotives and its yard workings, and the late bus did arrive at Olean in time because any prospect of the two conventional locomotives at Semboro working had evaporated by lunch time.
However, Olean was a good mill to visit. There were two locomotives that hauled back cane from the fields and I also saw four powerful water buffalo hauling loaded cane.