Just a quick visit to Mackay enabled me to find a few sugar industry off season maintenance tasks going on.
One task is putting all the bins from the three mills through routine greasing and checking at Pleystowe. Farleigh Mill's turn to participate in this process began today with Walkers B-B DH DULVERTON making the initial run from Pleystowe with 160 bins that had already been serviced. It would later return with a rake of bins from Farleigh. Up to 200 bins can be serviced in a day at Pleystowe, so it is quite a job to keep up the supply.
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| DULVERTON eases its load across Mandurana Road |
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| The large radio-controlled bogie brake wagon makes up the rear off the rake. |
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| The line from Pleystowe to Farleigh includes the steep Church Hill (1 in 25). This photo shows the gradient with the locomotive out of sight over the crest and the brake wagon yet to commence its ascent. |
Meanwhile, Clyde 0-6-0DH DEVEREUX was out on Marian Mill's Mia Mia line with the track welding train. Just as on main line railways, many mills are eliminating fishplate joints to help reduce maintenance costs.
On the intensively-used main line south of Racecourse Mill, two Plasser track machines were in use.
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| Plasser Model KMX-12T TTAMP5 (built 1990) |
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| Plasser ballast regulator BREG1, built 1982 |
Eric Gibson's ex Farleigh Mill Avonside 0-4-0T is still stored under cover on Gibson's Road, behind Racecourse Mill.
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| Avonside 1909 of 1922. This type came to Queensland after two earlier ones ordered by South African sugar mills were commandeered by the British Government during World War I, ending up at Farleigh Mill after the war. |
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