2016 Cane Pt 13 Mossman Mill

The final installment in the Queensland Sugar Cane series, Mossman Mill is now part of Mackay Sugar, so some locos are in the green/yellow/red of that company while some still remain in Mossman's traditional blue/yellow scheme. The most unique feature of this line is the absence of traditional cane "bins", the mill having switched to an intermodal system back in the late 1960's. The cars are actually small bogie skeleton flats and the cane bins can be transferred to trucks for loading in the field. The cars with panel slides are the older style and are generally used now like conventional bins being loaded at outlying points by cane tippers, while the newer mesh side bins are used in the slide-on/slide-off manner, chiefly at the large bin transfer station at Cassowarys. The various branches are very scenic with a number of road/rail bridges, some of them wooden decked. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the street running down Mill St. in downtown Mossman. This line funnels most of the traffic from the north of town into the mill. The line is also notable for currently having the northernmost rail line in Queensland at the terminus at Bamboo. (There were other rail lines north of here but they are now abandoned.)