Railway Digest Magazine

Sugar Cane 2024 – Part 1: Isis Central to Proserpine
Stretching from Isis Central Mill in the south to Mossman Mill in the north, there are currently 17 rail-served sugar mills dotted along a stretch of over 1,500 kilometres of Queensland coast supported by nine distinct railway networks. During the annual ‘crushing season’, which usually runs June to December, an estimated 203 locomotives and 52,000 cane bins are used to haul freshly harvested sugar cane billets along an estimated 4,190 kilometres of narrow-gauge track from farms and transshipment points to those 17 mills, ensuring they are crushed within 24 hours of being cut. Chris Walters provides a snapshot of these often-underappreciated rail systems, beginning with the mills from Isis Central to Proserpine.

Building a metro to the new Western Sydney Airport
With Stage 1 of Sydney Metro’s City & Southwest line about to open between Chatswood and Sydenham, and the Metro West project seemingly never too far from the headlines, it is quite easy to overlook the fact that a third new metro railway is quietly taking shape in the western extremities of the city. Work began on this third new railway during 2020, with the final product to be a 23-kilometre branch from St Marys on the Main Western line (also known as Sydney Trains’ T1 North Shore & Western Line) to the under-construction Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport at Badgerys Creek. Owen Roberts looks at the recent progress of this significant project.

The Progress Rail GT46C Ace Locomotive
In this month’s Rolling Stock news & contracts feature, Peter Clark takes a close look at the Progress Rail GT46C Ace locomotive. Introduced in 2007, these versatile 3200 kW machines will become Australia’s second most common standard gauge type on the completion of current contracts.