I would really love to see sugar cane railways eventually in TSW. Sugar cane railways are a uniquely tropical industry and have established routes around the world. Places that have sugar cane railways include Fiji, Haiwaii, Indonesia, Taiwan, Egypt, and Australia. Both Train Sim 20XX and TSW have yet to tackle a tropical route beyond the everglades of Miami. I think the area around Mackay in Queensland, Australia would be the amazing setting for such a dlc. Mackay has a dense network of narrow gauge (610mm) track to access the sugar cane plantations and mills in the area. It's crowded enough with track that it would be viable to make an area of the Mackay region rather than just a line itself. So not only could the route tout its total track length, but also in area in km². The network still sees consistent use today but network was even more dense before 2009 when the last of the Mackay Line closed (this is still visible on the maps presented here where there are station dots with no line connecting them). Bisecting the region is the narrow gauge (1067mm) North Coast Line which carries freight and passenger services from Brisbane, along the tropical coastline to Cairns. This has the potential to either be a part of the DLC, or be an separate add-on. The section of the North Coast Line that would be most conveniently featured would be the 33km(20mi) stretch between Mackay and Sarina Stations. There are multiple mills and dozens and dozens of sidings for cane loading throughout the area. Along the main line there are 2 intermodal terminals at Mackay, both seeing frequent services, and a short branch line to the port of Mackay where agricultural and mining materials are delivered. A not far beyond Sarina there is a branch to a dedicated coal offloading port and a large yard as well. Resources/Good sites for research: https://www.mackaysugar.com.au/business/cane-supply/Pages/Cane-Haulage.aspx https://www.queenslandrail.com.au/b...Information Pack - Issue 3 - October 2016.pdf https://www.mkysugar.com.au/education/Documents/Trackside-Safety-Presentation.pdf https://lrrsa.org.au/LRR_SGR.htm https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/scr.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/94class.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/baldwin.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/clyde.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/comeng.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/eimco.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/gh500.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/bins.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/central_traffic_office.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/drawbridges.html https://www.sa-transport.co.za/trains/sugar_cane_rail/general.html http://asmc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cane-railway-fact-sheet.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/canesig/resources/resource-01.html https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_rail/qld/bm2/bm_1-48-EimcoRightsideFront.png https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_rail/qld/bm2/bm_1-48-EimcoLeftsideRear.png https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_rail/qld/1978-loco/Locos-1978_Drawings.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_model/modcane/12_modcane.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_rail/qld/misc/RacecourseMill.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_rail/qld/misc/RacecourseMillMap.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/album_model/ngdu/51_CaneOps.pdf https://www.zelmeroz.com/albumquery/_search.php https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__d...e-rail-supplement-sugar-industry-cop-2005.pdf https://eisdocs.dsdip.qld.gov.au/Jilalan Rail Yard/SEIS/Appendix/engineering-plans.pdf
I'd be interested in this, it would make a nice change. As long as we got access to a dense network with lots of destinations and it wasn't just a case of driving from one end to the other and repeat.
If we do a sugar cane route the Burdekin has a comprehensive network that travels out to some amazing places and covers four sugar mills. Granted the inkerman line is an isolated route but having worked in the mills previously I’ve been at awe of the capacity of trains and bins that cover the network!I think it’s a great idea to have something like this in TSW covpnsidering you rarely see anything covering rural farm freight!
