SCLineE1

Sugar Cane Line

Sugar Cane Line has extended! Engine shed blanch line was added.

Story

The proprietor of the HIJU Transportation Farm (me, of course!) is a very curious fellow . . . He likes Dutch sugar mills he has seen throughout Asia, and has built a similar mill on an uninhabited island near Minami-Daitou Island (where sugar cane is still grown in Japan).

To make some money, he has been operating the mill. However, he only enjoys operating older steam locomotives, making this operation a living, working museum!

Sugar cane grows right up to the mill's walls, and cows pull the fully loaded cane cars along temporary tracks laid in the field. These operations are called the COW TRAIN. You can see teams of cows pulling the cars up to the staging track, one by one.

The cars are then assembled into longer trains on the staging track. A steam loco then hauls these longer trains to the mill. Meanwhile, an empty cane train is passing noisily on the "mainline".

At 1st Narrow gauge Modeling Festival in Japan 10/10/2005, I had exhibited this Engine Shed Module as a part of Sugar Cane Line.

	Double header plantation steam locos are running fast with emputy caine cars.

Japanese border guards are also posted on the island, so you often see military personnel driving along the dusty roads in jeeps.

	Teams of cows are pulling loaded cane cars from the field. An empty cane train from the mill, hauled by an ancient Forney, is racing along the "mainline" next to the staging track.

The loaded cane cars on the staging track are ready to be hauled into the mill. However, the COW TRAIN operation continues without a break. A neighbour and his children enjoy this constant operation.
*Modeling*
	Module overview The plan is of a sugar cane field just outside the mill's walls. Scale is HOn2 1/2 (1/76-1/80). This module is the same size as my TATSUTAYAMA Clay Mining module. Mainline and staging track is PECO 009. Temporary rail is Micro-Engineering weathered rail (Code 40). Temporary track ties are brass strips, soldered directly to the rails.
Rollingstock is freelance. Sugar cane is represented by millet material (broom straw!) from Australia. The cows and figures are all repainted Priser.

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