A Cairns Mystery Railway

V

Vern

Trainz Maverick
Browsing Open Street Map around Cairns (as you do), in addition to the well known Kuranda line I noticed there is what appears to be a narrow gauge line from Kanimbla to Bentley Park, on the western side of the city. Further investigation revealed this at one time appeared to extend out to Gordonvale and part of a larger Network. Google Street View confirmed 2ft gauge.

However at that point I drew a blank. I'm assuming it's an old sugar cane line but can't find any information on line - Google Fu just spams page after page of the Kuranda tourist train. The tracks look shiny in Street View but in that case you would have thought someone, somewhere would have some info on the web.

Always on the lookouut for quirky ng prototypes, can anyone advise a bit more about this line or point to some links?
 
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Type Mulgrave Sugar Mill Rail into your browser. The mill is based in Gordonvale and the ng system extends to 250km.
 
Thanks Andy. OSM is a bit misleading in that it only shows a small isolated section. Looking at Google or Bing maps shows the line running up through what one site called the Brinsmead Gap to the quirkily nanmd Yorky's Knob! A bit more Googling revealed at one time there was a passenger excursion called the "Mulgrave Rambler" through this section, but appears to have been discontinued in the 1990's.
 
Vern said:
Thanks Andy. OSM is a bit misleading in that it only shows a small isolated section. Looking at Google or Bing maps shows the line running up through what one site called the Brinsmead Gap to the quirkily nanmd Yorky's Knob! A bit more Googling revealed at one time there was a passenger excursion called the "Mulgrave Rambler" through this section, but appears to have been discontinued in the 1990's.
Click to expand...

This is interesting and I foresee another route coming along with a passenger excursion running.
 
Vern said:
Browsing Open Street Map around Cairns (as you do), in addition to the well known Kuranda line I noticed there is what appears to be a narrow gauge line from Kanimbla to Bentley Park, on the western side of the city. Further investigation revealed this at one time appeared to extend out to Gordonvale and part of a larger Network. Google Street View confirmed 2ft gauge.

However at that point I drew a blank. I'm assuming it's an old sugar cane line but can't find any information on line - Google Fu just spams page after page of the Kuranda tourist train. The tracks look shiny in Street View but in that case you would have thought someone, somewhere would have some info on the web.

Always on the lookouut for quirky ng prototypes, can anyone advise a bit more about this line or point to some links?
Click to expand...


Yep, good old Google Earth Pro which shows all rail-lines past and present, confirms what you are looking for. Those 2ft gauges are picked up in orange and can be traced in all directions. Main lines are in blue. Such a handy gadget.

Bentley_Park.jpg

Here's a Snipping Tool image of a crossing at Kanimbla. Note the orange line alongside the track.
Kanimbla.jpg


Cheers,
Roy
 
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JCitron said:
This is interesting and I foresee another route coming along with a passenger excursion running.
Click to expand...

It has whetted my appetite, albeit just to do a section of it.

Ironically it started because I was contemplating whether anyone had done Cairns to Kuranda but got sidetracked by the intriguing stretch of narrow gauge. Ideal territory to loose the 2ft stock from Malc and Ed!
 
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