Modern Queensland (Australia) cane railway crossing

[Andrew Waugh]

This Rail Express article http://www.railexpress.com.au/is-this-australias-weirdest-railroad-crossing/ has some great photos of a modern cane railway crossing in Queensland. To avoid a square diamond crossing, the cane railway crosses the main line on a drawbridge. Apart from the perway interest, the photos show the signalling associated with the cane line. The signalling circuits must be interesting - I wouldn't want to hit the drawbridge at 160 km/h.

(Contextual note: Queensland has significant cane railway networks. These are two foot gauge and are used to transport newly harvested cane from the farms to the refineries. Although the gauge is small they are very serious railways - every hour delay in transporting the cane means a loss in quality. The cane tonnages transported year dwarf many bigger railways in Australia. The trains are long and heavy, and are not continuously braked.)

(Added bonus comment: Older cane crossings used disc signals - straight out of the 19th Century GWR - to control the cane train movements.)