10-04-2014, 05:21 AM
Back in 2000 when I was working up in Fiji I managed to get time to walk along part of the “Main Line” between Nadi and Lautoka near Vuda Point of the 2 foot gauge Sugar Cane Railways. What the photographs don’t show was the state of the track, loose or missing spikes and or fish plates.
Speed was not an issue but this was not apparently an uncommon sight....
.......talking to an expat Aussie engineer/ advisor to the sugar industry,I mentioned to him the state of the track and I wondered why they did not employ locals to maintain the track in a better condition? He informed me that at the time the sugar industry was heavily subsidised by the European Union and that as the derailments just happened , as pure coincidence :o , near the villages along the way, getting the local villagers to set to rights the derailed wagons was regarded as way to distribute some of that money to even more people. I guess it worked but talk about crazy!!
Cheers, the Bear.
Speed was not an issue but this was not apparently an uncommon sight....
.......talking to an expat Aussie engineer/ advisor to the sugar industry,I mentioned to him the state of the track and I wondered why they did not employ locals to maintain the track in a better condition? He informed me that at the time the sugar industry was heavily subsidised by the European Union and that as the derailments just happened , as pure coincidence :o , near the villages along the way, getting the local villagers to set to rights the derailed wagons was regarded as way to distribute some of that money to even more people. I guess it worked but talk about crazy!!
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."