Wilmar Sugar and Renewables has delivered the first of four new $2 million locomotives to its home base.
Alma is now at Inkerman Mill in the Burdekin region where it will haul cane bins this production season, due to start in June.
A second new locomotive, Kirknie, will arrive at Inkerman Mill in June.
The other two, Leichhardt and Hinchinbrook, are heading to the Herbert region.
The four new locos are modelled on the Brisbane, which Wilmar designed and built from the ground up, and launched last year.
Burdekin Cane Supply Manager John Tait said the Alma was an exciting new addition to Inkerman’s fleet and would have a positive impact on reliability.
“Inkerman Mill has an ageing fleet and although our current locos do maintain reliability, Alma will be pivotal in improving the fleet’s overall cane-hauling capacity,” Mr Tait said.
Senior Project Engineer Chris Weight has managed the final phase of the new builds.
“The works program has included four new locos and two brake wagons, worth about $9M in total,” Mr Weight said.
“It was a big undertaking to complete all of the new builds in a single maintenance season, and I’m really proud of the teams who have worked so hard to deliver this package of work.”
Alma has the honour of being the first locomotive to feature the new Wilmar Sugar and Renewables logo.
The new builds are part of a much larger program to upgrade the extensive loco fleet across Wilmar Sugar and Renewables’ four milling regions.
Wilmar Sugar and Renewables owns and operates 74 locos and more than 1,600km of cane rail network across the Herbert, Burdekin, Proserpine, and Sarina regions.
Senior Project Engineer Chris Weight with the new 26-tonne locomotive, Alma
An inside view of the new Alma
Two cranes were used to lift Alma off the transport, by its front and back toe-ball, to lower it on to the railway line
Photos supplied
