Sugar Cane Bins

I made some sugar cane bins for my side rod diesel ( Side Rod Diesel ) to pull.

They are representative of the thousands of bins used in the Australian sugar industry over the years to haul cane, that has been cut by a mechanical harvester, to the mills for crushing.

The bins were made to local mill designs which varied vastly in;

• size eg some had 3 ton capacity (2 axle configuration) while others had 10 ton capacity (they were mounted on bogies) 
• and build material some used galvanised pipe for their frame while others were made from either steel angle or tube.
  

I made mine out of wire mesh floppy disc holders I found in a discount store and wooden flat cars that I bought from an ebay seller called "Pasidunp" as the chassis .

The pictures below show the construction method I used.

Mesh Floppy Disc holder

Wooden Flat Car by "Pasidump"

Washer glued to inside of wheels to add weight low down

 

Basket mounted on flat car

 

 

 

View of underneath

Bamboo skewers to simulate pipe framework

Weathered and filled with sugar cane mulch to simulate load

The bins have been running on my layouts since 2010 and show no signs of wearing out.

Rake of bins on previous layout circa 2011