Yes, this is a working railroad! US Sugar's immaculately-restored ALCO Pacific #148 runs southbound past one of the many sugar cane loading facilities which dot this industrial railroad. This particular site is located in Palmdale, Florida. Yes, US Sugar is developing a steam tourist operation, but first and foremost, this is a working railroad, which hauls sugar cane from the fields to the processing mills. As cane is harvested, it is typically placed in wagons or trucks and brought from the fields to loading facilities such as this one. Special cane cars are then brought into the siding, past the loading dock, and one by one, are filled with raw cane. Most of these facilities appear to use some sort of winch mechanism to pull the string of cars during the loading operation. Diesel electric locomotives then bring the trains to US Sugar's processing mill, which is a massive facility just south of the City of Clewiston. As I understand it, ALL cane is brought to the mill by rail. There are no truck terminals on site. Cane load-out sites like the one pictured here are located all over the railroad.
