Joe Dietz has loved trains ever since riding the railways of Europe on family holidays as a child.  

As a young man now living in Cairns, he has turned his boyhood passion into a unique career on and off the tracks.

His day job is driving locos during the far north Queensland sugarcane crushing season, which stretches from May to November.

Joe Dietz has been driving cane trains, or locos, in far north Queensland since finishing high school.(Supplied: Joe Dietz)Mr Dietz, aka TrainGuy 659, says winding his way through the neighbourhoods and farmlands on the cane train tracks of far north Queensland is a dream job.

"I've just always had a thing for trains," he says.

"I've always wanted to work on the railways."

Mr Dietz's family moved to the region when he was in high school.

"I was just lucky that, after graduating, I ended up getting a gig on the cane locos," he says.

"You get the best of the city life, but you also have the countryside too and making connections with the farmers and the community in those areas is something unique.

Mr Dietz is also living in two worlds when it comes to train driving — the real world and the online world. 

Joe Dietz says driving trains is his dream job.(Supplied: Joe Dietz)During the other half of the year, he drives miniature Lego trains on intricate tracks around his family home, and millions upon millions of people watch him do it.

Seven years ago, he started the YouTube channel TrainGuy 659.

His unique work-life balance has allowed him to build a massive audience and become a professional YouTuber.

"When I first started, I wasn't getting paid or anything from YouTube, so every season, I go back [to the cane trains]," Mr Dietz says.

"The YouTube thing pays the bills but isn't something I can live off independently … but there is more potential."  

Massive miniature feats of engineering Mr Dietz became an internet sensation when he began producing his annual Christmas Lego train videos, all of which have attracted audiences in the tens of millions.