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SCT begins Melbourne to Brisbane freight services

SCT has always had an agreement with Aurizon to provide a small loading for north-bound freight services. This has recently expanded into a full-sized consist and SCT are now running the services themselves. The very first Melbourne-Brisbane service ran on Saturday the 21st of January 2017, departing the SCT Laverton terminal just after 8pm.

Thanks to daylight savings, there was a chance to actually get a photo around Sunshine Station. Aptly named in this circumstance... The area provides a view of the BG and SG tracks, with a set of grain silos as a backdrop. The usual V/Line and Metro services provided entertainment whilst waiting for the freights.

The Melbourne-bound XPT bolted through, only a little bit late.

Aurizon then came through with 7BM7, only to later have an extended stay in Wagga Wagga. I do love that they cleaned the grime off the front logo.

7MC2 started to depart Dynon, but the XPT also jumped. The XPT was therefore given priority.

7MC2 then spooled up. From Sunshine, you could hear it accelerating from stand-still over in Tottenham.

It sounded and looked fine as it passed... but it failed not too much further down the line, crawling into Seymour. It didn't continue its trip to Junee until the next day when two other locomotives joined it.

Up next, the SCT consist. SCT011 was attached at SCT Laverton to pull the whole train out of the yard and onto the main line. It then detached and SCT004 had the honours of pulling the train around the bend at Spotswood and over the triangle. From Sunshine, the train could be heard well before it was visible, as the wheel screeching over the triangle was tremendous.

It had an interesting consist, with the crew car 7 cars back from the locomotives.

And that was a wrap... the sun hardly held up for the late departure... I might try and get it earlier down the track next weekend. It's really great to see more colour on the eastern corridor.