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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.

The annual Christmas pilgrimage – December, 2016

Just like the christmas trip in 2015, this trip just past for 2016 Xmas wasn't overly different. Still a great location with a lot of sightings. An early start out of Melbourne meant an easy trip onto the Hume highway. I caught the southbound XPT just out of Kilmore and a southbound inter-modal in Seymour.

After a speeding ticket in Benalla, I b-line'd it straight to the Olympic Highway. It's a nice drive, off the beaten path, and away from influences to do stupid things on the road. First stop was at Harefield and I was greeted by an IRA 44 Class! Qube has taken ownership of a few of them and has been using one for the shuttle into Junee.

Not much was happening in the yard, so it was a bolt further north to intercept the southbound steel train. I beat it through Illabo, meeting it on a driveway half way between Illabo and Bethungra.

From there it was off to Cootamundra to tackle the XPT. I tried to beat it to Jindalee, but it won. Instead I then backtracked and got it at the station.

At this time of day, between the two XPTs, there's always a quiet time when the sun is at it's peak and the rails are buckling. Due to this, I took time to have lunch and check out the pool at the usual motel.

Back to it... the XPT was fast approaching from the south and I wanted to get it at Jindalee this time.

And then something weird happened... an off-the-radar rail-grinder rolled through! I love being in the-right-place-at-the-right-time.

And of course, being zoomed-in and distracted, I hadn't realised that the 81+82 on the grain train were steadily already rolling towards me.

The next train was a bunch of QBXs heading south to Junee. I had enough time, so I thought I'd try something different at Wallendbeen.

That angle worked really well! I then caught them again past Jindalee on a driveway half-way back to Cootamundra.

They didn't slow down through Coota, so I kept to the limit and then got in front of them before Bethungra.

I had a really hard time keeping up with them once they were on the other side of the spiral. It's all downhill for them and me, but they were doing somewhere around 95km/h and made it hard to catch up when the speed limit was 100km/h. We were both fast-approaching Junee and I managed around a 50 metre advantage; just enough to park road-side safely and snap a shot above some lovely green pastures.

From here, it was Junee yard.

From there, it was back to Wallendbeen to catch the next southbound intermodal.

I got in front of it and made it to another driveway past Jindalee, but before Coota.

The sun was already starting to lose light, but there was still enough time to get the 2 QBXs that were coming in via Stockinbingal.

Nothing was next on the radar, so I checked out the yard at Coota. Turns out there was a bit of shunting going on to get a grain train to fit in the yard.

That steel wagon must have been defective as it was sitting by itself, blocking one road, to start with. It ended up being shunted into another road onto so that the arriving train could stash half of its wagons there. Pretty quick work actually. Nice to hear the 81s powering up and down when shunting a whole train to shift one wagon.

After this, it was dinner time... an early start on the radar showed, what should have been, a great opportunity for a cross at Yass Junction. Due to this I packed up and got on the road early. Thanks to my miscalculation, the pass actually happened around Goondah and the light was terrible. Instead I forged ahead to Yass and got the northbound grain there.

I really do like that angle. From the grain silo, instead of the platform, you can get a nice long telephoto shot of the descent into the Junction. From here, it was off to Canberra and there's not much going on nowadays with the Museum closed and the scrap metal train done.

On the way back to Melbourne, I saw an opportunity for a shot at Jindalee of a northbound grain train. This all lined up well ... very well ... as the-right-place-at-the-right-time happened again.

The grain train then appeared.

A quick stop was had in Cootamundra to snap the Lachlan Valley Railway sheds where they have a nice collection of railmotors and 47 class locomotives.

And then finally, after a pie at Culcairn, I caught up to a southbound freighter at Henty.

The dim weather on the way back turned much dimmer over Seymour where visibility actually dropped to around 10 metres. Most people parked on the side of the road; but I didn't see that as 100% necessary and a few of us kept on driving through the car wash.

Another awesome pilgrimage!

Melbourne – 3rd Quarter 2016

You'd probably not think it... but this site was actually created to talk about (big and small) trains. I've been pretty distracted lately by vintage computers and other such electronic fun. Just for something different, I thought I'd throw in an update on the latest happenings around Melbourne.

Regional Rail Link

This line, from Sunshine to Manor Loop, has been completed for ages and is functioning well. The first station on the 'new part' from Deer Park is Tarneit, followed by Wyndham Vale. There is then a loop in the middle of the bi-directional tracks for peak-hour services to return. Every afternoon a push-pull set utilises this.

From Tarneit Station, you get a great view of the Melbourne skyline as you look east-ish back to the city. There's also a nice long curve, on which an approaching service would be very photogenic in the right lighting conditions. Unfortunately, Melbourne's weather is shit.

Every so often a 'hospital' train runs from Tottenham to Geelong. These trains consist of ill rollingstock requiring servicing in Geelong and a BG engine (normally a G or an XR) hauls the lot west. This movement has been known to traverse the RRL and Tarneit would provide a great vantage point to get a shot of it.

I saw the right locomotives appear on the radar in Tottenham and got in position at Tarneit. Unfortunately the train took the old way through Brooklyn and Werribee. I was still fortunate enough to get the Down Warrnambool service.

I was actually on the station platform when I saw that diesel approaching... hence missed the skyline in the proper shot!

Moonee Ponds Creek Viaduct

This amazing piece of architecture was built for the opening of the Albion Jacana Railway Line in 1929. The State Library Victoria has some awesome photographs of the construction. I was out there one early morning in August to see Steamrail traverse the bridge.

The XPT showed up first. V/Line's SG set then came through into Melbourne.

QR were hot in pursuit with a Melbourne-bound freighter.

And then Steamrail's A2-986 came through on it's first long run since it was returned to service.

The AK cars were southbound... so I hung around for them as an added bonus.

Meanwhile, back in South Yarra

For the first time in a while, a very clean and shiny XR lead the Long Island train south. Seems they were doing work on it as the side-panel on the loco was wide open and you could see the engine working hard as it went past.

I then tried some new angles from random legal spots trackside.

That last one is a new favourite! There's a sound-proofing wall near my place that allows the puppies to play in a park without train noise... Fortunately you can get behind it, still on public land, and grab a really nice angle. Now we just need daylight savings to stretch a little later.

Meanwhile the mud-holes are just getting worse!

R707 to Seymour

R707 Operations took their steamer from Southern Cross to Seymour and I tried to get it at Kensington. If it wasn't the sunlight that was going to ruin the shot then it was to be a bloody spark.

Steamrail's Rail and Sail Tour

This was to go via Werribee, so I thought I'd check out the tracks down that way as it's been a while. I started at Lara in the morning, and then, as that I'd never photographed from it, chose Williams Landing for the return trip.

A G-class then bolted east with 4 locomotives in tow. This little blighter wasn't on the radar and snuck through... would've been a great shot! On the return journey, the freighters first put on a show... but then the weather turned to poop.

Footscray Vantage Points

Thanks to the Regional Rail Link mentioned above, there were a number of buildings demolished when they added the extra two tracks through. As long as you are careful (seriously! watch out for syringes!) then you can get a good shot from Short Street, just off Albert Street. 42202 just happened to be on its way through with an SCT shuttle. I've never heard such a loud flat-spot on a loco!

What's next?

Steamrail Victoria are parallel-running two steamers to Geelong next weekend. This should actually be really cool... as long as the drivers lock-step and don't try to race. They'll then parallel run back... via the RRL! Too bad they'll be facing in the wrong direction. Either way, should be a good day out.