Melbourne Broad Gauge Freight Trains

Below is a listing of trains sighted taking the viaduct between Southern Cross Station and Flinders Street Station. Trains, as they pass through this area, will (where possible) be recorded in the table below. The times indicate when they pass through, not when they arrive. Sometimes the trains sit in this area waiting for a path in either direction!

Service	Frequency	Description
9343/9348 QUBE Apex Gravel Service	Tue - Fri	Runs from Kilmore East Quarry to Westall Cement Plant. Usually around midnight on the down and then a 10am up through South Yarra/Richmond/Flinders St. Note that if the morning time is around 4am then it's actually the 9350 service... but I've put them both in the same column.
9571/9572 QUBE Cement Service	Mon & Thu/Fri	Runs from Tottenham(?) to Dandenong. New Service. Very random runner... sometimes mondays instead of tuesdays and sometimes fridays instead of thursdays.
9475/9476 QUBE Maryvale Paper Train	Daily	Runs from Appleton Dock to the Maryvale Paper Plant. Takes paper to be recycled out to plant and returns empty? Heads out at 8pm at night and returns around 2pm the next day. Every so often you'll find the train heading out at around 4am in the morning. This is actually the 9473 service, but I've put it in the same column as the evening down. Note that it means it actually ran the next morning!
955* PacNat Long Island Steel Train	Daily (excl Friday)	Runs from the northernmost road of South Dynon to the Long Island Steel Plant in Frankston. The midday runner 9553 usually DOES NOT run on Fridays unless there's a weekend shutdown and they need to shift more steel beforehand. 9557 (1pm) and 9559 (7pm) are also only as-required! The actual service pairing is as follows: 9555-9552, 9553-9556, 9557-9558, 9559-9550
708, 9*2 Possible Metro Train Transfer	Totally Ad-Hoc	Currently serviced by SSR, this might be the HCMT Metro Train Transfer path from Newport to Pakenham. It's totally random and the train running this path may not actually be a transfer! Please note that I've merged services 7080, 7082, 7084, 7086 and 7088, 9502, 9902 into once cell. Spoil trains and driver training runs will also fall into this path.

2022 NOTE: QUBE has taken over the PacNat Steel Services.. the numbers have changed. They've been piped into the PacNat slots and are showing below. Once they've stabilised, I'll explain them further.

Please note that this is an automated service based on sightings from another location. It wont be 100% foolproof but, with careful consideration of the numbers and days, one should be able to get a good idea as to what is visible and when. Also note that services might show up out-of-order. For example, the Apex gravel ran in a much later slot on 30/31st January 2020.

Date	9550	9348	9552	9571	9343	9553	9557	9476	9572	9559	9556	9475	9558	9555	7088
September 2025
Tue 16th			0550 VL360
Mon 15th						1117 VL357		1447 G515			2006 VL360	2018 VL356		2315 VL357
Sun 14th	No trains recorded
Sat 13th	No trains recorded
Fri 12th			0604 VL360				1307 VL357	1347 G515			2000 VL360	2018 VL356
Thu 11th			0625 VL360				1312 VL357				2010 VL360			2314 VL357
Wed 10th			0601 VL360			1147 VL357		1402 G515			1959 VL360	0400 VL356		2356 VL357
Tue 9th	No trains recorded
Mon 8th			0507 VL360			1145 VL353		1350 G515			1959 VL360	0415 VL356
Date	9550	9348	9552	9571	9343	9553	9557	9476	9572	9559	9556	9475	9558	9555	7088
Sun 7th			0543 VL360			1224 VL353						0302 VL356
Sat 6th			0543 VL360			1208 VL353					1924 VL360			2337 VL353
Fri 5th			0549 VL360			1155 VL353					1958 VL360			2330 VL353
Thu 4th						1126 VL353					1959 VL360			2331 VL353
Wed 3rd							1323 VL353				2000 VL360
Tue 2nd	No trains recorded
Mon 1st			0442 VL360			1144 VL353					1953 VL360
August 2025
Sun 31st			0611 VL360			1223 VL356								2302 VL353
Sat 30th			0525 VL351			1323 VL357					1932 G515			0007 VL353
Fri 29th							1350 VL357	1343 VL360					2135 VL351	2348 VL357
Date	9550	9348	9552	9571	9343	9553	9557	9476	9572	9559	9556	9475	9558	9555	7088
Thu 28th								1347 VL360				2008 VL353
Wed 27th								1351 VL351				2018 VL353
Tue 26th	No trains recorded
Mon 25th								1348 VL360				2022 VL357
Sun 24th	No trains recorded
Sat 23rd	No trains recorded
Fri 22nd	No trains recorded
Thu 21st								1357 VL351				2018 VL353
Wed 20th	No trains recorded
Tue 19th	No trains recorded
Mon 18th			0552 VL360			1201 VL353						2016 G512	2008 VL360
Sun 17th			0506 VL360			1214 VL353					1821 VL360			2311 VL353
Sat 16th			0540 VL360			1158 VL353					1935 VL360			2326 VL353
Fri 15th			0437 G512			1133 VL353		1348 VL351			2003 VL360	2027 VL357		2345 VL353
Thu 14th			0550 VL360					1349 VL351				2034 VL357		2335 G512
Wed 13th			0559 VL360			1140 VL357					2000 VL351	0339 VL357		2329 VL353
Tue 12th			0552 VL360			1126 VL353					2010 VL360			2320 VL353
Mon 11th			0600 VL360			1125 VL353					2001 VL360			2331 VL353
Sun 10th						1106 VL353					1921 VL360			2347 VL353
Sat 9th			0618 VL360			1148 VL353					1933 VL360			2328 VL353
Date	9550	9348	9552	9571	9343	9553	9557	9476	9572	9559	9556	9475	9558	9555	7088
Fri 8th			0553 VL360			1110 VL353					2005 VL360			2327 VL353
Thu 7th							1309 VL353						2110 VL360	0003 VL353
Wed 6th										1859 VL353
Tue 5th							1340 VL353						2113 VL360
Mon 4th						1108 VL356					2004 VL360
Sun 3rd	No trains recorded
Sat 2nd	No trains recorded
Fri 1st							1332 VL356						2110 VL360
July 2025
Thu 31st							1327 VL356						2112 VL360
Wed 30th										1857 VL356
Date	9550	9348	9552	9571	9343	9553	9557	9476	9572	9559	9556	9475	9558	9555	7088
Tue 29th							1317 VL356						1959 VL360
Mon 28th							1301 VL356				2002 VL360
Sun 27th						1213 VL356					1925 VL360
Sat 26th			0445 VL360
Fri 25th						1115 VL356					1959 VL360			2311 VL356
Thu 24th						1108 VL356					2002 G512
Wed 23rd			0555 VL360			1150 VL356					2001 G512
Tue 22nd			0549 VL360								2005 VL360
Mon 21st						1108 VL356					2003 VL360			2332 VL356

Comments (11) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Royden
November 28th, 2019 - 08:27

Great Work Steven. Would it be possible to include the HCMT transfers as well?

( REPLY )
- stevenh
  November 28th, 2019 - 08:43
  
  Morning,
  Very good question. Due to the infrequency, there wont be much data… but I can try keep an eye out for them.
  Steven
  
  ( REPLY )
  - Royden
    November 28th, 2019 - 08:49
    
    Ok Thanks. Would be great to know when they are coming through!!
    
    ( REPLY )
    - stevenh
      April 2nd, 2020 - 08:28
      
      I’ve added, based on the historical data, what I think are the transfers.
      I just missed one last night!
      
      ( REPLY )
      - Royden
        April 2nd, 2020 - 18:54
        
        Hello Steven
        Thank you for including this data into the table!!
        Would it be possible to change the destination on the possible metro transfers to include Pakenham as well, just to get the correct information.
        Thanks
        Royden
        
        ( REPLY )
        
        stevenh
        April 2nd, 2020 - 23:30
        
        Ah ha… of course. No point having incorrect information!
        
        ( REPLY )
      - Royden
        April 2nd, 2020 - 19:08
        
        Hello Steven
        Thank you for adding the HCMT transfer data into the table!!
        Royden
        
        ( REPLY )
Royden
November 28th, 2019 - 09:13

Hello Steven,
Can i ask how you receive this data for these trains?
Thanks
Royden

( REPLY )
- stevenh
  December 2nd, 2019 - 14:13
  
  A mixture of sightings from Facebook and other locations.
  
  ( REPLY )
chicane
August 13th, 2020 - 15:14

Great site and record of freight trains, i live near Richmond Station and you have demystified the freight train movements i hear at various times during the day. Cheers

( REPLY )
- stevenh
  August 13th, 2020 - 17:11
  
  chicane,
  Very happy to help!
  
  ( REPLY )