Yass Junction Diary
Please note
This page is no longer updated regularly as I now live over 500km from Yass
Yass Junction Railway Station is the only remaining station serving the town of Yass in New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the Main Southern Line between Sydney and Albury. The station opened on 3 July 1876 as Yass but changed to its current name on 20 April 1892. The station is not in the town itself but is located approximately 4 kilometres away near the Hume Highway.
It is the closest 'Main Southern Line' railway station to Canberra. Due to this, it's my station of choice for checking out the traffic on the line. This includes passenger trains from Sydney to Melbourne and freight in every other direction. Every so often there is also a shutdown on the route over the Blue Mountains and Yass therefore becomes part of the line from Perth to Sydney.
Most of my expeditions to this station occur on a Saturday morning as you'll find a good selection of traffic at frequent intervals; dependent on how well the trains are running to the timetable. Sometimes, due to dead engines or special services, there will also be trains layed over in the Yass Junction passing lane (which happens to be the opposite side of the mainline to which whatever priority train is running on.)
External Resources
- Wikipedia's page on Yass Junction
- Investigations into derailments between Yass Junction and Goulburn
- NSWrail.net information page on Yass Junction
Yass Junction photo galleries
- Old shots from Yass Junction contains everything prior to getting organised and building this page/site
- Yass Junction (22nd Aug 2009)
- Yass Junction (29th Aug 2009)
- Yass Junction (12th Sep 2009)
- Yass Junction (17th Oct 2009)
- Yass Junction (24th Oct 2009)
- Yass Junction (7th Nov 2009)
- Yass Junction (14th Nov 2009)
- Yass Junction (18th Sep 2010)
- The END
Unscheduled Trains...
Sightings
Below is a list of sightings that I've noted from my visits to the Junction. I initially started recording only times, but that soon lead to recording engine numbers as well. It's actually quite a challenge to take photos and also remember/record the details. You'll notice that not all numbers are there, if it's only two digits/numbers then that'll be the model of the locomotive and not the build number (i.e. 8101,81 is 8101 and another 81 class, not 8181.)
Time | 6/6/9 | 22/8/9 | 29/8/9 | 12/9/9 | 17/10/9 | 24/10/9 | 7/11/9 | 14/11/9 |
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0530 | 0556 Grain 8132, 8140, 8169 SOUTH |
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0600 | 0600 Grain SOUTH |
0610 Grain SOUTH |
0603 Grain 8104, 81 SOUTH |
0604 Grain 8136, 8175, 8146 SOUTH |
0606 Grain 8169, 8137, 8176 SOUTH |
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0630 | 0648 Container SOUTH |
0648 Container NR40, NR SOUTH |
0641 Grain 8182, L270 NORTH |
0634 Container NR23, AN3, NR3 NORTH |
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0700 | 0721 Container QR LDP005 SOUTH |
0701 Grain 8150, 8155 NORTH |
0724 Container NR6, NR30, NR8 SOUTH |
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0730 | 0750 Grain 8145, 8160 NORTH |
0742 Container NR62, NR65 SOUTH 0757 Grain 8158, 8174 SOUTH |
0742 Grain EL55, EL60, EL54 NORTH |
0751 Container NR90 ,NR94 SOUTH |
0732 Grain 8163, 8101, 8150 SOUTH |
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0800 | 0827 Steel NR118, NR, NR NORTH |
0809 Indian Pacific NR28 NORTH |
0808 Container NR86, NR119, NR41 SOUTH 0824 Steel NR69, NR121 SOUTH |
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0830 | 0831 Grain NORTH 0839 Steel NORTH 0841 Steel SOUTH 0855 Grain NORTH |
0833 Steel NR111, NR10, NR68 SOUTH |
0852 Steel NR81, NR113, NR5 SOUTH |
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0900 | 0917 AK Cars 4833, 46 NORTH |
0902 Container NR17, NR117, NR62 SOUTH |
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0930 | 0938 Steel SOUTH |
0936 Container SOUTH |
0959 Steel NR72, AN, NR85 SOUTH |
0958 Steel NR70, NR5, AN5 SOUTH |
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1000 | 1020 Steel NR89, NR71 SOUTH |
1027 Container NR47, NR117, NR NORTH |
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1030 | 1053 Container NORTH |
1031 Container NR10, NR118, NR31 NORTH 1046 Container NR66, NR118, NR102 NORTH |
1058 Steel NR12, NR84 NORTH |
1058 Container NR14, NR, NR79 NORTH |
1058 Griffith XPL SOUTH |
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1100 | 1105 Griffith XPL SOUTH |
1100 Container SOUTH |
1101 Griffith XPL SOUTH |
1125 Melbourne XPT SOUTH |
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1130 | 1140 Steel NR21, DL40 SOUTH 1150 Melbourne XPT SOUTH |
1137 Melbourne XPT SOUTH 1144 Container NR13, NR78 NORTH |
1154 Melbourne XPT SOUTH |
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1200 | 1200 Melbourne XPT SOUTH 1224 Steel NR70, NR96 NORTH |
1205 Steel NR73, NR66, NR106 NORTH |
1219 Melbourne XPT SOUTH 1220 Steel NR87, AN5, NR119 NORTH |
1226 Container NR84, NR91, NR47 NORTH |
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1230 | ||||||||
1300 | 1328 Steel NR52, NR45 NORTH |
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1330 | ||||||||
1400 | ||||||||
1430 | 1443 Grain 8152, L251 SOUTH |
1432 Oiler X52, X50 NORTH |
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1500 | ||||||||
1530 | ||||||||
1600 | 1603 Sydney XPT NORTH |
1605 QR Rail Grinder NORTH 1619 Steel NR1, NR18 SOUTH |
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1630 | 1630 Sydney XPT NORTH |
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1700 | 1728 Container NR22, NR8, NR30 NORTH |
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1730 |
January 7th, 2010 - 16:44
Hello,
I have surfed through your page and deciced to leave a short note of admiration for it. I like it a lot, specially the photos, they are really nice. I have some curiosity and wanted to ask you if you were a Japanese descendant? Did you travel alone in Japan, or with other train enthusiasts? I found this page by chance though, I was searching for the MicroAce interior lights information. I am a new in this hobby and have built a decent collection of Japanese trains. Although I don’t have a huge space to run my trains, I enjoy collecting them… and I always feel happy when people like you have such as nice layouts. By the way I live in Kurashiki, prefecture of Okayama.
Good luck
January 8th, 2010 - 15:22
Thanks for the comments!
I am not a Japanese descendant at all. I studied the language for 2 years at university, but have only ever been over on holidays. I haven’t ever been over with friend who like trains either, so I usually go off on trips by myself or with friends who just want to travel Japan.
I wish you all the best with your collection and hobby, you’re in an awesome country with an awesome train network… so make the most of it!