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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This page is no longer updated regularly as I now live over 500km from Yass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

Yass Junction photo galleries

Unscheduled Trains...

LVR 5917 en-route to Sydney

The Indian Pacific (twice)

Sleeper Trains

AK Cars

ARHS ACT Tour from Melbourne

Rail Grinder

Southbound Steel wrong-road

QR's rail grinder

QR Rail Grinder

ELs at Yass

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
0530 0556
Grain
8132, 8140, 8169
SOUTH
0600 0600
Grain
SOUTH
0610
Grain
SOUTH
0603
Grain
8104, 81
SOUTH
0604
Grain
8136, 8175, 8146
SOUTH
0606
Grain
8169, 8137, 8176
SOUTH
0630 0648
Container
SOUTH
0648
Container
NR40, NR
SOUTH
0641
Grain
8182, L270
NORTH
0634
Container
NR23, AN3, NR3
NORTH
0700 0721
Container
QR LDP005
SOUTH
0701
Grain
8150, 8155
NORTH
0724
Container
NR6, NR30, NR8
SOUTH
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
0800 0827
Steel
NR118, NR, NR
NORTH
0809
Indian Pacific
NR28
NORTH
0808
Container
NR86, NR119, NR41
SOUTH


0824
Steel
NR69, NR121
SOUTH
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
0900 0917
AK Cars
4833, 46
NORTH
0902
Container
NR17, NR117, NR62
SOUTH
0930 0938
Steel
SOUTH
0936
Container
SOUTH
0959
Steel
NR72, AN, NR85
SOUTH
0958
Steel
NR70, NR5, AN5
SOUTH
1000 1020
Steel
NR89, NR71
SOUTH
1027
Container
NR47, NR117, NR
NORTH
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
1100 1105
Griffith XPL
SOUTH
1100
Container
SOUTH
1101
Griffith XPL
SOUTH
1125
Melbourne XPT
SOUTH
1130 1140
Steel
NR21, DL40
SOUTH


1150
Melbourne XPT
SOUTH
1137
Melbourne XPT
SOUTH


1144
Container
NR13, NR78
NORTH
1154
Melbourne XPT
SOUTH
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
1230
1300 1328
Steel
NR52, NR45
NORTH
1330
1400
1430 1443
Grain
8152, L251
SOUTH
1432
Oiler
X52, X50
NORTH
1500
1530
1600 1603
Sydney XPT
NORTH
1605
QR Rail Grinder
NORTH


1619
Steel
NR1, NR18
SOUTH
1630 1630
Sydney XPT
NORTH
1700 1728
Container
NR22, NR8, NR30
NORTH
1730
Comments (2) Trackbacks (0)
  1. 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

    • 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!


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