A couple of shots of the Melbourne CBD:

Melbourne is really big on cycling, with bike lanes radiating in and out of the CBD at every turn, and plenty of legitimate places to park. There is even a number of public “bicycle hire” stands around the city, to rent bicycles with which to see the city. Very much the opposite of Sydney, where the recent advent of bike lanes has been poorly planned and rushed out with little thought of location for ease of use for car users, bicycle users and pedestrians alike.

A couple of shots from the observation deck of the Eureka Tower – a far better view than Sydneys Centre-point Tower, as no buildings obscure the view of Melbourne this high up! This is a must visit for any Melbourne tourist. The second shot is looking through one of the fixed viewpoints – located around the observation deck, they focus the viewer specifically on a point of interest, and an information card about said point of interest is included for extra knowledge!

Of course, while walking around looking for trams, one cannot resist a train-shot if one presents itself:

Speaking of trams:

With the morning having been spent successfully recording the arrival of the loco-hauled services into Southern Cross, and a tasty light-lunch had in tourist centric St Kilda, we decided to find a different location to record the afternoon departures from Southern Cross (rather than use La Trobe Street again). Under the guidance of fellow enthusiast Ernie, we settled on a bridge at West Footscray that showed us all traffic running to/from the Bendigo and Ballarat lines, as well as all of the North/West traffic on the standard gauge.

Within a few minutes of arriving, the signals on the up freight lines to Dynon flipped over to clear, and NR66 and NR99 rolled through with 2XW4 loaded SteelLink service from Port Augusta. The trains eventual destination would be Port Kembla – indeed, as this train is a daylight runner into Sydney, we were certainly familiar with it, although it was interesting to look at the loading that normally comes off in Melbourne. Only ten minutes after its passing, A66 returned to our lenses, racing north with 8129V, bound for Bacchus Marsh. A70 would appear at the head of a similar service at 1700, very nearly crossing fellow Victorian broad gauge veteran X37 arriving on the goods lines with a selection of wagons recently repaired in Geelong.

Shortly before leaving the footbridge, P17 and P18 worked a push-pull Sunbury service past our location at 1724, followed ten minutes later by classmates P16 and P14 on a Bacchus Marsh service. With word that the down freight to Tocumwal was due to depart Dynon in approximately an hour, we gave up our perch and relocated to the famous Bunbury St tunnel entrance.

Our arrival at 1808 could not have been timed any better, with A81, P20 and A78 growling into the tunnel within seconds of our arrival! Good thing we didn’t walk any slower from Footscray Station (the tunnel is only a five to ten minute walk down Bunbury Street from the station – a must visit location in Melbourne for the railfan). Only four minutes after “the down Toc” cleared the tunnel, N470 rolled through with the down Albury passenger service on the adjacent track. It was at this point that we bid farewell to Ernie, as he was moving to a different photospot on the far side of the river which offered a better view of arriving trains, while we were content to sit in the shade and sweat out the last few minutes of the (baking hot) day.

A sadly graffiti marred LDP005 led LDP004 north with 3MB7 at 1836, while 9318V empty quarry train to North Melbourne arrived at 1859 behind X44 and X41. The up Melbourne XPT from Sydney (another familiar train) arrived a little after 1900, followed by our final sighting of the day – the P&O Trans Australia freight from Horsham, behind S311, GML10 and 8030. Typically, the two units we wanted to photograph were tucked safely behind an S Class we’d seen plenty of times in P&O service in NSW!

Content with our haul, we packed up our gear and walked back to Footscray Station, keen for a quiet dinner and a good night’s sleep!

Those of you that come for the pictures and stay for the text will notice that there are some photographs missing – due to the nature of the Bunbury St location, it’s less than ideal for catching southbound traffic into Melbourne. I did try a couple of shots for the arrival of the quarry train and the XPT, but they didn’t work as well as they could have. The shot of the P&O train worked a little better, but I have some more ideas for inbound trains next time I use this location. As for the “missing” peak hour loco and freight trains at West Footscray, I don’t like uploading a lot of similar shots from one location, so I picked the better shots (basing my decision on the shot, not the “interestingness” of the movement), so apologies for any disappointment.

It was not surprising that I woke up before the alarm on Tuesday morning, with the sun beaming through a crack in the curtains and onto my face. So much for a sleep in! Fred and I made our way down to the lobby for the short walk to the La Trobe Street bridge, which runs over the yard outside Southern Cross Station. This bridge is quite a novelty to a Sydneysider, given that it is an excellent spot to witness all of the morning arrivals and departures from this busy station. Add to that the fact that most of the services are loco-hauled trains, and you’re in heaven! Did I mention that the bridge also has tram tracks?

Soon after arriving, the trains were coming thick and fast – it was next to impossible to record everything, and we quickly gave up on most of the more mundane V/locity and Sprinter services. The main target, of course, were the peak hour services from Sunbury and Bacchus Marsh (hauled by A and P Class). As well as the parade of V/Line services, NR77 lead The Overland on the first leg of the journey to Adelaide at 0812, followed by the Sydney bound XPT (more or less) on time at 0838.

A handful of services were witnessed behind push-pull P Class locomotives (including P14, 16, 17 and 18), although the “main event” was the arrival of A66 hauling 8116V Bacchus Marsh commuter service at 0848. We were even lucky enough to have A66 stop at a signal shortly before the bridge, allowing plenty of opportunities to record this proud bulldog in a rather eye-catching and unique colour scheme.

Prior to relinquishing our spot on the bridge, an effort was made to catch a couple of the Y Class shunters while waiting for A66 to return to the locomotive sidings. Shortly before departing, we wandered across the road to capture a couple of shots of the iconic “W Class” trams clattering along the street on routes 30 and 35 (the latter being the free “City Circle” tram). As nice as these old units look in their maroon livery, there is nothing finer than seeing a proud old workhorse in the green and cream livery of days gone past. With their numbers slowly dwindling and calls for their removal (from commuter service) getting louder each summer, I always like to take a moment to record their passing whenever visiting Melbourne.

It is an unfortunate side effect of shiftwork that rostering is… erratic at best, brain damningly brutal at worst. One such advantage to shiftwork is that mid-week days off are often the norm, which is why I found myself booking flights from Sydney to Melbourne on the Saturday night just passed. Accommodation was also booked at this time, for the Docklands Travelodge Hotel  (only a five minute walk from Southern Cross Station). It is worth noting that this last minute trip was brought on by musings from fellow photographer and enthusiast Fred Sawyer* a number of weeks ago that he had never visited Melbourne to “see what all the fuss was about”**. Given that our schedules lined up, it was time to take the opportunity, as last minute as it may seem to the more “normal” workers out there (you know who you are).

The plan was to try and cram as much sightseeing and railfanning into two days as possible.  Thanks to a pre-dawn start on Monday, we were able to secure a 2pm departure from Sydney, with a return flight of 3pm from Melbourne the following Wednesday. We figured that, with daylight savings, this would give us an effective two days to spend cramming as much as possible into the daylight hours.

With a (thankfully) uneventful flight from Sydney out of the way, we quickly collected our luggage and transferred to the Melbourne Skybus, an excellent (and cost effective) service to get from Melbourne Airport to Southern Cross Station. It was only after walking to our hotel did we realise that we’d swapped the cool, wet Sydney weather for a scorching hot Melbourne day! It would have easily been 30 degrees in the shade, with a nice dry Northerly wind ensuring that there was no respite from the heat. We*** quickly changed in the hotel room to more “weather appropriate” clothing, and headed down to Southern Cross to find our train. We boarded the 5:10pm service to Seymour, arriving at a just-as-hot-if-not-hotter-than-the-CBD-and-the-surface-of-the-sun-combined Donnybrook. Needless to say, we went straight from the station to the local watering hole, if for no other reason than to get out of the sun!

It is worth noting here that no visit to the Victorian North-East mainline is complete without a visit to the Donnybrook Hotel. This atmospheric hotel has all of the charm of any local country pub, although the food on offer far surpasses any pub-grub that I had experienced up until this point (this seems to be a trend in Victoria, I have fond memories of a roast in one of the Seymour pubs…). Plenty of time was taken enjoying the food and a “pot” of beer (Schooner. Sss-koo-ner. No? Drat.), before it was time to make the most of the setting sun. The punishing, shade “only on the railway line” setting sun.

The first sighting was made at 6:55pm when N453 screamed past with the down Albury passenger service (the only V/Line train on the standard gauge). Shortly thereafter, XP2012 and XP2009 raced through with a late running southbound XPT service. That’s right, we came from Sydney to Melbourne, caught a train to regional Victoria, and photographed… a NSW train. The irony was certainly not lost on us (or on our credit cards, still aching from the pain of last-minute-flights).

We did not have long to wait before sighting our first broad gauge train, with N472 making light work of a down Shepparton passenger service, followed by a couple of local passenger trains operated by Sprinter railcars. Getting close to 8pm we saw our first freight train, with LDP006 and LDP004 leading a lengthy 2BM7 superfreighter northbound. Once again, here was a train typically photographed in the morning in Sydney, being photographed at sunset in Victoria! Our visit was soon to pay off though, with 8:30pm yielding the throaty roar of A Class locomotives in dynamic brake when A78 lead P20 and A81 through Donnybrook with the up Tocumwal freight. Now THAT is what we came to experience! The evening was rounded off with another couple of Sprinter railcars, an up Albury passenger train and the down overnight XPT to Sydney. With the sun set, it was time to board the (second last) train back to Melbourne to retire for the night!

*If we’re going to allocate blame, I suppose I could blame myself for extolling the virtues of photographing loco-hauled passenger trains, something more or less unheard of in NSW in the present day and age.

**He pictured laneway cafes, and a contemporary modern cafe culture. He was not disappointed.

***I was dumb enough to wear jeans, proudly stating at the time “It’ll cool down”. It didn’t.

December 30th, 2011

Having received a tip off that unit 81, CA02 loaded coal from Clarence to Kooragang Island would be departing the loop at Flemington in the late afternoon, an old favourite shot at Meadowbank beckoned. I’d not used the location since 2007, when I’d photographed a handful of trains from the northern side of the Parramatta River in October ’07. At the time, I’d only recently purchased my first “real” camera (a Canon 400D DSLR), and was still getting to grips with settings, composition, lenses and so forth. Fast forward to the end of 2011, I’ve been using my Canon 5D MkII for two years now, and I’m very comfortable with it – I’m so comfortable, that were a suitable replacement to be released tomorrow, I’d certainly think twice before upgrading. It’s been exceptionally reliable, and a lot of the results I share with everyone are due, in part, to the excellent quality of the equipment.

I had arrived by the river a little after three in the afternoon, content to take photos of the various CityRail and CountryLink trains until the “main event”. With four suburban trains an hour, at least two interurban trains an hour and three CountryLink services expected, there was plenty to practice on. The variety of trains varied from the veteran S and K sets, to the ultra-modern OSCar trains, which are still being delivered into 2012.

Shortly after 5:30pm, the distinctive sound of EMD and ALCo locomotives under load could be heard echoing across from the Rhodes side of the river, as they departed the down relief line onto the down main. Ever since arriving, a side goal had been to photograph a train on the bridge, while a ferry went under the bridge. Sure enough, with C502 on the bridge, “Fantasea Spirit” could be seen poking her nose out from the shadows. A couple of clicks and a wave from the crew, and we were done for the day, happy to retire to Darling Harbour for dinner and drinks.

January 2nd, 2012

After a successful New Years Eve fireworks display, it was time to track down the other Centennial Coal/SSR coal train, unit 80 from Newstan to Kooragang. This train requires bank engines to get up Fassifern Bank to Broadmeadow, and a planned shot at Cardiff was on the cards…

…until we missed them! When we arrived in the Newcastle area around 11am, we were informed that the train was at Newstan loading. Not wanting to fight the midday sun (and with no other trains expected on the Short North all day), we figured we would head to East Maitland for a bite to eat, before moving back to Cardiff for an early afternoon shot. We didn’t count on passing 4847N empty South Spur ore train in Broadmeadow Yard, headed up by 44208 and 603.

Having finished lunch, we got word that the train had departed the mine and was Newcastle bound. Giving up on the planned shot at Cardiff, we instead headed for Warabrook on the hourly railcar service from Telarah. With a sinking feeling that we might not make it, we instead jumped off the train at Sandgate to photograph a nice parade of loaded coal trains passed en-route.

Amongst the trains photographed while at Sandgate was EL56 and EL52 on a loaded Pelton coal, triple XRN Class on an empty coal from Port Waratah, the earlier mentioned 4847N ore train and a pair of 81′s on a loaded grain train over the flyover.

After what was considered a productive hour at Sandgate, we caught the next railcar to Warabrook to await the departure of unit 80 from Kooragang. 5007 and 5031 (seen shortly before departure from Sandgate) was photographed again at Warabrook. With no sign of unit 80, we settled with a shot of C502, G513, 44206 and 44204 arriving with CA04 loaded coal from Clarence, before heading home.

Photo taken from Manns Point, Greenwich. For more photos of the Sydney New Years Fireworks show, click here

As I’m a bit of a lazy sod, preferring to actually get out trackside with the camera (and then retire to a hotel for a beverage or two in good company, rather than hunch over an LCD screen to sift through photos), a lot of photos from the year have not yet been uploaded to Flickr. Perhaps you might disagree that these are the best photos I’ve taken in 2011? Comments are appreciated, and I would go so far as to suggest that creating a “top ten” list is an important one for all railway photographers. A form of self critique, in a way  – what have I achieved this year? What can I improve on? What makes this shot more important than that one?

Indicator Boards at Leightonfield – March 18th.

The old roller type indicator boards are slowly becoming an endangered species on the CityRail network. With dwindling staff numbers at stations, and an ever expanding need to provide customers with up to the minute information on easy to read and easy to access computer screens, there just isn’t a place for these old indicator boards… except perhaps in a museum! I recall arriving at the station at the same time as NY3 steel freight, without time to line up a “standard” shot, I instead went for the shot with the indicator boards. Needless to say, it didn’t work out, and so, with a bit more time to spare, I tried again with a passing suburban train from the city. Aside from cutting off a tiny bit at the bottom of the board, I feel it worked quite well.

Dusk in The Cullerins – April 30th.

Thanks to a tip off from a friend up in Newcastle, we’d found out that 8134 loaded grain train was expected to arrive into Sydney behind X45, 48122 and X48. The downside was, due to the slow running speed of this train, it was to follow the evening XPT into Sydney, arriving a long time after dark. Our party had spent the day around the Goulburn area, photographing various Pacific National and El Zorro trains. With the afternoon XPT sighted climbing through the Cullerins in the brilliant late afternoon sun, we moved to the station at Gunning to make the most of the remaining dusk light. When we saw 8134 for the first time, it was following another loaded grain train (behind a pair of 81 Class). We got our first shot at Gunning, before moving on in chase – we were racing the remaining light as much as the train! With the train in front combined with the steep grades, it was no issue getting ahead of the train and over to the other side of the hill, but by then the sun was merely an afterthought. Regardless, this shot turned out to be my favourite from the day!

A Depot Scene – May 8th.

A generous invitation from Les Coulton to join him in Ballarat for the Ballarat Heritage Weekend shuttles saw a quick decision to fly down to Victoria to accept. Steamrail Victoria took D3 639 and their carriages to Ballarat to join with local resident Y112 to run a number of shuttles between Ballarat and Sulky. As well as being involved in riding on and photographing the train, the invitation extended to staying in the sleeping car at the Ballarat depot! This allowed for plenty of memorable moments, one of which was watching the locos being prepared for service in the morning. As a nod to the passengers, as well as the lineside photographers who came out to support the train, both locomotives were turned on the Ballarat turntable on the Saturday afternoon, to allow the locomotives to run in reverse order for Sundays shuttles. This photograph was taken shortly before Y112 left the depot to attach to the cars at Ballarat Station.

ML-039 Passing St Leonards – July 3rd.

St Leonards Station is quite an impressive structure – when originally built, it was a pair of unremarkable side platforms to serve a North Shore suburb. Between 1989 to 2000, the station was relocated to a temporary location on the city side of the Pacific Highway overpass, to allow a complete redevelopment of the current station site. As part of the development, the air above the station was handed over to developers to build apartments, and the new station was built with allowance for four tracks, for future enhancement to the St Leonards to Chatswood corridor as part of a proposed second Sydney Harbour crossing. Fast forward to 2011, and platforms one and four remain unused, with the status quo very much maintained. This shot was taken on an opportunistic whim – I had heard that mechanised track inspection vehicle was going to be running over the North Shore line on that day (hardly an unusual occurrence), including a visit to check all of the sidings at Lavender Bay, as well as inspection of the middle tunnel roads at North Sydney, and Lindfield turnback. I’d wanted to shoot a train at St Leonards using the station as a backdrop for a while, and this presented a rather unique oppertunity. With news surfacing that the NSW Government are looking to buy two new mechanised inspection vehicles in 2012, the future of ML-039 is far from safe, I felt this was quite appropriate.

Staff Exchange – July 17th.

During July, I entertained Crisfitz from Railpage, a former driver and train controller from Western Australia. I (and a couple of the usual suspects) showed him some of the more interesting locations and photospots that the area immediatly around Sydney has to offer. One of the activities on Cris’ list was to go for a ride on the Zig Zag Railway, at Lithgow. After first photographing the train paralleling Bells Line of Road, we then raced down to Bottom Points Station to purchase our tickets and board the train. We took great, childlike delight in riding the train up the Zig Zag, pausing for photos of 1049 (as well as the railmotor that was also running on the day) at Top Points during the runaround, as well as more photos at Clarence (and Top Points again on the return journey). Despite all of the atmospheric shots obtained with the DSLR, I felt this was probably one of my favourites of the day. Taken on the iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app, I was able to capture the staff exchange at Top Points signal box without the risk of losing my head (or, indeed, headbutting the poor signaller).

G535 at Milvale – August 21st.

The backstory to this photo is staggering – if every picture tells a thousand words, then perhaps I need to find a thousand words to describe how the picture came about! Long time enthusiast and companion Todd had been encouraging me to head south to Junee with him to show him some of the spots, and (hopefully) get some photos of trains away from the mainlines. Imagine our surprise to find out that, due to trackwork on the Unanderra to Moss Vale line, most of the grain trains that regularly ply the states southern regions were parked up with no work to do! The trains we were interested in (the QRNational rake for Glencore Grain and the two El Zorro rakes for Grainflow/Cargills) were all stabled – El Zorro had one rake at Junee, and the other at a siding near Stockinbingal, while QRNational were quite safely parked in Goulburn. On the final day of our (rather quiet) weekend, we noticed movement beginning for the lines re-opening on Monday. QRNational were sighted loading their train at Red Bend (south of Forbes), while El Zorro were preparing to depart Junee at the same time. We found ourselves overlooking an impressive Canola field at Weedalion, the perfect shot set up for the approaching QRNational train. That was, until the train was refuged at Bribbaree! Rather than wait around for it to appear, we instead headed south to Milvale to wait for the Parkes-bound El Zorro train. Having got our shots of G535, EL60, 4816 and 4836 approaching the yard, we prepared to give chase to Bribbaree to get QRNational departing, before heading to Goulburn to spend the night. We didn’t  count on the El Zorro train going into the refuge at Milvale! With the sun rapidly fading, we resigned ourselves to waiting at the country end of the loop at Milvale to see what would eventuate. A loaded PN wheat train from Parkes sub-terminal, bound for the Allied Mills facility at Maldon raced through behind a pair of 81 Class, before it was time for El Zorro to depart. With the last of the light only minutes away from vanishing altogether, it was only luck that produced the photograph seen above!

T6 Approaching Scarborough – 28th of September.

There was once a time when Tangara trains were quite common on the line from Sydney to Wollongong (and beyond). Due to a shortage of V-Set intercity trains, quite a few peak and off-peak runs were rostered for 4 or 8 car G-Set “outer suburban” Tangara trains (of course, seasoned commuters would know that with set availability at Motdale, it was not uncommon for many runs to use T Set suburban trains instead). With the introduction of the OSCar carriages in 2006, their first deployment was to the South Coast Line to free up the Tangara carriages for suburban duties. Fast forward to 2011, and the 3 car L-Set trains that once provided local services in the Wollongong suburban area are gone, replaced by 4 car Tangara trains. Most (if not all) of the services to and from Sydney are operated by OSCar trains (with one run still operated by a V-Set, at least until early 2012). The G-Set “outer suburban” experiment has ended, with all G-Sets having  been refurbished by RailCorp to remove the toilets and make them into suburban commuter trains. The above photograph was taken in moderate rain at Scarborough, only a few days before the 2011 CityRail timetable was introduced.

Guard – October 30th

Every year Heritage Express (the operating arm of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, now better known as Trainworks) operates a tour from Sydney to Melbourne and return using their Southern Aurora carriage set for the Melbourne Cup. In 2011 the train was run by 4490 and 4520, and while having lunch in the city, the decision was made to pop down to Sydney Terminal to say G’day to some friends who were amongst the crew. The guard of the first leg of the journey was Ben (seen above in full NSWGR uniform), and I managed to cajole him into standing still for thirty seconds while preparing his train for departure. This is another photograph taken on the iPhone 4, using the Hipstamatic App.

Night Eagle – September 17th.

Chris and I were returning to Sydney after a day spent on the Main South between Moss Vale and Goulburn, looking for shots of the QRNational/Glencore Grain train. Despite getting a large number of shots of this very photogenic train, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot NR18 southbound on a diverted 6BM4. NR18 had arrived into Sydney earlier that morning on the Indian Pacific from Adelaide, and was placed on the front of BM4 to assist the train to Melbourne. Normally BM4 does not stop in Sydney, although on this day it did pause in Enfield to add NR18 to the front. We photographed it well after sunset at Loftus behind NR18, NR25 (painted in the previous Indian Pacific livery), NR73 (painted in the original PN NR colour scheme) and NR76 (retaining it’s original National Rail colours). We suspect this was the first time that the new and old Indian Pacific liveried NR Class were used on the same train. At the time of writing, it is not known if any more NR Class will be treated to the new Indian Pacific scheme.

7GP1 Passing Nelungaloo Silo – November 5th.

During early November, Todd and I headed west to Parkes, to look for photos of the Manildra feeder services. Although we succeeded in our endeavours, we couldn’t pass up a shot for the departure of 7GP1 SCT superfreighter from Parkes to Perth. The departure of the train was slightly delayed beyond the expected departure time, and as such, we photographed SCT009 and SCT005 passing the disused silo at Nelungaloo at 1935, kicking up a great deal of dust and grass seed that rendered us incapacitated for the remainder of the evening!

July 2012 will see the start of the exceptionally unpopular Carbon Tax. This tax should have the effect of rewarding energy efficient, environmentally friendly transport options for freight across the country. With exemptions for heavy road vehicles until 2014/15, and an overall exemption from petrol in the scheme, rail will experience increased costs while their main competition (road transport) will not. With expected increases in the cost of the electricity production used by suburban electric trains, this will have the effect of increased ticket prices, pushing people away from public transport and back into their polluting motor vehicles. With new plans proposed for the introduction of B-triples on the state’s major highways, and combined with a price on carbon, it is expected that rail will suffer. The main advantage that rail has, is that a lot of the freight currently moved by rail is bulk coal or mineral freight, which is simply uneconomical to move in large quantities by truck.

Continuing neglect to grain branch line infrastructure will have the direct effect of forcing more grain into trucks for farmers to get their crops to port. GrainCorp have recently been given approval to increase the limit of grain that can be delivered to Port Kembla Inner Harbour by truck from 200,000 tonnes per annum to 500,000 tonnes. This has raised questions by local residents on noise issues, as well as the effect the extra truck movements will have on the roads in the area. Companies wishing to move grain by rail are hampered by dated and dilapidated infrastructure, as well as a shortage of appropriate rolling stock. GrainCorp currently contracts Pacific National to haul their trains to port, with Grainflow (formerly AWB Limited) contracting their haulage to El Zorro. Additionally, Glencore Grain currently has a contract with QRNational to move grain to port, with plans for a second rake to assist in the future.

John Holland are poised to take control of the operation and maintenance of the NSW Country Regional Network from January 2012. The contract passed from ARTC to John Holland earlier this year, with ARTC to retain control of the defined Interstate Rail Network, as well as the NSW Hunter Valley network. The network control centre will be located in Broadmeadow.

Further new motive power is on the way, a few hints of this have been seen in late 2011. From the tried and tested GT46C-ACe model currently produced by Downer Rail and the Cv43aci and C44aci models being produced by UGL Limited to new models from China and the USA, there is plenty to be on the lookout for in 2011.

Centennial Coal, continuing the recent trend of coal companies purchasing their own locomotives and rolling stock, have ordered  seven C44aci “CEY Class” locomotives from UGL Limited, due to be delivered from mid December 2011 into early 2012. These locomotives will be painted in a green and yellow variation on the Southern Shorthaul Railroad scheme, as it is SSR who are contracted to haul coal from a number of Centennials Northern and Western mines, specifically Newstan (with additional coal trucked in from Awaba), Clarence, Airly, Charbon and Springvale (loaded at Lidsdale). Given that SSR currently use a mixture of owned and leased motive power on these services, this will free up locomotives to be better utilised in other aspects of the business, especially the older locomotives not suited to mainline coal haulage, such as the B, S and GM classes.

CFCL Australia also have a contract for new rolling stock with UGL Limited, with an order for six C44aci units under construction at the time of writing. These units are destined for use in Hunter Valley coal operations, allowing CFCL Australia to enter what should prove to be a very lucrative market.

While QRNational have received their order for their 5020 class, QRNational plans to modernise their coal fleet on the North Coast with the introduction of two regauged 2800 class. Up until recently, the motive power used on the Duralie to Stratford coal shuttle has been a 6000 Class on one end of the train, with locomotives on the other end of the train alternating between 2204 (formerly allocated to ARG) and various members of the 421 and 423 class. Since the start of December, 2204 has been forwarded to Melbourne, with 6011 the only 6000 class remaining in coal duties. 2819 had originally been trialled by QRNational on standard gauge interstate intermodal duties, however this locomotive was reclassified PA2819, and returned to narrow gauge work in Western Australia with ARG.

Qube have accepted the first two deliveries of their new “1100 Class” from NREC – 1101 and 1103 have recently begun trials between Sydney and Newcastle. It is expected that these new locomotives will continue to reduce demand for leased motive power from CFCLA and Engenco, with a total of 8 expected.

SCT are expecting delivery of their new “Pandaroo” locomotives from Ziyang, China. These units are destined for SCT’s new ore contract in South Australia, and are designated the CSR Class (likely named after the manufacturer). SCT’s locomotive fleet is currently stretched very thin, with SCT014 out for repairs with accident damage. A number of locomotives have been leased from Engenco, with C501 expected to go on hire to SCT from SRHC in early 2011 to assist with banking trains through the Adelaide Hills.

In addition to being the recipient of seven new locomotives from UGL Limited for use on their coal contract with Centennial, SSR have indicated an expansion of their business into the locomotive hire market. Plans have emerged relating to the construction of the BRM Class, a new build 3000hp locomotive similar to the XR and VL Class locomotives owned by PN and CFCLA respectively. These locomotives will be constructed at SSR’s Bendigo Railway Workshops.

Finally, while not “new” motive power as such, Pacific National seems set to introduce some variety to their export grain trains (typically operated by pairs of 81 class, occasionally assisted by members of the BL, G, X, 48 or L Classes), with news that the DL, BL and C Class locomotives currently allocated to PN’s Southern Coal division are to be reallocated to grain haulage. Two C Class are already in Moss Vale and Cootamundra for crew training purposes, with additional 82 class expected to be displaced from Hunter Valley operations to replace them on Southern Coal.

Due to a complete possession of the up and down main lines between Redfern and Granville, and the up and down suburban lines between Redfern and Strathfield, there have been some interesting diversions this weekend, as well as a few interesting trackwork trains about the place.

Normally, NSW motive power dominates the scene in Sydney, with a healthy helping of Victorian locomotives, especially on trackwork and infrastructure trains. Today though, South Australia gave Victoria a good run for their money, with plenty of vintage bulldog power on display.

CA01 empty coal from Broadmeadow Yard to Clarence Colliery (hauled by Southern Shorthaul RailRoad for Centennial Coal) was sent through Flemington Markets as normal, only to be sent south to Chullora Junction, west through Sefton Park Junction, and then north through Lidcombe Loop to resume it’s westbound journey. This diversion made for a sneaky second photo at Regents Park, of the interesting grouping of C508, GM27, FL220 and C503. A Yennora bound container train from Port Botany also made an appearance behind branchliners 869 and 864.

Time was taken at Flemington Station to photograph the venerable veteran Bulldogs in the form of GM10 and 4204. The former is the oldest operating diesel locomotive in commercial service – built in 1952. That’s almost 60 years ago! 4204 is technically retired with Lachlan Valley Railway for enthusiast specials, although since being returned to service it has shown it can still haul trains when hired to SSR for infrastructure work. This concept will be examined in a future post (which was pencilled in for Friday’s update, which obviously did not occur).

A little over an hour was spent at the quiet, leafy station of Croydon, watching the comings and goings of the various trains, most of which almost never run on the local lines – the highlight being NT35 down Grafton XPT, hauled by XP2016 and XP2015.

A quick visit to Granville for lunch also netted a photo of SSR’s other coal train, bound for Lidsdale from Port Kembla behind G514, G511, 44204 and 44206, while a stop at Clyde after lunch revealed 1811N container freight to Narromine being hauled by VL356 and 4814 (this train typically runs from Botany to Clyde Yard as T287 to stage for an evening departure west, but as Clyde Yard was blocked, they have run straight through). The final sighting of the day was at Guildford, of CLF7′s 3, 2 and 7 hauling a well loaded 6MS9 to Yennora.

Other sightings included 4501 and 4833 at Redfern with a spoil train, 4716 and an immaculate 4910 at Ashfield with a short ballast cleaning train, along with triple 81 class on an adjacent track with a spoil train.

The final tally?

Victoria – 5 (counting the VL Class, which were built at Sunshine). South Australia – 7. New South Wales – 14 (counting both XPT units, becuase I’m cheeky like that).

New South Wales still a clear winner, although if one was to take out the units not photographed, it would be a more modest count of 7. Goes to show just how fluid the scene in NSW is, with plenty of “borrowed” motive power from other states. Our most successful export has always been the 422 class, with only a handful of units operating in NSW, the rest of the class having been sent “elsewhere”. I guess that’s just payback for all of the variety we enjoy on a daily basis. Who needs to drive for days to find exotic locos? Often they are in our own backyard!

…now where did that T Class go that was seen lurking about Port Botany the other week. Excuse me!

Remember, click on the photos for higher resolution shots on Flickr!

Looking back through photos from earlier in 2011, this photo really has a story behind it.

It was to be a blindingly hot day, so we decided to choose a slightly cooler place to photograph trains, and headed up the Blue Mountains to shoot, before retiring to the pub at Mt Victoria to discuss the days takings. Everything started off according to plan, arriving at Wentworth Falls with plenty of time to walk up to the overpass at the Katoomba end of the station to get a shot of NR28 hauling the up IP, as well as the down Dubbo XPT. Plenty of time, that is, to arrive and note the excessive shadow over the line from nearby trees. Not enough time to actually re-locate for either train, naturally! In my defence (and this was a point I made vehemently on the day as well) the last time I’d shot this train at this bridge, it was raining. I’m just saying, in case any of you decide to lay judgement on me while reading this.

With those two trains out of the way, we turned our attention to 8162N, the up freight from Blayney to Port Botany that typically follows the Indian Pacific. We discovered that, while the bridge shot was shadowed out, there was a remarkable shot from the car park on the down side of the line, located between the bridge and the station (of course, when we’d walked to the bridge, it had been via the shops, so we’d not noticed this shot until now). So, as the temperature rapidly rose, and with less and less shade to be found (unless you count the shadow on the mainline from the trees…), we found ourselves slowly cooking in the hot sun.

With word coming through from Sydney that 8162N had been put into the refuge at Katoomba to refuel from a road tanker, we figured that they’d have to wait there to follow the next passenger service to Sydney (not the one it normally followed). We waited for one passenger train to pass, before moving back to the station to find some much needed shade. We decided to jump on the train and head to Bell, for a planned shot of 1721N empty Kandos cement. Minutes before our train arrived, we could hear the low growl of EMD engines – wouldn’t you know it, 8162N had been let out ahead of the passenger service we had assumed it would follow. We all dashed over to the other side of the platform to find that the very shade we had craved only moments before, was shadowing out the photo!

At the time, and every time I looked at it until now, I had assumed the shot was a total write off. The subject was deep in shadow, while bright sky in the background ensured that no amount of post processing could correct the shot. It was only recently that, with news that Independent Rail had lost the contract for the Blayney train (to Pacific National), that I reflected upon the photo once more. You see, I had *seen* the Blayney train a number of times in the Blue Mountains, but I’d never successfully photographed it. Sure, I’d shot the train in the Sydney metropolitan area, but if you’re in the right location, it’s not uncommon to photograph any IRA train. 8162N was the only regular daylight runner over the mountains (aside from coal and the occasional domestic grain traffic), and it seemed as if another train had passed without fanfare. A victim of the “It’ll always be there, I’ll photograph it eventually” attitude.

Thankfully, a fresh motivation to rework the photograph, resulted in this black and white image, completed by the obviously disappointed passenger who has realised that he has missed his train, and must wait for the next one!

Never delete a photograph* if you think there might be something there – with the right motivation, it’s sure to prove worthwhile one day.

*Obviously if something is beyond hope, it’s often better to cut the cord and say goodbye, for example, if the photograph is obviously out of focus, crooked beyond repair, or you’ve managed to get rain on the lens… If it’s just a bad shadow, or less-than-ideal lighting…