Pacifc National grain trains
24 March 2020
Grain is a major freight traffic in Victoria, but drought has cut the level of traffic in recent years. Trains operate on both broad and standard gauges, with the main destinations being export terminals at Melbourne and Geelong, as well as Portland, and a number of domestic flour mills
North Geelong wagon scrapping
24 March 2020
All kinds of wagons are stored at North Geelong Yard, in early to mid 2008 Pacific National started to scrap a lot of the older wagons. After a lull, work restarting with tank wagons and VHCA cement hoppers in 2010, with more tank wagons being scrapped in March 2011. Scrapping of hopper wagons commenced in late 2014.
Great Southern Rail - The Overland
24 March 2020
Great Southern Rail operates 'The Overland' from Melbourne to Adelaide, via Geelong, Ararat and the Western standard gauge
V/Line around Geelong
24 March 2020
Photos of various V/line trains around Geelong, including Lara, Corio, North Shore, North Geelong, South Geelong, Marshall and Waurn Ponds. There are also photo from the South Geelong tunnel, and the Barwon River bridge at Breakwater. V/line operates a mix of rolling stock on the line, including Sprinter and VLocity DMUs, as well as loco hauled trains with a variety of carriage sets.
Myki
6 March 2020
Photos of bits and pieces to do with Melbourne's 'Myki' smartcard ticketing system
Qube Logistics Apex quarry train
17 February 2020
The Apex train carries gravel and other quarry products from Kilmore East on the North East line, to Westall in south-eastern Melbourne, Brooklyn in western Melbourne, and North Shore in Geelong. Originally operated by Freight Australia then Pacific National, in 2016 Qube Logistics won the contract.
Level crossing accidents at North Shore, Geelong
29 October 2019
I’m not sure what is in the water down in Geelong, but the boom gates at the North Shore Road / Station Street level crossing next to North Shore station seem to spend more time under cars than stopping them.
V/Line - Geelong carriage yards
29 October 2019
Geelong is one of the busiest V/Line destinations, being a major servicing and stabling operation for their trains. Facilities include a car wash, fuel point and a dedicated Y class shunter
Geelong region stations and infrastructure
27 October 2019
The full selection of images is on my other site, Rail Geelong
Steamrail Victoria - Geelong 'Rail and Sail' October 2019
27 October 2019
On October 27, 2019 Steamrail ran a 'Rail and Sail' trip from Melbourne to Geelong and return behind K190. PCP292, Hobsons Bay (269 BZ), 14 BRS, 600 BK, 7 ABE, 38 BE, 25 BE, 17 BE, and 1 BCE made up the train.
Geelong broad gauge freight
13 October 2019
Miscellaneous broad gauge freight around Geelong - there is stuff all these days
Pacific National - Geelong standard gauge freight
11 July 2019
Pacific National standard gauge intermodal freight services around and through Geelong
Bellarine Peninsula Railway
6 April 2019
The Bellarine Peninsula Railway operates between Queenscliff and Drysdale on the Bellarine Peninsula, outside Geelong. Once a broad gauge line that closed in 1978, it is now regauged to 3"6' and has a wide variety of narrow gauge rolling stock from around Australia
Pacific National Warrnambool freight
13 January 2019
The Warrnambool freight carries containers between Melbourne and the Westvic depot in Warrnambool, usually running Monday through Friday. Operated by Pacific National, except for a period between April and October 2008 when El Zorro took over the contract. The train length is constrained by short crossing loops and often runs during the day on the down trip due to pathing issues beyond Geelong
IEV100 track evaluation vehicle
21 October 2018
Formerly known as EM100, IEV100 is a track evaluation vehicle that traverses the Victorian railway network to test track quality. Diesel powered, it has both standard and broad gauge bogies.
AK track recording cars
10 October 2018
The AK cars are a set of three specially equipped ex-NSWGR carriages fitted out for track inspection and testing purposes. They are operated by the Australian Rail Track Corporation over their standard gauge lines behind hired motive power on a regular basis
Pacific National broad gauge Mildura freight
7 March 2018
The Mildura freight runs from Merbein (just north of the town) to Melbourne and return for Wakefield Transport. The train is made up of standard and refrigerated containers, as well as a small amount of cement loading. Until recent years oil tankers, louvre vans and LCL containers were also attached to the train. With gauge conversion of the Mildura line, in late 2017 the service was rerouted to serve a temporary freight terminal at Manangatang on the parallel Robinvale line, with a standard gauge service taking over in mid 2018.
X'Trapolis transfer, September 2017
20 September 2017
On 20 September 2017 SSR T classes T363 and T381 and power van BVDY52 headed from Bendigo to Ballarat to collect a brand new X'Trapolis train, travelling via Sunshine, Newport and North Geelong.
Waurn Ponds cement train
27 August 2017
Since the 2000s the main cement traffic in Victoria is from the Blue Circle Southern works at Waurn Ponds, outside Geelong. The major destination of the traffic was Lyndhurst in the south-east, which last saw a train in 2009, and Mildura and Somerton which saw the cement traffic end in December 2015.
V/Line hired locomotives
13 March 2017
Occasionally V/Line has motive power shortages or failures, and need to hire locomotives from other operators for use on their own trains. In the photos here it is Freight Australia / Pacific National as the hirer
Steamrail - Geelong line parallel run, October 2016
30 October 2016
On October 30 D3 639 and R761 led a pair of steam hauled trains between Southern Cross and Geelong via the Regional Rail Link tracks. Both trains ran parallel from Southern Cross Station to Sunshine and from Little River to North Geelong on the Geelong-bound leg, as well as between Geelong and Little River on the up leg.
El Zorro grain trains
6 March 2013
El Zorro operates a number of grain trains inside and through Victoria, on both broad and standard gauges, using a mix of hired locomotives and wagons
Geelong - Ballarat Railway 150th
10 April 2012
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Geelong Ballarat rail line opening, a special charter train ran from Geelong to Ballarat and return on 10th April 2012. Steamrail's T364 led the train, which included carriages 1BCE, 3ABE and 7ABE
Pacific National log trains
30 December 2011
Until 2009 Pacific National operated trains delivering logs to the Midway export woodchip plant at North Shore in Geelong, with logs sources from Bairnsdale and Wodonga. Y class locos are often used to shunt the wagons at Geelong
El Zorro mineral sands train
18 June 2011
The mineral sands train was operated by El Zorro and runs on an irregular basis between Melbourne and Portland, to transport titanium and zircon mineral sands processed by Iluka Resources at Hamilton
Steamrail - Y112 Geelong shuttles, April 2011
17 April 2011
T356, Y112 and D3 639 ran shuttles around Geelong on April 16th and 17th. The diesel was only used on the first morning, Y112 having run light engine from Ballarat for the occasion.
Oil shunts
6 March 2011
Shell Refinery at Corio despatched fuel by rail until early 2008, with the last destinations being Mildura and Shepparton. Before this time Y class locos usually took the wagons to and from North Geelong Yard
V/Line 2011 Avalon Airshow specials
5 March 2011
The most boring airshow for V/Line ever: VLocities ran the majority of services. Only one hauled push-pull set ran, with a pair of N classes it only ran one return trip on Saturday and one return trip on Sunday.
SRHC - Hills to the Bay tour January 2011
22 January 2011
T378 and T357 hauled the train, with State Car 4, Mitta Mitta, and a small collection of S and E carriages - a shorter train than other years.
V/Line - UCI bike specials 2010
3 October 2010
Over the weekend of October 2 and 3 V/Line ran a huge number of extra trains between Geelong and Melbourne for the 2010 UCI Road World Championships. The event turned out to be a bit of a fizzer: trains were still running every 10 minutes at peak times, but only 4 of the 6 originally scheduled push-pull sets ran (three with P classes, and one with N classes). The traffic disruptions in Geelong were so bad, the next person to propose Geelong hold an event like this will get tomatoes thrown at them in the Market Square Mall.
V/Line - carriage set SN7/SZ7
9 August 2010
In September 2007 V/Line formed carriage set SN7 with five retired BS compartment carriages and spare carriage ACN21, to make up for a loss of a carriage set in the Kerang level crossing collision. Rostered on a return weekday run to Geelong, the set was recoded SZ7 in March 2009 following the replacement of carriage ACN21 with BCZ257. The set remained in service until August 2010, when the delivery of additional VLocity trains enabled it to be retired.
El Zorro wagon transfer from Warrnambool, December 2008
18 May 2010
El Zorro transfer sent T376 down to Warrnambool light engine on Wednesday December 3, 2008 to pick up some of their wagons from the yard. The train returned the next day. Back when they had the contract for running the Warrnambool freight they had a wagon with a cage at one end (ZFSX 12K) that got red carded and couldn't be moved. The second wagon (ZDXF 1) was left behind on the last run as the train was too long to fit into the loop at Camperdown.
Steamrail - Mildura 2009
2 November 2009
S301, T395 and S313 lead the train of 15 carriages, R761 was added to the train on the return leg between Ballarat and Melbourne (via North Geelong)
Steamrail - Geelong driver training, October 2009
13 October 2009
On October 13, 2009 K153 headed to Geelong and back with a driver training special.
Steamrail - Geelong driver training, September 2009
27 September 2009
On September 27, 2009 T356 headed to Geelong and back with a driver training special.
Geelong football specials 2009
26 September 2009
Geelong won against St Kilda in the 2009 AFL Grand Final at the MCG. The V/Line football specials on the Geelong line were a mix of P class hauled single push-pull sets, and N class hauled seven car long N sets
PCJ van transfers to/from Ballarat, September 2009
15 September 2009
El Zorro ran a transfer between Melbourne and Ballarat via North Geelong, T357 took V/Line power van PCJ491 to the Ballarat Workshops for refurbishment, bringing back completed van PCJ493 (formerly PCO2). You don't see Bona (engine and a single guards van) moves that often!
707 Operations - Ballarat September 2009
13 September 2009
R707 lead a 7 car train push-pull with T413 from Melbourne to Ballarat and back, via North Geelong
Steamrail - Ballarat driver training September 2009
13 September 2009
Recently repaired R761 took 5 cars on a driver training run from Melbourne to Ballarat - via Geelong on Saturday 12th, and back via Bacchus Marsh on Sunday 13th
707 Operations - Geelong August 2009
2 August 2009
With R707 out of action for maintenance, Steamrail kindly provided K153 for use on this trip, with T413 bringing up the rear
707 Operations - Colac March 2009
22 March 2009
On 22 March, 707 Operations took T413 and Steamrail's T356 from Newport to Colac and return. The carriages were a PCP power van, BRS, BZ and ACZ.
SRHC - Hills to the Bay tour January 2009
25 January 2009
On January 25, 2009 the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre ran their 'Hills to the Bay' tour from Seymour to Geelong and return via Melbourne Southern Cross, with a sidetrip from Geelong to Melbourne and return. V/Line's N464 'City of Geelong' was the locomotive, with five red 'E' and five blue 'S' carriages in the consist, including the 'Yarra' parlor car, State Car 4, and Dining Car.
El Zorro's final Warrnambool freight, October 2008
17 October 2008
17 October 2008 was the last time El Zorro operated the Warrnambool freight, the locos were CFLCA liveried T377, VR liveried T378 and SSR liveried T376. Photos from Marshall through to Warrnambool, then back to Winchelsea - it sure was a long chase!
SRHC - Camperdown tour, October 2008
11 October 2008
The Seymour Railway Heritage Centre ran a train from Seymour to Southern Cross, Geelong and Camperdown. N459 was the locomotive, with carriages including Parlor Car, Dining Car, Mitta Mitta, and four S cars.
V/Line - three car VLocity trains
3 October 2008
V/Line announced the construction of centre cars for the two-car long VLocity units in 2006. This album has some photo-manipulations of the trains, as well as photos of the actual three car long units during testing in mid 2008. There are now a number of them in revenue service.
Geelong football specials 2008
27 September 2008
Geelong lost to Hawthorn in the 2008 AFL Grand Final at the MCG. V/Line specials for Geelong Cats fans included many push-pull P class operated trains, and a special headboard for grand final day.
El Zorro Warrnambool freight
26 September 2008
Between April and October 2008 El Zorro opereated the Warrnambool freight, carrying containers between Melbourne and the Westvic depot in Warrnambool, usually running Monday through Friday. The train length is constrained by short crossing loops and often runs during the day on the down trip due to pathing issues beyond Geelong
Hitachi transfer with T378 to Ballarat, August 2008
31 August 2008
SRHC's T378 took Elecrail Hitachi set 7M-1994T-225M-89M-1946T-99M from Newport to Ballarat Workshops via North Geelong for refurbishment. Here are some shots between Lara and Warrenheip.
707 Operations - Newport to Marshall August 2008
10 August 2008
On August 10, 707 Operations ran a charter train from Newport to Marshall for their members. R707 led 5 S and Z cars, a PCP power van, with T413 attached to the rear.
Steamrail - Geelong May 2008
11 May 2008
K190 ran a special train down to Geelong, here are some photos from the arrival and turning the loco