Pacifc National grain trains
5 April 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
Pacific National interstate steel trains
4 April 2020
Pacific National carries raw materials and finished steel product to and from the BlueScope, Arrium and Onesteel plants at Port Kembla, NSW and Westernport, Victoria; with trains running Melbourne-Wollongong-Brisbane and Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth.
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.
Melbourne broad gauge freight
8 February 2020
Miscellaneous broad gauge freight traffic through Melbourne - there isn't much these days...
Long Island steel train
27 January 2020
The Long Island steel train serves the BHP mill at Hastings, south of Frankston. The steel is transferred from broad to standard gauge trains at the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon. In 2015 this facility replaced the Melbourne Steel Terminal, just west of North Melbourne station.
Pacific National standard gauge Mildura freight
11 December 2019
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, and commenced running on standard gauge from mid-2018 folliowing the gauge conversion of the Mildura line.
Pacific National Tocumwal freight
8 December 2019
Pacific National (formerly Patrick PortLink) operate a container service between Appleton Dock in Melbourne and Tocumwal, loading also being attached / removed at Mooroopna (Shepparton).
Geelong broad gauge freight
13 October 2019
Miscellaneous broad gauge freight around Geelong - there is stuff all these days
P20 transfer to Newport Workshops, 2019
9 July 2019
On 9 July 2019 P20 was dead transferred between G527 and G536 from the scrap row at South Dynon, to Newport Workshops
Pacific National A and X class locomotive scrapping
2 July 2019
In January 2019 Pacific National commenced the scrapping of stored A class locomotives A73, A77, A81 and A85 at South Dynon. These units had been put into storage in late 2014 after seeing little use for many months. In April the scrapping of stored X class locomotives X41 and X42 commenced, followed in May by X39 and A79.
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
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.
Pacific National Kensington grain
16 September 2017
The flour mill Kensington at Kensington is one of the last to be rail served in Victoria, grain wagons are taken there on a regular basis, requiring a convoluted route through the suburban and freight lines, with a reversal in Melbourne Yard. Until November 2017 this service was operated by Pacific National.
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.
Pacific National Apex quarry train
29 November 2016
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 the Victorian Railways, V/Line, Freight Australia then Pacific National, in 2016 Qube Logistics won the contract.
Somerton steel shunt
11 November 2014
Until 2014 or so Pacific National ran a short trip train from South Dynon to Somerton, converying coil steel for the Tubemakers pipe factory.
Pacific National Maryvale paper train
14 March 2012
Until June 2013 Pacific National operated the Maryvale Paper train that ran from Melbourne to the Australian Paper factory at Maryvale, north of Morwell. The service is now operated by Qube Logistics.
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
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
Pacific National Horsham freight
2 May 2008
Until July 2008 Pacific National operated a standard gauge Melbourne to Horsham freight service
V/Line - Pacific National rescue failed a Warrnambool service, August 2006
2 August 2006
On the morning of August 02, 2006 N452 failed at Warrnambool when it was supposed to lead the up morning service, so A81 was pulled off the freight and used to rescue the train. A79 was then sent back to Warrnambool to bring the freight back that night.