V/Line hired locomotives
29 July 2021
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
Pacific National Warrnambool freight
22 July 2021
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 interstate steel trains
19 July 2021
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.
Pacific National - North East standard gauge freight
13 July 2021
Pacific National standard gauge intermodal freight services on the North East line from Melbourne towards the NSW border at Albury.
Pacific National standard gauge grain
12 July 2021
Grain is a major freight traffic in Victoria, with Pacific National running grain trains from Victorian silos on standard gauge to export export terminals at Melbourne, Geelong and Portland, as well as interstate to NSW.
Pacific National - Western standard gauge
11 July 2021
Out on the Western standard gauge, from beyond Gheringhap across the plains towards South Australia
Long Island steel train
5 July 2021
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 broad gauge grain
3 July 2021
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 Tocumwal freight
22 June 2021
Pacific National (formerly Patrick PortLink) operate a container service between Appleton Dock in Melbourne and Tocumwal, loading also being attached / removed at Mooroopna (Shepparton).
Pacific National standard gauge Mildura freight
16 June 2021
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 locomotive scrapping at Dynon
19 May 2021
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. In January 2020 scrapping of standard gauge locomotives commenced, with ex-Westrail N class diesel 1872 moved to North Dynon, followed by H1 and Y152.
Geelong broad gauge freight
4 May 2021
Miscellaneous Pacific National broad gauge freight around Geelong - there is stuff all these days
Pacific National locomotive provisioning centre
21 March 2021
Pacific National's fleet of standard gauge locomotives is refuelled and maintained at the Locomotive Provisioning Centre at South Dynon.
UGL Spotswood Maintenance Centre
5 February 2021
UGL Limited operates a locomotive maintenance centre in the Melbourne suburbs of Spotswood, which caters for the heavy maintenance of Pacific National's standard gauge fleet.
Sadleirs Logistics
5 February 2021
Sadleirs Logistics move freight by rail with their fleet of RLSY louvre vans, attached to Pacific National intermodal services.
North Geelong 'hospital' train
24 November 2020
Pacific National operates an irregular 'hospital' train conveying broad gauge wagons between Melbourne and the maintenance facility at North Geelong Yard.
Pacific National Bordertown log train
3 November 2020
In August 2020 Pacific National commenced operating a containerised log train from Bordertown in South Australia to the Port of Melbourne.
Pacific National - Melbourne standard gauge freight
3 June 2020
Pacific National standard gauge intermodal services from Adelaide and New South Wales meet at Melbourne, running via the western suburbs into the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon.
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 Pacific National broad gauge freight movements through Melbourne - there isn't much these days...
Stored locomotives at North Geelong Yard
27 January 2020
In 2009 Pacific National started putting their older P, T, H and Y class locomotives into storage at North Geelong Yard, the units redundant following the downturn in broad gauge traffic and the availability of newer and more powerful XR and G class units. In 2010 more locomotives arrived, taking the collection to Y119, T399, H2, T388, P21, P23, T402, Y171, H3, H5 and Y174. In 2015 the locomotives were sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub, and transferred dead attached to the SRHC depot in Seymour for reactivation.
Tottenham Yard wagon scrapping
30 September 2019
In July 2019 Pacific National started another clean out of the stored wagons at Tottenham Yard. T392 was used to transfer them to North Dynon, where they were loaded onto trucks to be moved to the scrapyard by road.
P20 transfer to Newport Workshops
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
Manildra sugar train
20 November 2018
Manildra Group moves sugar by rail from their plant in Grafton in NSW to their sidings at North Dynon in Melbourne. NGGF hopper wagons are used, which are attached to Pacific National intermodal or steel services.
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.
8114 derailed at South Dynon, August 2012
22 August 2012
On August 22, 2012 Pacific National locomotive 8114 derailed outside the Melbourne Operations Terminal at South Dynon. Only a short distance off the rails, it was moved back onto the tracks with the use of timber blocks.
Ballarat broad gauge freight
10 April 2012
Until 2008 freight trains actually stopped at Ballarat - container wagons loaded and unloaded in the goods yard at Ballarat then attached onto the Pacific National service that ran between Mildura and Melbourne, and grain trains from Dunolly served the Bunge grain silos at Ballarat North.
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
Shell 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
Brooklyn wagon scrapping
5 June 2010
In 2010 Pacific National started to clear out the multitudes of stored wagons at Tottenham Yard and selling them for scrap. A dozen or so at a time are being dragged at 20 km/h to Brooklyn, where they are being pushing into the VR tip siding to be cut up.
Endeavour and Xplorer railcar transfers to Bombardier Dandenong
26 February 2010
The Endeavour and Xplorer railcars are operated by CityRail and CountryLink in New South Wales. Originally built at Dandenong in Victoria, in 2007-2009 they have been undergoing a refurbishment program at the same plant. To transfer the cars they are gauge converted from standard to broad at South Dynon, then hauled as unbraked wagons down to Dandenong. These transfer trains are being run by Pacific National depot at Geelong, with extra wagons for braking purposes which are stored at North Geelong Yard between runs
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.