Geelong broad gauge freight
Sunday 10 March 2024
Miscellaneous Pacific National broad gauge freight around Geelong - there is stuff all these days
Pacific National Warrnambool freight
Sunday 10 March 2024
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 - Melbourne standard gauge freight
Sunday 10 March 2024
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.
Pacific National Long Island steel train
Saturday 9 March 2024
Until 2020 Pacific National operated the Long Island steel train to the BlueScope Steel 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 Tocumwal freight
Sunday 3 March 2024
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 rail trains
Thursday 26 October 2023
Pacific National operates a small fleet of drawbar coupled rail wagon pairs, used to transport freshly rolled lengths of rail to the Anzac Sidings in Spotswood and the McConnell Dowell yard at Sunshine North, where they are welded into longer lengths to be turned into fresh tracks.
Pacific National Griffith freight
Friday 4 August 2023
Pacific National operates the standard gauge MC2/CM3 freight service from the Port of Melbourne to the NSW Riverina town of Griffith, with additional loading collected from Leeton and Bomen.
Pacific National - Main South freight
Wednesday 12 October 2022
Pacific National standard gauge intermodal freight services on the Main South line from Sydney towards the Victorian border at Albury.
Pacific National NSW grain trains
Tuesday 11 October 2022
Pacific National operates grain trains throughout New South Wales to both domestic customers and export terminals.
Pacific National ore trains
Tuesday 11 October 2022
Pacific National operates trains transporting containerised ore from mines across NSW to export terminals.
Pacific National Cripps Creek garbage train
Monday 10 October 2022
Since 2004 Pacific National runs garbage trains from Veolia's transfer stations at Clyde and Banksmeadow in metropolitan Sydney to the Cripps Creek intermodal terminal, outside Tarago in the Southern Highlands. From there the containerised rubbish is transferred to the Woodlawn Bioreactor, where the waste is placed in a former quarry to generate energy from landfill gas.
Pacific National limestone trains
Monday 10 October 2022
Pacifc National operates limestone trains from the quarry at South Marulan to Berrima and Maldon for the Boral cement works, Port Kembla for the BlueScope steelworks, and Moss Vale for Omya Australia.
Pacific National aggregate trains
Monday 10 October 2022
Pacifc National operates aggregate trains from quarries in the Southern Highlands at South Marulan and Lynwood to consumers around New South Wales.
Pacific National flour trains
Sunday 9 October 2022
Pacifc National operates flour trains for Manildra Group between their Bomaderry ethanol, starch and glucose processing plant; and their flour mills at Narrandera, Manildra and Gunnedah.
Pacific National Manildra freight
Thursday 6 October 2022
Pacific National operates a daily intermodal service for Manildra Group between their Bomaderry plant and Sydney.
Pacific National port shuttle trains
Wednesday 5 October 2022
Pacific National in conjunction with Rail Shuttle Services operates a port shuttle service between Port Botany and St Marys in Sydney's west.
Pacific National NSW coal trains
Tuesday 4 October 2022
Pacific National operates both domestic and export coal trains across New South Wales.
Pacific National NSW cement trains
Monday 3 October 2022
Pacific National operates trains from the Boral cement works at Berrima and Maldon in New South Wales.
Pacific National Bethungra derailment 2022
Friday 30 September 2022
On 15 January 2022 Pacific National freight train 6MB4 derailed while traversing the Bethungra Spiral northbound, with container wagons RRAY 7213S, RRQY 8515T and QQCY 1120F damaged along with a number of loaded containers.
Pacific National derailment at McIntyre, August 2022
Thursday 18 August 2022
On the morning of Thursday 18 August 2022 a Pacific National standard gauge grain train arriving into #3 road at McIntyre Loop had the tracks split apart beneath the wagons at the rear, leaving their bogies in the dirt. The remaining wagons were shunted clear to clear the tracks, leaving the derailed wagons to be recovered later.
Pacific National 'hospital' train to North Geelong
Sunday 6 March 2022
Pacific National operates an irregular 'hospital' train conveying broad gauge wagons between Melbourne and the maintenance facility at North Geelong Yard.
Pacific National locomotive scrapping at Dynon
Saturday 1 January 2022
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.
Pacific National - Sadleirs Logistics
Friday 15 October 2021
Until September 2021 Pacific National moved freight by rail for Sadleirs Logistics with their fleet of RLSY louvre vans, attached to intermodal services.
UGL Spotswood Maintenance Centre
Friday 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.
Pacific National Bordertown log train
Tuesday 3 November 2020
In August 2020 Pacific National commenced operating a containerised log train from Bordertown in South Australia to the Port of Melbourne.
North Geelong wagon scrapping
Tuesday 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.
Stored locomotives at North Geelong Yard
Monday 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
Monday 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 scrap yard by road.
P20 transfer to Newport Workshops
Tuesday 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
Tuesday 20 November 2018
Until 2019 Manildra Group moved sugar by rail from their plant in Grafton in NSW to their sidings at North Dynon in Melbourne. NGGF hopper wagons were used, which were attached to Pacific National intermodal or steel services.
Pacific National broad gauge Mildura freight
Wednesday 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
Saturday 16 September 2017
The flour mill Kensington at Kensington is one of the last to be rail served in Victoria, grain hoppers 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
Sunday 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
Tuesday 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.
Pacific National Queensland
Friday 24 April 2015
Pacific National Queensland operates coal, intermodal and bulk freight services on the narrow gauge network of Queensland.
Somerton steel shunt
Tuesday 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
Wednesday 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
Tuesday 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
Wednesday 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
Friday 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
Pacific National fuel trains
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Until 2009 Pacifc National operated fuel trains from the Shell Australia loading facility at Sandown in Sydney to country terminals at Canberra, Dubbo, West Tamworth and Bomen.
Shell Geelong oil shunts
Sunday 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 locomotives from Pacific National transferred the tank wagons to and from North Geelong Yard
Brooklyn wagon scrapping
Saturday 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
Friday 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
Friday 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
Wednesday 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.
V/Line hired locomotives
Monday 24 July 2006
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 diverted freight via Melbourne
During disruptions to the usual Sydney-Perth freight route via Broken Hill, Pacific National have diverted these freight trains via Melbourne instead.
Pacific National standard gauge grain
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 standard gauge Mildura freight
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.