Western Victorian Railfan Guide

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Western Victorian Railfan Guide

www.railfanguide.wancon.com.au
The Western Victorian Railfan Guide is a source of information relating to Railways in Western Victoria...

The Western Victorian Railfan Guide is a source of information relating to Railways in Western Victoria - specifically (but not limited to) the Dimboola - Rainbow Branch Line, the Wimmera Intermodal Freight Hub and the main Melbourne to Adelaide line between Murtoa and Nhill. Be sure to visit our website at ww.railfanguide.wancon.com.au

05/05/2024

The AK inspection cars' annual visit to the Western Victorian branch lines occurred over the last week. The Mildura line was traversed from Tuesday to Friday, the Hopetoun line was covered on Saturday, and on Sunday, locomotives GM22 and GM10 made the return trip from Dimboola to Rainbow with the train, before continuing south to Maroona later in the day. The train will continue back to New South Wales the following day.

This last leg was recorded at 12.48 on the afternoon of Sunday, 5 May 2024, between Arkona and Dimboola on the up journey.

23/04/2024

Pacific National loaded grain at Nhill on Tuesday, 23 April 2024, utilizing the locomotive combination of X48-8160-XR557.

Nhill presents some challenges for the train crews as the sidings on the north side of the mainline cannot hold an entire rake of hoppers, so some must be placed in number two road on the south side of the mainline, and multiple shunting moves are required to load a train.

The train is seen here at 15.10 shunting to combine all the now loaded hoppers in number two road before departing east soon after.

03/04/2024

Aurizon’s 2PM1 idling in Pimpinio Loop at 17.55 on Wednesday 3 April 2024, with ACD6051-ACD6048-Crew Car-G535 up front.

09/03/2024

For the second weekend in a row, Southern Shorthaul Railroad loaded a grain train at Jeparit on the Dimboola to Rainbow branch.

Our photographer caught the loaded train cresting Witney Hill at walking pace as locomotives CLP9-EL62-EL56 strain to pull 50 assorted loaded grain hoppers to the top of the grade.

This location is three kilometres south of Jeparit, and the photo was taken at 18.39 on Saturday, March 9, 2024, as the shadows from the cutting began to creep across the line.

03/03/2024

The rumours have proven correct, with SSR loading a grain train at Jeparit, on the Dimboola-Ranbow branch, today (Sunday, 3 March 2024).

At 11.20, locomotives VL354-EL62-EL57 were pulling part of the rake of grain hoppers through the silo road as it was loading, while the already loaded portion of the rake was stabled on the main line just to the down side of the yard. A further sixteen empty hoppers were on the main line to the up side of the Roy Street level crossing.

02/03/2024

The first train observed on the Dimboola-Rainbow branch this year ran on Saturday, 2 March, 2024.

The combination of Pacific National locomotives 8173-X50-G540 was photographed at Jeparit at 13 20, assisting the loading of the last of the forty grain hoppers while the already-loaded half of the rake sits in No. 1 road

16/02/2024

The combination of C501-X31-CLF2-CSR004 hauling a late-running 9721V SCT service to Dooen was photographed approaching Murtoa at 13.29 on the afternoon of Friday, 16 February 2024.

03/02/2024

A late running SCT service 2PM9 paused briefly for a crew change at Horsham at 14:44 on the afternoon of Saturday, 3 February 2024.

19/01/2024

Aurizon loaded a grain train at the Dimboola GrainFlow Centre for the second time this week, utilising locomotives GWA001-ALF18-ALF20-GWA010.

Our photographer caught the loaded train soon after it commenced the trek back to South Australia, cresting the hill just west of Gerang Gerung, at 17.15 on the afternoon of Friday, 19 January 2024.

17/01/2024

A bit of Aurizon action at Dimboola this evening - Wednesday17 January 2024.

They loaded a grain train at the Dimboola Grainflow Centre during the day, and as it was preparing to depart, Aurizon-TGE intermodal service, 1PM1, passed through on its way to Melbourne at 19.27, hauled by ACD6050 and GWU015, with G535 mid-train.

The grain train then pulled out onto the mainline and departed westward, towards Adelaide, at 19.50 behind GWA001-ALF18-CM3314.

11/12/2023

Qube’s new intermodal service from Bordertown in South Australia to Melbourne has operated almost weekly since late October, utilising double QL locomotives as the motive power hauling a rake of assorted container platforms. The initial runs featured indigenous liveried QL019 and QL020.

On Monday, 11 December 2023, QL010 and QL005 did the honours and were photographed at around 17.30 local time, soon after a thunderstorm and burst of rain, while they waited for their train to be loaded in the yard at Bordertown.

09/12/2023

- On the morning of Tuesday, 17 October 2000, The Toll service from Melbourne to Adelaide required extra motive power to assist its two G class locomotives over the Adelaide Hills, so two additional units were added en route at Dimboola Loop.

The only available motive power was two GM class taken off an east-bound Patrick’s service earlier in the day at Dimboola.

Our photographer captured the quad of G530-G528-GM38-GM37 on the front of 3MA4/9753 as it climbed the grade to the east of Kiata on its westward journey. (scanned from a print)

25/11/2023

– Back before graffiti was such a problem on the fleets of rolling stock, Pacific National’s G522, still sporting Freight Australia branding, hauls a rake of uniformly-coloured loaded grain hoppers up the grade into Antwerp on the Dimboola-Yaapeet branch line on the afternoon of 25 November 2005.

15/11/2023

Locomotive 4903 is preparing to depart Dimboola as train number 9L98 with a power van and two passenger coaches.

This loco with the power van and one coach arrived at Dimboola the previous evening to collect the last passenger coach that had been stored here for about ten years.

This morning 4903 had a spin on the turntable before making up this train, which departed at 11.23 for the return to New South Wales.

Dimboola - Wednesday, 15 November 2023 at 10.30

14/11/2023

Locomotive 4903, with a passenger coach and power van in tow, arrived in Dimboola just before dusk on Tuesday evening and stabled in the turntable road for the night.

This train, operated by Sydney Rail Services, will collect the last passenger coach from the Steamrail compound and take it to New South Wales on Wednesday.

The bulk of the coaches that had been stored at Dimboola since 2014 were dispersed to new homes in New South Wales and South Australia back in June.

(Photo taken at 22.00 on 14 November 2023 at Dimboola)

09/11/2023

– On this day twenty-four years ago - With reflections along the side of the hoppers following a brief shower of rain, a loaded grain train hauled by two locomotives in orange and grey - V/Line Freight G520 and V/Line G539 - powers up the grade towards Gerang Gerung, between Nhill and Dimboola, on the afternoon of Tuesday, 9 November 1999.

- scanned from a print.

08/10/2023

This is our record of the Wimmea Weekender’s trip along the Murtoa to Hopetoun branch line.

S307 leading C501 (obscured) and eight assorted coaches around the curves on the up side of Batchica between Lah and Warracknabeal – Sunday 8 October 2023.

06/10/2023

Seymour Railway Heritage Centre’s “Wimmera Weekender”, hauled by C501 and S307, rounds the curve as it approaches Jung on the last leg of its westward journey between Murtoa and Horsham. – at 15.26 on Friday, 6 October 2023.

30/09/2023

With the new harvest just weeks away, grain from the 2022/23 season is still being railed from the Wimmera.

Pacific National’s locomotives G540 and XR557 haul a rake of fifty loaded hoppers southward about fourteen kilometres to the up side of Jeparit on the Dimboola to Rainbow branch just before sunset on the evening of 30 September 2023.

19/08/2023

Work being undertaken on the main line through the Dimboola yard on the evening of Saturday, 19 August 2023 during a three-day maintenance shut-down of the line between Melbourne and Adelaide.

06/07/2023

Locomotives EL62 and EL55 fronting an SSR grain train loading at Warrackside, just north of Warracknabeal on the Murtoa to Hopetoun branch, on the morning of Thursday, 6 July 2023.

The train is on the northern leg of the triangle, with the locomotives just before the point where it joins the main line, while the siding curves to the right behind the Jumbo silo, from which the hoppers are being loaded.

RL306 was waiting in the siding at Glenorchy to be added to this train for the trip to Melbourne.

Pacific National also loaded a train at Marmalake, near Murtoa, utilising locomotives BL27 and G539.

03/06/2023

This is our take on the well-photographed transfer movement through Victoria from Albury to Dimboola on Saturday.

Locomotive 701 and the four-passenger coaches being transferred to Tailem Bend spending the night at Dimboola, photographed at 21.10 on the evening of Saturday, 3 June 2023.

01/06/2023

Locomotive 701 and the train of stored coaches went for a return trip to Salisbury today.

After moving back and forth within the Dimboola yard several times to test bearings and brakes, the train departed in the down direction at 14.15 and travelled (slowly) to Salisbury Loop, with a brief pause at Gerang for inspection, passing Pacific Nationals 2PM5 at Dimboola Loop on the way.

While in the loop at Salisbury with further inspections being carried out, Melbourne-bound services SCT’s 2PM9 and Pacific National’s 2PM6 passed before the train commenced the trip back to Dimboola at 17.00.

This picture was taken soon after departure on the return leg of the journey, as the train passed the old railway dam at Kiata at 17.06.

31/05/2023

The passenger coaches that have been stored around the Dimboola turntable since 2014 are on the move.

Locomotive 701 in ‘The Murraylander’ colours travelled to Dimboola from South Australia on the morning of Wednesday, 31 May, where it spent the afternoon shunting these passenger coaches into a train. This activity is in preparation for some to be transferred to Goulburn in New South Wales and some to Tailem Bend in South Australia.

It is not currently known when the next leg of their journey will commence.

This photograph was taken at 15.00.

25/05/2023

The burst of activity on the Dimboola-Rainbow branch continues.

After the first train for the year at the end of March, there have been multiple trains almost weekly since then, loading grain at Graincorp’s two active sites on the line, Jeparit and Bow Hill at Rainbow.

Today (Thursday, 25 May), Pacific National was loading at Jeparit utilising locomotives G539, still in Freight Australia colours, and Pacific National coloured G525, (obscured behind G539 in this picture, which was taken at 11.00.

The loading is taking place in number three road while some hoppers sit on the main line on the left of the picture.

05/05/2023

Pacific National loaded grain at Jeparit (on the Dimboola-Rainbow branch) on Friday, 5 May 2023, utilising locomotives G540, X48, and G527.

The action was recorded at 14.40 with X48 and G527 assisting with loading the last part of the hoppers in the silo road, while G540 idles at the up end of the yard.

The loaded hoppers can bee seen distributed between the middle road and the main line.

13/04/2023

Southern Shorthaul Railroad ventured onto the Rainbow branch today to load grain at the Graincorp site at the terminus.

Their train ventured north from Dimboola in the very early hours of the morning, passing Jeparit just after 04.00, and it was late afternoon when the loaded train returned through that location.

Locomotives EL60-EL62-EL56 are seen on the front of a rake of thirty-eight hoppers creeping through Jeparit just before sunset at 17.55 on the evening of Thursday, 13 April 2023.

11/04/2023

Pacific National has been loading grain nearly every second day out of Graincorp’s Bow Hill site at the terminus of the Dimboola to Rainbow branch line over the last couple of weeks.

On the evening of Tuesday, 11 April, locomotives G523, X50, and XR557 teamed up to haul 44 loaded hoppers south as our photographer caught the train in fading light between Jeparit and Tarranyurk while still on the branch.

(Thanks to Tee Cee for the heads up)

03/04/2023

Southern Shorthaul Railroad loaded grain at the Dimboola Grainflow Centre on Monday, 3 April 2023, utilising Rail First Asset Management’s locomotives EL60, EL62, and EL56.

Also at this time an empty Pacific National grain train was stabled in the yard at Dimboola with locomotives G540 and G520, and it was reported that this operator was loading another train at Rainbow.

The SSR train departed Dimboola at 15.55 and was photographed just after it took to the main line west of Dimboola and passed under the Western Highway at the start of its journey back to Melbourne.

30/03/2023

The first train on the Rainbow branch for this year operated to the terminus early in the morning of Thursday, 30 March 2023, with G525 and BL31 hauling 45 grain hoppers.

It was still loading at Graincorp’s Bow Hill site just north of the township of Rainbow when our photographer sighted it at 15.20, and it was reported on its journey south later in the day at 19.30 between Jeparit and Tarranyurk.

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