Maybe some change in the northbound that left Melbourne Saturday night as track washouts Grafton Casino. Some indications the southbound out of Bromelton Saturday morning got through the flood area.

Maybe some missed my earlier post. As Clyde Goodwin noted, Saturday's southbound XPT from Brisbane did not get through to Grafton after the SCT train.

I could not see an SCT Melbourne to Brisbane MB9 service on railcams at all yesterday or Saturday??

Yes, I would expect SCT to keep an eye on track and so know it was cut in northern NSW. I didn't see the Saturday morning southbound 7BM9 mentioned on any forums through Newcastle, Sydney or south of there as I was checking to see if it actually got through before the track was cut. No sighting reports just means no sighting as maybe too wet for rail reporters to go out in the rain and look.

Anyone with password access to the train tracker have any reports of 7BM9 please?

Departed Bromleton 0359, Arrived Melbourne 1115

BM9 into Melbourne via Albion just after 5am this morning.

https://www.railpage.com.au/railcams/albion2/photo/32767246774

It would appear the trains length has increased given the number of photos taken through the cameras.

Has the Bromleton depot being affected by the Qld floods?

Has the Bromleton depot being affected by the Qld floods?

Not sure about the Bromelton depot itself as the TV was only showing highlights but the line through the border ranges might be a question as well. Those with the secret password train tracker might be able to check if any trains running.

Cheers
Peter

Question for those who know Victoria better than this writer; Rail forums speak of the SCT depot at Barnawartha in NE Victoria yet SCT's website refers to their new Logic Intermodal Terminal in Wodonga. Is it the same depot? Google tells me the two towns are 20 kilometers apart.

Similar question for their Melbourne place; SCT's website shows 7 Westlink Court, Altona Vic and ARTC timetables show SCT depart Laverton Loop. That to me says the depot location would be Altona.

Question for those who know Victoria better than this writer; Rail forums speak of the SCT depot at Barnawartha in NE Victoria yet SCT's website refers to their new Logic Intermodal Terminal in Wodonga. Is it the same depot? Google tells me the two towns are 20 kilometers apart.

Similar question for their Melbourne place; SCT's website shows 7 Westlink Court, Altona Vic and ARTC timetables show SCT depart Laverton Loop. That to me says the depot location would be Altona.

The SCT Barnawartha facility is located at the "Wodonga Logic Centre", approximately mid way between Barnawartha (13kms) and Wodonga (15kms), Wodonga is the nearest major city.
Also the "Wodonga Logic Centre" is owned and managed by the City of Wodonga Council.
SCT purchased land at the Logic Centre to build there terminal. Other tenants include Border Express and Cope Sensitive Freight (National trucking companies) and the Woolworths DC

SCT's Altona facility is adjacent to the Laverton Loop on the DIRN (Laverton Loop is North East of V/Line's Laverton Station)
(ARTC's Laverton Loop is actually located in Altona!)

SCT's sidings actually join the DIRN at the south west end and centre point of the Laverton Loop. Refer attached links
Laverton Loop http://www.sa-trackandsignal.net/Pdf%20files/ARTC/AR143.pdf
SCT Altona http://www.sa-trackandsignal.net/Pdf%20files/ARTC/VP171s.pdf

Hope that answers your questions Petan

Question for those who know Victoria better than this writer; Rail forums speak of the SCT depot at Barnawartha in NE Victoria yet SCT's website refers to their new Logic Intermodal Terminal in Wodonga. Is it the same depot? Google tells me the two towns are 20 kilometers apart.

Similar question for their Melbourne place; SCT's website shows 7 Westlink Court, Altona Vic and ARTC timetables show SCT depart Laverton Loop. That to me says the depot location would be Altona.

The SCT Barnawartha facility is located at the "Wodonga Logic Centre", approximately mid way between Barnawartha (13kms) and Wodonga (15kms), Wodonga is the nearest major city.
Also the "Wodonga Logic Centre" is owned and managed by the City of Wodonga Council.
SCT purchased land at the Logic Centre to build there terminal. Other tenants include Border Express and Cope Sensitive Freight (National trucking companies) and the Woolworths DC

SCT's Altona facility is adjacent to the Laverton Loop on the DIRN (Laverton Loop is North East of V/Line's Laverton Station)
(ARTC's Laverton Loop is actually located in Altona!)

SCT's sidings actually join the DIRN at the south west end and centre point of the Laverton Loop. Refer attached links
Laverton Loop http://www.sa-trackandsignal.net/Pdf%20files/ARTC/AR143.pdf
SCT Altona http://www.sa-trackandsignal.net/Pdf%20files/ARTC/VP171s.pdf

Hope that answers your questions Petan

Thanks Tony for all those lovely details as it helps my research   Cheers Peter

Probably catching up after flood disruption 2MB9 has 3 SCTs and a load of 50+ going north out of Sydney.

Steve

More a query,  I'm surprised in these still very early days of SCT's new Melbourne to Brisbane service that the service with around 20 to 30 wagons has been operated with two SCT locomotives and the service above with 50 wagons with 3 units.   Given the 70 wagon long consists operated through the Adelaide Hills and the grades encountered I'm surprised that SCT is using 2 units when I would have thought a single SCT unit would suffice.

Is the requirement account the SCT's can only be driven short end first and because there are no turning facilities this therefore requires 2 units or are two units being operated just to ensure high levels of punctuality and/or reliability????  

There is no doubt that SCT even with its truly integrated door to door business model, will be working very hard to establish themselves into this new corridor given how well established PN and Aurizon.   Whilst the relatively low market share for rail would suggest (hopefully) that there is significant growth potential, the reality is new customers firmly entrenched with road haulage over many years will need a very attractive service quality and pricing proposition to change and therefore no one should be under any illusion that new business will come across quickly.  Something I'm sure SCT would be aware of.

Interested to know.

I am wondering if SCT would be pleased with their current loading on the Melbourne to Brisbane Corridor?  Could this loading be augmented with a trip train between Parkes and Sydney for freight going between Perth/Adelaide and Brisbane?

I am purely surmising at the moment but I'd suggest SCT would be needing a lot more business to flow as quickly as it can for this new service.   It's tough out there and the operating costs of running 4 trains each way per week would be significantly higher than the current loading available.   The traffic is probably not equally distributed either so whilst seeing a gradual increase in train size doesn't necessarily mean that business is growing at the same rate.    By any measure even with the years of experience SCT have had this is a very big commercial step that's been taken and so I don't think a Parkes to Sydney link would even be contemplated unless SCT were able to secure an anchor customer that literally brings a couple of hundred thousand tonnes of business per annum as a base.

In that regard SCT do have at least 1 "anchor" contract in Heinz on the Brisbane service and no doubt will be actively seeking others.

The on-going reliability issues on the Western line with all locos, especially the CSR/BK classes must be giving SCT some headaches. One saving grace is that there are usually other trains around to help out, so delays may be only 12 hours or so. That "luxury" (relatively speaking) may not apply on the MB run, maybe they want to not have the locos running at maximum power for too long, so running an extra loco helps out, as well as providing some back-up for breakdowns. Apart from the Adelaide hills, most of the MP run is over relatively level track with most curves fairly gentle, unlike MB, with steep hills and way too many curves, all demanding high power output, often in short bursts but repeated for days.

That said, 30 wagons might be getting over what one loco can haul, so the second one becomes a necessity. The 50-wagon train would therefore probably need the 3rd loco.

Maybe they can get hold of those LDP class if/when Aurizon ends their hire. Would keep their loco fleet/inventory fairly standard. Then again, anyone know why Aurizon are still hiring those LDP's given the loss of SCT traffic from their trains; I would have expected that some at least would have been de-hired. Maybe their other traffic has built up?

That said, 30 wagons might be getting over what one loco can haul, so the second one becomes a necessity. The 50-wagon train would therefore probably need the 3rd loco.

Maybe they can get hold of those LDP class if/when Aurizon ends their hire. Would keep their loco fleet/inventory fairly standard. Then again, anyone know why Aurizon are still hiring those LDP's given the loss of SCT traffic from their trains; I would have expected that some at least would have been de-hired. Maybe their other traffic has built up?

The 2nd loco could run as a passenger when not needed correct?

Re the LDPs, perhaps they are on contract to Aurizon, and in true non cooperative style in Aus railways, they refuse to let them go to SCT before they need to?

That said, 30 wagons might be getting over what one loco can haul, so the second one becomes a necessity. The 50-wagon train would therefore probably need the 3rd loco.

Maybe they can get hold of those LDP class if/when Aurizon ends their hire. Would keep their loco fleet/inventory fairly standard. Then again, anyone know why Aurizon are still hiring those LDP's given the loss of SCT traffic from their trains; I would have expected that some at least would have been de-hired. Maybe their other traffic has built up?

The 2nd loco could run as a passenger when not needed correct?

Re the LDPs, perhaps they are on contract to Aurizon, and in true non cooperative style in Aus railways, they refuse to let them go to SCT before they need to?

In the present environment I'd be very surprised if any rail company would release relatively modern power to a direct competitor. Coal volumes are strong, the harvest was a monster and Aurizon have new coal contracts coming on line soon. On casual observation, MB7, BM7 services aren't much shorter than when they hauled SCT wagons. Would you give "the dark side" a free kick?

Saturday nights North bound left Barnawartha with about 40 units.  Dropped 1 off and picked up 6. Something I haven't seen before, it had what looked like about 10 flats with 2 refrigerated containers to each one, SCT branded.

In relation to the 2 locos on the MB/BM services, one must consider the fully loaded vans are about 80T each and the loaded fuel tank and container flat weigh ????. SCT locos are only good for 1500T on the route, that means only 18 fully loaded vans could be hauled each way with a single loco.

Saturday nights North bound left Barnawartha with about 40 units.  Dropped 1 off and picked up 6. Something I haven't seen before, it had what looked like about 10 flats with 2 refrigerated containers to each one, SCT branded.

Thanks for sharing.  Was the T class involved in the exchange?

No, It's cut a few back from the front and shunted by the same mainline locos.  In and out in 40 minutes.  It's all prepared and ready to go by the time the train arrives.  I watched it from a distance so could have missed something.

Thanks for the update and especially the advice that an SCT class loco is rated to haul 1500 tonnes MLB to Bromelton.   Now it makes sense.

Bob Hall has advised on the Locoshed Yahoogroup that SCT 013 on MB9 passed Yass Jnt at 06:35 am yesterday. My response was if only one loco on MB9, then they will need to run the loco light engine from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge to turn on the dual gauge turntable or maybe another loco facing the other way is waiting enroute somewhere? One loco also reveals a shorter load.

SCT don't worry about whether it is short end or long end working.

One loco working indicates less loading plus a shortage of roadworthy locos.

Bob Hall has advised on the Locoshed Yahoogroup that SCT 013 on MB9 passed Yass Jnt at 06:35 am yesterday. My response was if only one loco on MB9, then they will need to run the loco light engine from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge to turn on the dual gauge turntable or maybe another loco facing the other way is waiting enroute somewhere? One loco also reveals a shorter load.

The return would have left Bromelton this morning (Saturday) and hopefully will be spotted  / photographed along the way by someone.

Bob Hall has advised on the Locoshed Yahoogroup that SCT 013 on MB9 passed Yass Jnt at 06:35 am yesterday. My response was if only one loco on MB9, then they will need to run the loco light engine from Bromelton to Acacia Ridge to turn on the dual gauge turntable or maybe another loco facing the other way is waiting enroute somewhere? One loco also reveals a shorter load.

The return would have left Bromelton this morning (Saturday) and hopefully will be spotted  / photographed along the way by someone.

Spotted in daylight in QLD today (Saturday afternoon), BM9 as a triple header - 6-2-13.

Didnt leave Bromelton until about 1320. Passed through Grafton at about 1630
Cheers Westie01

Both BM9 and MB9 with loco issues at Moss Vale today. MB9 running 4 hrs late.