During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

Also curious how Cooks River was listed in the 1974 WTT. Did it have its own row with the other Sydney yards or was it just mentioned in the particular trains column? The 1968 northern WTT did not have Cooks River as its own row and was just a column entry. The 1979 N-WTT had Cooks River with its own row.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) had one each? I am trying to sort out the history of Clapham. Acacia Ridge, Salisbury, Park Rd and South Brisbane freight yards.

EDIT; I am aware the 1964 Sydney metro WTT has TNT at the Industrial Siding line Chullora and no listing for TNT at Cooks River. In mid 1970 two dead end sidings 280 metres long, were provided for TNT at Cooks River, according to P.11 of  Offal, Oil and Overseas Trade, The Story of the Sydenham to Botany Railway by Neville Pollard ARNSnsw 1988.

During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

Also curious how Cooks River was listed in the 1974 WTT. Did it have its own row with the other Sydney yards or was it just mentioned in the particular trains column? The 1968 northern WTT did not have Cooks River as its own row and was just a column entry. The 1979 N-WTT had Cooks River with its own row.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) had one each? I am trying to sort out the history of Clapham. Acacia Ridge, Salisbury, Park Rd and South Brisbane freight yards.

EDIT; I am aware the 1964 Sydney metro WTT has TNT at the Industrial Siding line Chullora and no listing for TNT at Cooks River. In mid 1970 two dead end sidings 280 metres long, were provided for TNT at Cooks River, according to P.11 of  Offal, Oil and Overseas Trade, The Story of the Sydenham to Botany Railway by Neville Pollard ARNSnsw 1988.

Petan, my books are packed away ATM as we look to sell our home and move, however, not sure if I have that local Appendix or not as I had to hand back my books when I was medically retired, was able to keep a couple that I said were misplaced but not everything though.

If you look at the WTT, your will generally see the main yard as Enfield Yards (from memory its in bold type), that is where the majority of trains departed from, the next general mentioned location is Nth Strathfield, Trains ex Darling Harbour and Cooks River would have the time through Nth Strathfield and the section above that in the TT column would have Ex Cooks River at xxxx time, or ex Darling Hbr at Ex time.  Same for the up service would finish at Nth Strathfield and arrive Cooks River/DH at xxxx time.

TNT at Chullora was a totally different set up as it was the primary warehouse distribution point, a real mongrel place to shunt it had 2 roads with direct loading at the warehouse sides and another one that was between the southern side of the warehouse and another large warehouse as well.  Rail traffic in and out of TNT was quite heavy but it was consigned in Louvre vans and not containers, items for the North and South were taken into Enfield yards and mostly into the DD's or Down Departures, where the traffic was picked up by another train usually ex Darling Harbour with the train and loco's amalgamating there.  Or Fresh electrics ex Delec for the North.

Google earth if you look at it, there really is nothing left of the old yard areas, except the track that hooks around up and over Anzac road, that line supplied the old Franklins Main Warehouse along with a steel company, that had rolled steel sheets from Port Kembla, it was expanded when the old Containers siding at Hurstville was closed.

However on Google earth between the new yard with the travelling ganty, if you look along that looped up track and you will see a large rectangular building that has an entry off Brunker road, that is the old TNT warehouse, the next large building to the right was a timber merchant and some other company in fact you can still see signs of the old tracks in there.

On the other side of the line behind the stored vehicles which are on the line up the hill, (the other one is for TNT and the other buildings there) you can see the remains of sidings that ran through that area as well.

The TNT Warehouse building had the sidings to around half way along the buildings and the outside siding is approximately where the angled Semis are parked maybe a bit more away from the warehouse.

Cooks River essentially had 3 main areas, the tracks closest to the Princess highway were the TNT flexi van roads. On Google Earth you will see a traveling gantry, along that section the Flexi vans were loaded/unloaded on arrival the train was divided and shunted back into the siding. The up arriving engines did that if the shunter was other occupied often caused issues though as the arriving engines often needed to be cut off early to get them back to Delec or Eveleigh.

The middle part of the yard was also for important trains but more so where the car trains came in.  The sidings over to the far side were General goods traffic and mostly steel , and the old small LCL type containers.

During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) .

Petan, my books are packed away ATM as we look to sell our home and move, however, not sure if I have that local Appendix or not as I had to hand back my books when I was medically retired, was able to keep a couple that I said were misplaced but not everything though.

Thanks for all this as you have explained what went on at the two different Sydney TNT depots and that is greatly appreciated  In a similar way TNT eventually had two depots in Brisbane, Clapham (first) and Salisbury after they purchased Rudders off Cargo Distributors Ltd in 1966. I copied your response into my files and will use the WTT clues you gave to sort out how to comprehend the WTTs. I'll check Google earth at each Sydney site later as it interests me

Cheers
Peter

During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) .

Petan, my books are packed away ATM as we look to sell our home and move, however, not sure if I have that local Appendix or not as I had to hand back my books when I was medically retired, was able to keep a couple that I said were misplaced but not everything though.

Thanks for all this as you have explained what went on at the two different Sydney TNT depots and that is greatly appreciated  In a similar way TNT eventually had two depots in Brisbane, Clapham (first) and Salisbury after they purchased Rudders off Cargo Distributors Ltd in 1966. I copied your response into my files and will use the WTT clues you gave to sort out how to comprehend the WTTs. I'll check Google earth at each Sydney site later as it interests me

Cheers
Peter

Now worries at all.

If you are looking for any trains in the NSW Main Line WTT's no matter the line you will pretty well find the same thing, Enfield yards was deemed the primary place for trains to depart and arrive at.  As such any other yards no matter their size and importance would only show the first primary station/signal box on the line in the TT, with the top column (down trains) clear with the originating yard shown as From xxx.  Up Trains are shown in the same way but in the bottom of the columns of the TT.

There was a Metropolitan WTT that showed both Main line goods trains as well as the trip train workings between Enfield and the various other yards and the lines they traveled over, for Cooks River it is shown in the up train section with has Darling Harbour, Rozelle, Botany, and Suburban trips From Enfield to Newtown and Hurstville.

All trains are shown in that and their destinations, Nth Strathfield was important as it had Up trains off the various lines going through there such as W44 off the west and continue to the north. and the return empties, also trains that shunted on and off for building up and for more than one destination with trip trains taking what was left there and main train heading say to Darling Harbour or the like.

During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

Also curious how Cooks River was listed in the 1974 WTT. Did it have its own row with the other Sydney yards or was it just mentioned in the particular trains column? The 1968 northern WTT did not have Cooks River as its own row and was just a column entry. The 1979 N-WTT had Cooks River with its own row.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) had one each? I am trying to sort out the history of Clapham. Acacia Ridge, Salisbury, Park Rd and South Brisbane freight yards.

EDIT; I am aware the 1964 Sydney metro WTT has TNT at the Industrial Siding line Chullora and no listing for TNT at Cooks River. In mid 1970 two dead end sidings 280 metres long, were provided for TNT at Cooks River, according to P.11 of  Offal, Oil and Overseas Trade, The Story of the Sydenham to Botany Railway by Neville Pollard ARNSnsw 1988.

Petan, my books are packed away ATM as we look to sell our home and move, however, not sure if I have that local Appendix or not as I had to hand back my books when I was medically retired, was able to keep a couple that I said were misplaced but not everything though.

If you look at the WTT, your will generally see the main yard as Enfield Yards (from memory its in bold type), that is where the majority of trains departed from, the next general mentioned location is Nth Strathfield, Trains ex Darling Harbour and Cooks River would have the time through Nth Strathfield and the section above that in the TT column would have Ex Cooks River at xxxx time, or ex Darling Hbr at Ex time.  Same for the up service would finish at Nth Strathfield and arrive Cooks River/DH at xxxx time.

TNT at Chullora was a totally different set up as it was the primary warehouse distribution point, a real mongrel place to shunt it had 2 roads with direct loading at the warehouse sides and another one that was between the southern side of the warehouse and another large warehouse as well.  Rail traffic in and out of TNT was quite heavy but it was consigned in Louvre vans and not containers, items for the North and South were taken into Enfield yards and mostly into the DD's or Down Departures, where the traffic was picked up by another train usually ex Darling Harbour with the train and loco's amalgamating there.  Or Fresh electrics ex Delec for the North.

Google earth if you look at it, there really is nothing left of the old yard areas, except the track that hooks around up and over Anzac road, that line supplied the old Franklins Main Warehouse along with a steel company, that had rolled steel sheets from Port Kembla, it was expanded when the old Containers siding at Hurstville was closed.

However on Google earth between the new yard with the travelling ganty, if you look along that looped up track and you will see a large rectangular building that has an entry off Brunker road, that is the old TNT warehouse, the next large building to the right was a timber merchant and some other company in fact you can still see signs of the old tracks in there.

On the other side of the line behind the stored vehicles which are on the line up the hill, (the other one is for TNT and the other buildings there) you can see the remains of sidings that ran through that area as well.

The TNT Warehouse building had the sidings to around half way along the buildings and the outside siding is approximately where the angled Semis are parked maybe a bit more away from the warehouse.

Cooks River essentially had 3 main areas, the tracks closest to the Princess highway were the TNT flexi van roads. On Google Earth you will see a traveling gantry, along that section the Flexi vans were loaded/unloaded on arrival the train was divided and shunted back into the siding. The up arriving engines did that if the shunter was other occupied often caused issues though as the arriving engines often needed to be cut off early to get them back to Delec or Eveleigh.

The middle part of the yard was also for important trains but more so where the car trains came in.  The sidings over to the far side were General goods traffic and mostly steel , and the old small LCL type containers.

Cooks River; if you mean the gantry crane near the Talbot St end on the Princess Highway side, than that area gives a siding about 350 meters which is close to the 1970s crossing loops North Coast line Casino to Brisbane. Kyogle’s 385 metre crossing loop was the shortest listed south to Casino in 1977, although longer trains could cross if the shorter one fitted in the loop so the longer one went past. The sidings over on the canal side are of a similar length.
The Chullora area was interesting as you would be flat out getting a siding up beside those building that was around 200 metres. They are not long so I assume frequent shunts to swap over the vans to keep the traffic flowing. Interesting as these sidings at Chullora and Cooks River were some of the important sidings feeding traffic along the North Coast line in its glory days.

I also tracked the Sydney Enfield WTT timing you mentioned so I have advanced my investigations of the historical north coast traffic patterns so thanks for these clues

Sorry if this has been posted already, but this explains a lot;


https://bitre.gov.au/publications/1974/files/report_012.pdf

During the 60's when the flexi train was at its prime, likewise it retained it for the 70's according to my May 1974 Northern WTT after I returned to Delec it was numbered 345 on the down, 7m ex Cooks River, Clapham 2:33PM, load 615Tonnes single main line diesel. 346 on up, and a rostered job for Enfield crews, it ran just after the southern 465 ex Cooks.  

Thanks for the 1974 Northern WTT data for the flexi express  The 1968 North WTT has Flexi Express ex Cooks River train 411 to Clapham and 412 Clapham southbound flexi express to Cooks River.

Also curious how Cooks River was listed in the 1974 WTT. Did it have its own row with the other Sydney yards or was it just mentioned in the particular trains column? The 1968 northern WTT did not have Cooks River as its own row and was just a column entry. The 1979 N-WTT had Cooks River with its own row.

a6et, if by any chance you also have a Local Appendix for a Northern WTT for somewhere 1968 to 1974, could you send me a PM please? In particular, was Acacia Ridge listed in the LA-WTT for somewhere around those years for an intermediate staff instrument for either or both frame A and B. I understand Salisbury and Beaudesert Rd (Rocklea) had one each? I am trying to sort out the history of Clapham. Acacia Ridge, Salisbury, Park Rd and South Brisbane freight yards.

EDIT; I am aware the 1964 Sydney metro WTT has TNT at the Industrial Siding line Chullora and no listing for TNT at Cooks River. In mid 1970 two dead end sidings 280 metres long, were provided for TNT at Cooks River, according to P.11 of  Offal, Oil and Overseas Trade, The Story of the Sydenham to Botany Railway by Neville Pollard ARNSnsw 1988.

Petan, my books are packed away ATM as we look to sell our home and move, however, not sure if I have that local Appendix or not as I had to hand back my books when I was medically retired, was able to keep a couple that I said were misplaced but not everything though.

If you look at the WTT, your will generally see the main yard as Enfield Yards (from memory its in bold type), that is where the majority of trains departed from, the next general mentioned location is Nth Strathfield, Trains ex Darling Harbour and Cooks River would have the time through Nth Strathfield and the section above that in the TT column would have Ex Cooks River at xxxx time, or ex Darling Hbr at Ex time.  Same for the up service would finish at Nth Strathfield and arrive Cooks River/DH at xxxx time.

TNT at Chullora was a totally different set up as it was the primary warehouse distribution point, a real mongrel place to shunt it had 2 roads with direct loading at the warehouse sides and another one that was between the southern side of the warehouse and another large warehouse as well.  Rail traffic in and out of TNT was quite heavy but it was consigned in Louvre vans and not containers, items for the North and South were taken into Enfield yards and mostly into the DD's or Down Departures, where the traffic was picked up by another train usually ex Darling Harbour with the train and loco's amalgamating there.  Or Fresh electrics ex Delec for the North.

Google earth if you look at it, there really is nothing left of the old yard areas, except the track that hooks around up and over Anzac road, that line supplied the old Franklins Main Warehouse along with a steel company, that had rolled steel sheets from Port Kembla, it was expanded when the old Containers siding at Hurstville was closed.

However on Google earth between the new yard with the travelling ganty, if you look along that looped up track and you will see a large rectangular building that has an entry off Brunker road, that is the old TNT warehouse, the next large building to the right was a timber merchant and some other company in fact you can still see signs of the old tracks in there.

On the other side of the line behind the stored vehicles which are on the line up the hill, (the other one is for TNT and the other buildings there) you can see the remains of sidings that ran through that area as well.

The TNT Warehouse building had the sidings to around half way along the buildings and the outside siding is approximately where the angled Semis are parked maybe a bit more away from the warehouse.

Cooks River essentially had 3 main areas, the tracks closest to the Princess highway were the TNT flexi van roads. On Google Earth you will see a traveling gantry, along that section the Flexi vans were loaded/unloaded on arrival the train was divided and shunted back into the siding. The up arriving engines did that if the shunter was other occupied often caused issues though as the arriving engines often needed to be cut off early to get them back to Delec or Eveleigh.

The middle part of the yard was also for important trains but more so where the car trains came in.  The sidings over to the far side were General goods traffic and mostly steel , and the old small LCL type containers.

Cooks River; if you mean the gantry crane near the Talbot St end on the Princess Highway side, than that area gives a siding about 350 meters which is close to the 1970s crossing loops North Coast line Casino to Brisbane. Kyogle’s 385 metre crossing loop was the shortest listed south to Casino in 1977, although longer trains could cross if the shorter one fitted in the loop so the longer one went past. The sidings over on the canal side are of a similar length.
The Chullora area was interesting as you would be flat out getting a siding up beside those building that was around 200 metres. They are not long so I assume frequent shunts to swap over the vans to keep the traffic flowing. Interesting as these sidings at Chullora and Cooks River were some of the important sidings feeding traffic along the North Coast line in its glory days.

I also tracked the Sydney Enfield WTT timing you mentioned so I have advanced my investigations of the historical north coast traffic patterns so thanks for these clues

The Chullora sidings for TNT were short and as mentioned the ones on the shed dock were only around half the length, there was an opening in the middle for trucks to go through the shed with rail stopping short of that opening, the outside road was marginally longer.

There were two of the Flexi van trains that ran, the longer one to the South 465 and was 2 mainliners, that train came in and was stopped short, on what was the arrival road, train split with half then run forward and backed back into the siding by the arriving train engines, the train engines would then be run forward and put into a siding next to the arrival road with the shunting engine pushing the remaining wagons onto the ""arrival road" where the unloading/Loading was carried out.

The Brisbane train 345 was only ever a single mainliner of 600tons and readinly fit into the road very much clear of the arrival road that was basically a long extension of that gantry road, which was most likely only ever envisaged as a single engine length road.

a6et, all very interesting especially when I discovered the Salisbury TNT yard's gantry crane operating length was 231 metres (760 feet) and included a dual gauge plus a parallel 1435 mm gauge siding within the gantry area and there were two gantry cranes on that set of gantry ground rails. Plus other 1435 mm gauge and 1067mm gauge sidings in the yard. These Sydney and Brisbane TNT yards would be considered short in today's terms yet they helped keep the North Coast line busy.

I was at Enfield from 89-94 and worked shunters and trains from Trackfast and Cook River .
The evening Trackfast (now SFT Chullora) south superfreighter was 3175 and the return 3194 . The Cooks Ck train AKA the Contrans was 3177 on the down and 3196 on the up .
There was also a south superfreighter out of Enfield in the early afternoon known as 3151 , half of its traffic originated at Cooks River .
There was a West train some evenings from Trackfast and from memory it was 8179 on the down .
Can't remember what train number the North one was but ones like 6155 6157 and 6161 come to mind .
IN the NR era the numbering system changed to show originating and terminating locations like 3175 became SM5 ie Sydney Melbourne 5 .

I was at Enfield from 89-94 and worked shunters and trains from Trackfast and Cook River .
The evening Trackfast (now SFT Chullora) south superfreighter was 3175 and the return 3194 . The Cooks Ck train AKA the Contrans was 3177 on the down and 3196 on the up .
There was also a south superfreighter out of Enfield in the early afternoon known as 3151 , half of its traffic originated at Cooks River .
There was a West train some evenings from Trackfast and from memory it was 8179 on the down .
Can't remember what train number the North one was but ones like 6155 6157 and 6161 come to mind .
IN the NR era the numbering system changed to show originating and terminating locations like 3175 became SM5 ie Sydney Melbourne 5 .

When the Flexi trains first started running into Clapham the train number was 405 for the northbound service and 406 for the southbound service. After about the first six months of operation the train frequently built up in loading from a 600 ton to a 1000 ton train with a double header, frequently a 44 class and a 45.
The train would arrive at Clapham and the locos would be released to loco to be refuelled and serviced to operate the southbound service while the Flexi wagons were unloaded and reloaded, at this time TNT, Alltrans and Mayne Nickless were all using the service and were operating a mix of vans and flats.
The flats would often be out of balance and would need to be assisted with a forklift to turn them to load, from time to time they could not turn them and they would be dragged off again and left to be unloaded and reloaded and sent the next day, if they had sufficient time the offending flat would be craned on to a MLE flat and be dispatched on 406.
There was a time when there was a shortage of flexi wagons due to a derailment that took some out of service for repairs and it was a regular thing to have four of five MLE waggons in the consist all with a flexi flat chained down on them, these would not return on the 406 that night.

I was at Enfield from 89-94 and worked shunters and trains from Trackfast and Cook River .
The evening Trackfast (now SFT Chullora) south superfreighter was 3175 and the return 3194 . The Cooks Ck train AKA the Contrans was 3177 on the down and 3196 on the up .
There was also a south superfreighter out of Enfield in the early afternoon known as 3151 , half of its traffic originated at Cooks River .
There was a West train some evenings from Trackfast and from memory it was 8179 on the down .
Can't remember what train number the North one was but ones like 6155 6157 and 6161 come to mind .
IN the NR era the numbering system changed to show originating and terminating locations like 3175 became SM5 ie Sydney Melbourne 5 .

When the Flexi trains first started running into Clapham the train number was 405 for the northbound service and 406 for the southbound service. After about the first six months of operation the train frequently built up in loading from a 600 ton to a 1000 ton train with a double header, frequently a 44 class and a 45.
The train would arrive at Clapham and the locos would be released to loco to be refuelled and serviced to operate the southbound service while the Flexi wagons were unloaded and reloaded, at this time TNT, Alltrans and Mayne Nickless were all using the service and were operating a mix of vans and flats.
The flats would often be out of balance and would need to be assisted with a forklift to turn them to load, from time to time they could not turn them and they would be dragged off again and left to be unloaded and reloaded and sent the next day, if they had sufficient time the offending flat would be craned on to a MLE flat and be dispatched on 406.
There was a time when there was a shortage of flexi wagons due to a derailment that took some out of service for repairs and it was a regular thing to have four of five MLE waggons in the consist all with a flexi flat chained down on them, these would not return on the 406 that night.

When was the working started?

Reason I ask is that the use of the number 405 was also the same number as used for the Southern priority exp service ex Alexandria, which was primarilly loaded with Long Container types of the day, basically similar to the Flexi types. As such the use of that same number to Clapham would indicate and the traffic types was on the same priority rating.

Once 345/434 came into operation, 405north really lost its status but was still a full bogie load though and started from Enfield DD's, ran just before the morning peak, but in those days there was no curfew, it usually went via the relief road from WR - Epping, hauled by 2x46cl (mostly) as it was supposed to get 2 main liners (TT, showed for all trains as 2x44c) at Gosford, which in affect rarelly happened even up to the last time I remembered working it in 1969 when we had a 38 + garratt, other combo's included 35, 36, SG's and 59cl + the garratt.  I never saw it with double garratts as the loads were always around 960tonnes.

The up service was also an AM daylight train again more often than not a single Garratt, Change engines at BMD station.

Alex was virtually tied up as a yard when the two south trains were out of there, later the priority became the Flexi loading ex CR, as 465 South but a contract and guarantee with penalties if late same as 345 Nth, the loading was shared by loading out of Darling Harbour and became 421 Sth (Alex portion), and 421a South Local exh DH via the goods road. Both amalgamated in the DD's with load and engines.

Cooks River Flexi Sidings was a lot better than the facility at Alex as the whole of the trains were made up and departed while the remaining sections were still able to operate.

Depending on the bogies under the MLE's it may have dropped the speed of the train though, would need to check old WTT's though, those fitted with 2AE and 2 BR were 70mph certified on the South

The fast wagons in my time were things like NQJWs NQWWs NQIWs and NQIYs , all good for 115 .
The Contrans always seem to press the springs flat on the YCM/2CM bogies and those trains never ever saw a weighbridge .
Crews often reported the 81s Cs and Gs down on their knees on the steeper grades - for some strange reason ...
Also the Junee crews had a knack of out running the loco hauled pass trains and often ran ahead of them .