ARTC Upgrades to the Hunter and North West - is it achieving

BDA · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:12 am

With so much being spent in these areas I'm interested to know if running times are less and by roughly how much .
One would think that CTC instead of Elec Staff would make a very noticable difference and longer loops of course fit longer trains , so for those who run up there what differences are you seeing ?

Also what is the current situation with coal trains over the Liverpool Range , did the 7200T trains eventuate or was the testing just a look see ?

KRviator · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:55 am

Nope. We've got 72-long Gunnedah Basin trains. Real good fun when you're in the bins as these are the ones that suffer the most door problems. From memory there's at least 3 rakes doing the rounds though there may be more, or less than that.

They've upped the speed through Whittingham to 70kph around the curve and X75 through the crossover, but you can't achieve that on the up from the time you pass the 80 board. We tried. You've also got a set of X40's at the down end of Whittingham Junction so you still have to slow for that if you're going out or taking the Arrival Road coming home. Putting in a set of at least X70's there would allow us to clear the mainline in under 90 seconds for a full-length train without slowing more than 10kph below the than track speed of 80kph for the Mt Thorley branch.

The flyover is a godsend, though you still get held at K3 signal or North Fork, depending on how chockas Kooragang is. Same as at The Oak, while they run a train around you. X25's at both ends there. A set of X50's would be better, since you're only doing around 50 there and you're limited to 60 with loaded 120 tonne wagons.

Full double-line Bi-Di between Maitland and Whittingham is coming, with a new set of high-speed points for Allandale in the not-too-distant future, but it will simply move the bottleneck further down the valley. See below.

To my mind, there is no point bringing trains down from the Valley faster unless you can get them unloaded and turned around just as fast. By having only 1 fuel point at Kooragang and Port Waratah, you severely limit your throughput in regards to fuelling trains. Putting 4x81's together would improve things slightly, as you wouldn't need to come in for fuel for one engine on 4 different trains. Much faster to fuel all 4 81's and just wear the slightly lower trailing load, put them on the 80-wagon trains and let 4x82's handle the 90-long's. But crew's won't work on 81's... Diddums. Everyone else has to. Norven Koal ain't that special in that regard, especially as they've got most of the pretty ones tied up as trailing units....

Another viable, though seldom used option, is putting the 90's with rakes of PHCH / RHCH wagon's as they're all limited to 80kph empty. Put the 81's and 82's with the high-speed wagons and let them get up and go. Sure you won't save much time, but the way this company carries on about things, every little bit helps. Besides, if all you've saved is 10 minutes a trip, it will only take a few weeks for it to pay for another trainload in time savings alone. Coaching a lot of Driver's will be required though. There seem to be quite a few here who are happy to poke along at 70-80, even though they've got a train that can do 100 / 115...We're in a private company now, not the old freightcorp days with tonnage payments.

Get more teminal staff on to get the mainliners relieved on arrival. Get more terminal staff so you can get the shunt done. Get more terminal staff on so you don't need relief crews because the train was 2 hours late beccause it was still in the fuel shed because there was only one TO on to fuel, sand, watetr and oil the loco's. Do you get the feeling all these you-beaut upgrades are being let down due to the personnell problem?

Learn to roster the trains properly. There is no damn point working a Liddell train to the mine and getting stuck behind a Hunter Valley train that is only half loaded. Send the original Liddell to somewhere else and get a replacement train up. Same for Bulga. No point sending them out there one after the other if the first bloke wants to have his meal break. You're then stuck for 30+ minutes until he gets out of the way.

Manage what resources you have effectively. An example. We're sitting at Whittingham waiting for the train on Minimbah Bank to clear. Over the radio we hear the train on Nundah Bank (about 5 minutes the other side of Singleton or 10 minutes from us) stalls. We offer to control to get up there and pull him over as we've got 3x82's and an 81 on the back end, so we can drive both ways, and quickly too. Offer refused (with many thanks though) as it is not up to the Control Officer to organise that, it is upto PN. In the end they sent out relief engines from Port Waratah and we left for home with our train.

Finally, don't crack the sads when crews jack up and want their meal break. I don't care if it is going to screw up the entire train control graph for the next 6 hours if we are 30 minutes late away I am entitled to my meal break and I will damn well take it. (Unless I'm going into an RDO the next day) It is in the EA. Plan around it, and if they don't take it, it's a bonus. If they do, you haven't screwed everything up. Though this is more a complaint towards the PN train planners than ARTC at all.

I get the feeling these upgrades, great as they are, are going to be brought undone by the human element, that is, poor rostering and resource management. About the only thing that will bring significant benefits will be the Liverpool range tunnel. When they get the coal companies to actually pay for it, that is...

Trainee Driver, Pacific National

Comments made are strictly the opinion of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the ADF, Pacific National, Freight Australia or the Boy Scouts of Antartica.

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BDA · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:41 am

Hmmm quite .

This is going to set the cat amongst but many others will agree .

Crew and resource management is a vital component of making any railway function and the one thing you can't afford to have is outdated thinking . I'll be blunt and say that it's a legacy of the Freight Rail/Freight Corp era and a few too many of the "old lags" are still doing things the way they were done 15-20 years ago .

1) I can't believe the way they roster crews for programmed trains - pencil roster ? Spare me ...

2) Meal breaks , we do it on the fly and with shifts of up to 12 hours .

3) We often deal directly with the train controllers to fix stuff ups .

Servicing "facilities" at Pt Waratah are just plain stupid , one run through road and coals brain dead habit of parking rakes in that road . I imagine Kooragang is similar ? They really need a minimum of two fueling points at both sites . Possibly as a backup they could have an open facility with road access and fuel directly from road tankers .

At the end of the day it depends on how much PN wants it to work . Others can do it they won't .

flying_donkey · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:50 pm

BDA, the 72 long coalies have been running full time now for the past 6(?) months, using 100T wagon rakes 20, 21 and 22 (with two of these rakes with the bi-di tipping wagons for the Werris Creek push-pull coalies). 3x82's up front.

The running times out from Werris Creek now are absolutely amazing, with the time from GDH to WCK cut in half from 2 hours to 55 minutes on a loaded one. An average return run out to Gunnedah mine from WCK has dropped from 8 hours to 5 hours, and a run out to Boggabri has dropped from 11 hours to 8 hours (Both include load times).

The points for Breeza, Curlewis, Gunnedah and Emerald Hill are all 50Kph turnouts, although ARTC have only put turnout speedboards on the Gunnedah loop, reducing the others to 25Kph until boards have been installed.
With concrete resleepering being carried out between Whitehaven mine and Werris Creek, the trip is also a smoother one.

As for the Liverpool Range, bankers are now either 8000hp or 9000hp, depending on what locos are available. Transit times from Willow Tree to Ardglen are usually around the 30-35 minute mark (12km long section), which is about the same as what the wheaties do up the hill.

Apparently CTC will go to Turrawan once the mine is opened up out there around the end of the year, with Boggabri loop to be extended. There is also talk of two or three more crossing loops going in between WCK and Narrabri to cater for increasing traffic, but this is not definite.

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BDA · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:32 pm

Very interesting , I hoped that the CTC and longer loops (with higher speed crossovers) would be making a difference .

Was going to ask about northern and southern corridors but better in their own threads .

Thanks all , BDA .

GrahamH · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:16 pm

What are the fuel savings after introducing CTC in M/ETS areas? I guess overall reliability would be improved.

57_58_2B7_2A5_80 ?

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KRviator · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:52 pm

Dunno if any specific trials have been done, but an 81 uses around 500L/hr in 8 notch, and might be in that notch for 5 minutes to get back upto track speed, depending on where it is., so would use about 40L, or it could just amble through at 4 notch and use 15 litres, not counting the wear on brake blocks and the rest...

Rough figures, but they are a start.

Trainee Driver, Pacific National

Comments made are strictly the opinion of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the ADF, Pacific National, Freight Australia or the Boy Scouts of Antartica.

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Termite · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 8:51 am

The Antiene to Grasstree duplication is due to be connected at the respective locations from Wednesday 19/11 till Saturday 20/11. Complete shutdown in Northern NSW from Hanbury to Armidale and Narrabri for various works.

PN Intermodals still running via main lines.

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Junction box · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:04 pm

I think ARTC is covering all its bases and making sure there will be no disruptions to the coal corridor if there is any incidents or failures.
Putting in Bi Di in also creates a crossing loop on the adjacent line and helps with track work and safeworking having the signals controlled, all yard working.