Hi All.  I was just wondering which loco's would be appropriate to haul ABFXs?

To put it simply, any locomotive that has hauled freight on either standard or broad gauge from 1979, when these wagons were recoded, until the 1990s. There are caveats - eg vans painted for SCT date from the late 1990s - but vans marked for ANR or AN were available for service where ever broad or standard gauge tracks ran. Until SCT accessed these vans they did not run as blocks, but were mixed among other goods wagons.

Interesting.  thankyou.

Prior to the standard intersystem coding these were class VFX

I have a photo of a newly built VFX pair in early Australian National Railways livery (Bright red plates reading "Australian National Railways" in upper case on CR maroon bodies, on 3'6" bogies at Midland awaiting transfer to standard gauge for movement East. I can't recall who built these, probably not Comeng since they were by that stage connected to the SG.

So you could run them on a WAGR HOn3-1/2 layout if you wanted to. (Sadly they seem to follow Sn3-1/2 more in WA....)

M636C

Prior to the standard intersystem coding these were class VFX

I have a photo of a newly built VFX pair in early Australian National Railways livery (Bright red plates reading "Australian National Railways" in upper case on CR maroon bodies, on 3'6" bogies at Midland awaiting transfer to standard gauge for movement East. I can't recall who built these, probably not Comeng since they were by that stage connected to the SG.

So you could run them on a WAGR HOn3-1/2 layout if you wanted to. (Sadly they seem to follow Sn3-1/2 more in WA....)

M636C

Check Chris Drymalik's Comrails site. There are at least four builds and this link I have included could be the skinny gauge one in question.  
http://www.comrails.com/freight/rs_vfx_2788.html#vfx2830
Until now I had never heard of Carmor Engineering so is it in WA ?


There are also list of wagons built in Comeng NSW
Mechanical Handling Woodville SA
Comeng WA

The huge size and length of these wagons meant they were great for light products like toilet paper so they were used very often on the paper trains from Snuggery to Dry Creek  and then to all capital cities around the standard gauge network. These trains were as has been said hauled by any mainline loco and on the paper train they often used the visiting Victorian locos so a T is perfectly at home on a string. ( I meant to put at Mount Gambier in here ) They were also regularly in the consist of many interstate trains so a freight heading for Peterborough  from Adelaide for bogie exchange would be quite a regular job. Mixed in with SA , VR, NSW wagons.

Why not just use any loco you have available?

The ABFXs in their heyday were supposed to be restricted to Forwarding Agents traffic between Melbourne and Perth and anyone who misdirected one into other traffics was in strife. The NSW Forwarding Agents preferred 50 tonne vans (NLKY/VLEX/WBAX) over ABFXs. It was only in 'later years' that ABFXs became available for Mount Gambier paper traffic.

Carmor Engineering was based in Whyalla and built TOK (?) tank wagons as well as ABFXs IIRC but they went broke in the mid 1970s.

There some vehicles built at Dandenong by Comeng but I don't recall what they were but some of these movements were loaded with dogspikes and other track jewellery made by West Footscray Engineering. These were transferred to Pirie on BG bar framed bogies hired from the SAR as the Victorians wanted outrageous hire charges. It's all a bit hazy now.

Those were the olden days when we did things and made things in Australia.

The ABFXs in their heyday were supposed to be restricted to Forwarding Agents traffic between Melbourne and Perth and anyone who misdirected one into other traffics was in strife. The NSW Forwarding Agents preferred 50 tonne vans (NLKY/VLEX/WBAX) over ABFXs. It was only in 'later years' that ABFXs became available for Mount Gambier paper traffic.

Carmor Engineering was based in Whyalla and built TOK (?) tank wagons as well as ABFXs IIRC but they went broke in the mid 1970s.

There some vehicles built at Dandenong by Comeng but I don't recall what they were but some of these movements were loaded with dogspikes and other track jewellery made by West Footscray Engineering. These were transferred to Pirie on BG bar framed bogies hired from the SAR as the Victorians wanted outrageous hire charges. It's all a bit hazy now.

Those were the olden days when we did things and made things in Australia.

There are many photos around of traffic on the Peterborough line with mixtures or larger box cars. There are quite a few pictures around of ABFX on Mount Gambier trains. In the 80's I spent many weekdays at Steam Ranger and many ABFX were shunted past the depot into the paper warehouse next door.
I was not familiar with the Carmor name and on the Comrails site I found four different batches of VFX builds. I thought it may have fitted in with the trip on the skinny gauge.

Check Chris Drymalik's Comrails site. There are at least four builds and this link I have included could be the skinny gauge one in question.  
http://www.comrails.com/freight/rs_vfx_2788.html#vfx2830
Until now I had never heard of Carmor Engineering so is it in WA ?


There are also list of wagons built in Comeng NSW
Mechanical Handling Woodville SA
Comeng WA

Looking at Chris' site, there are photos of Carmor and Comeng wagons in original condition.

Only the later Comeng built wagons (~1978) had red backed nameplates.

So I'm forced to consider that Comeng Bassendean only had a narrow gauge connection up until 1978, although the SG line ran past their connecting line....

M636C

The ABFXs in their heyday were supposed to be restricted to Forwarding Agents traffic between Melbourne and Perth and anyone who misdirected one into other traffics was in strife. The NSW Forwarding Agents preferred 50 tonne vans (NLKY/VLEX/WBAX) over ABFXs. It was only in 'later years' that ABFXs became available for Mount Gambier paper traffic.

Carmor Engineering was based in Whyalla and built TOK (?) tank wagons as well as ABFXs IIRC but they went broke in the mid 1970s.

There some vehicles built at Dandenong by Comeng but I don't recall what they were but some of these movements were loaded with dogspikes and other track jewellery made by West Footscray Engineering. These were transferred to Pirie on BG bar framed bogies hired from the SAR as the Victorians wanted outrageous hire charges. It's all a bit hazy now.

Those were the olden days when we did things and made things in Australia.

There are many photos around of traffic on the Peterborough line with mixtures or larger box cars. There are quite a few pictures around of ABFX on Mount Gambier trains. In the 80's I spent many weekdays at Steam Ranger and many ABFX were shunted past the depot into the paper warehouse next door.
I was not familiar with the Carmor name and on the Comrails site I found four different batches of VFX builds. I thought it may have fitted in with the trip on the skinny gauge.

A couple of points to remember.
Melbourne - Perth traffic often went via the Peterborough bogie exchange
Mount Gambier - NSW and Queensland paper traffic normally went via Victoria but frequently also went via Broken Hill when the Victorian bogie exchanges were short of SG bogies (which was chronic).
The ABFXs were ideal for the Mount Gambier paper traffic as has already been said here due to minimising wheels and capacity at the bogie exchanges and they were used in these traffics when available especially when some of the Agents switched to containers.

These comments actually make a lot of sense.  Thanks for gently pushing me on the path to  correctness. I have to remember too that in 1983 the standard gauge was not completed when I took my first trip to Alice Springs. We had to bus it to Port Pirie.
So thanks



"A couple of points to remember.
Melbourne - Perth traffic often went via the Peterborough bogie exchange
Mount Gambier - NSW and Queensland paper traffic normally went via Victoria but frequently also went via Broken Hill when the Victorian bogie exchanges were short of SG bogies (which was chronic).
The ABFXs were ideal for the Mount Gambier paper traffic as has already been said here due to minimising wheels and capacity at the bogie exchanges and they were used in these traffics when available especially when some of the Agents switched to containers. "