Railway Digest

09/07/2025

13/06/2025

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Trains, Trams and Tarmac; Melbourne and Adelaide​
In late March this year, David McCafferty, accompanied by two friends, set off on "A multi-mode transport adventure across Victoria and South Australia, exploring Melbourne’s vibrant network before jetting west to Adelaide". In the course of their nine-day jaunt, the trio rode EMUs, DMUs and trams, and chased heritage trains in Victoria – and found time to visit an air show. Then, in South Australia, they rode both suburban and heritage trains and paid a lengthy visit to the National Railway Museum, at Port Adelaide.

The rail scene around Merredin, Western Australia, in 2025 ​
In the September 2024 Railway Digest article: “Merredin – a wheatbelt rail centre” there was some discussion of the standard gauge (interstate) railway through the town. In this article, Phil Melling’s focus is on this link and its operations in the wider Merredin area to the west and east.

Happy Birthday No 106
On Easter Saturday, 19 April, DownsSteam, Toowoomba, celebrated the 110th birthday of its former Queensland Railways C16 class 4-8-0 No 106, with a commemorative return trip to Wyreema, along with cake, jazz music and a sausage sizzle at the organisation's headquarters in Drayton, Toowoomba. Heritage buses also gave free joy rides around Drayton on the day.

12/05/2025

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A day of mainline loading in Western NSW ​
Although not confined to NSW, that state has made good use of train loading on mainlines in recent years as a “low-cost” arrangement to help capture freight business that may have been lost to road transport if expensive infrastructure like a siding was required. Indeed, as John Hoyle relates, some former mainline loading locations have achieved a level of success that justified the provision of a siding to avoid the drawback of mainline loading – blocking the line to other rail traffic while loading takes place.

Pacific National's SQTY Triple Articulated Container Wagons​
The SQTY wagons were originally purchased by QUBE in 2024, hence the initial “S” in the code. The traffic that these wagons were intended for did not eventuate, and they were stored for some time. However, Pacific National, who have probably the largest fleet of container wagons in Australia, decided to buy these wagons. Peter Clark takes a detailed look at exactly why this came to pass.

'Olly' to the rescue
During the heavy flood in early February 2025, part of the Bruce Highway’s Ollera Creek Bridge, about halfway between Townsville and Ingham, was washed away. Within a short time, Queensland Rail offered a hi-rail bus to ferry stranded passengers while the Bruce Highway bridge was damaged and awaiting temporary bridge construction. The railbus, nicknamed ‘Olly’, carried passengers who required essential travel, as well as supplies, groceries and rescue equipment, as James Chuang reports.

XPTs and Xplorers: A visit to Southern NSW
There had been an expectation that the XPT and Xplorer fleet, workhorses of regional NSW railway lines, would soon retire. However, there have been significant delays in the delivery of the replacement CAF Civity Bi-mode trains, which were originally scheduled to be in service by 2023. Despite this delay, Jonathan Green decided that a holiday from Melbourne to the Riverina area to ride these trains was in order, and he opted to travel to the Riverina towns of Griffith, Narrandera, Junee, Wagga Wagga and Cootamundra over late December and early January.

10/04/2025

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Manildra Grain Wagons ​
Agribusiness and flour miller, Manildra Group had relied on Pacific National for their grain and grain product trains, but by 2024 they felt that they could run their own trains more economically, so they selected Southern Shorthaul Railroad (SSR) to operate their trains, and purchased a fleet of new locomotives, new grain and flour wagons and new 19-metre container wagons, used for grain products such as starch and flour. Peter Clark, with the help of photographer Dave Haden, takes a comprehensive look at the three new types of grain hopper wagons – MGGH, MGIG and MGHH – now in regular use on Manildra's trains.

Rail operations in WA after the 2024-2025 grain harvest ​
The West Australian grain harvest for 2024–2025 has been somewhat of a surprise. On Monday 3 February 2025, Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH) issued a final tonnage amount of 20.359 million tonnes, the third largest crop ever received in Western Australia. On the Western Australian narrow-gauge system, rail plays a large role in moving a crop of this size, as Phil Melling explains in words and pictures.

NSW TrainLink New Intercity Fleet Mariyung EMU (D Set cars)
John Beckhaus provides a detailed outline and description of the new Mariyung EMU trains which will operate across the Sydney Trains electrified Interurban Network. A brief description of this network is provided along with details of the present rollingstock which have been in service since the 1970s and the new Mariyung trains.

11/03/2025

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Moree – an important north west NSW rail centre
Located in north west New South Wales, Moree lies on black soil plains and above part of the Great Artesian Basin – attributes which make it the centre of one of the most important agricultural areas in the state with grain and cotton production dominating the economy and sheep, cattle, oil seeds, olives and pecan nuts making important contributions. John Hoyle takes a detailed look at the infrastructure and operations of this important regional rail centre.

Melbourne's Metro Tunnel
First proposed in March 2008 as part of an East West Link Needs Assessment Study, Melbourne's “Metro Tunnel” comprises two bi-directional (roughly) parallel rail tunnels provided for suburban trains, passing beneath Melbourne’s CBD on a completely new alignment, and incorporating five new stations. When it opens later this year, it will have cost somewhere approaching $15 billion but will enable the operational separation of various existing lines on Melbourne's rail network and increase the capacity of the system to metro-style frequencies. David Campbell closely examines both the history of this project and the background issues concerning Melbourne and its suburban rail system that led to the decision to build the “Metro Tunnel”.

A Gladstone Snapshot ​
A visit to the central Queensland industrial port city of Gladstone may not be on everyone’s must-do list. The Bruce Highway gives the city a wide berth and many motorists would generally be on their way to somewhere else up or down the east coast, unable to afford the time needed to take the small deviation to discover Gladstone’s virtues. Known for its copious quantities of wealth-generating heavy industry, the city and its surrounding regions do have plenty to offer railfans, as Alan Graham explains.

26/02/2025

03/02/2025

02/02/2025

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Ellenbrook Rising
Ellenbrook is an important residential and commercial suburb about 25km north-east of Perth CBD. It has been served by Transperth bus services since its early days, but with the ongoing growth of the area, tenders for planning of a railway were called in 2018, construction legislation passed in 2020 and the contract for construction awarded in October that year. Sunday 8 December 2024 was the official opening day of the line, and Railway Digest’s Perth correspondent, David Whiteford was there to enjoy the festivities.

Parramatta Light Rail begins operations
The second half of 2024 has gone down as a particularly significant period in the story of Sydney region public transport. Since August we have seen the first stage of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest (CSW) opened, the commissioning of Sydney Trains’ New Intercity Fleet (NIF) Mariyung trains, and the delivery to Sydney of the first of NSW’s new Regional Rail Civity hybrid fleet. Then, in the early morning of Friday 20 December 2024, came the long-awaited opening of the Parramatta Light Rail, as Owen Roberts reports.

ARTC “pauses” Advanced Train Management System
Confirming industry rumours during 2024, Australia Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) CEO, Wayne Johnson announced at AusRAIL 2024 on the Gold Coast that the Corporation was “pausing” further development of its Advanced Train Management System (ATMS) which was first announced in its 2002/03 annual report. With the National Transport Commission currently assessing a European Train Control System (ETCS) technology pathway for Australia across the National network, John Hoyle looks at the interesting history of ARTC’s bespoke train management system.

Light at the end of the tunnel
The 633.6m long state heritage listed Lapstone Hill tunnel aka Glenbrook tunnel first opened on 18 December 1892 enabling the single track Great Western Railway to bypass the Lapstone zig zag that had opened with the line on 11 July 1867. Always a difficult tunnel to work, it was finally closed on 25 September 1913, much to everyone’s relief. Around 2018, lower mountains cycling group, ‘Ride Blue Mountains,’ began lobbying for the opening of the tunnel as a key part of a project to provide local bicycle paths and a link with Penrith. The tunnel was finally reopened on a very wet, somewhat miserable Saturday, 7 December 2024, and Neville Pollard was there.

31/12/2024

Railway Digest January 2025 Issue OUT NOW!

The UGL C44ESACi Locomotive
Pacific National worked with UGL and Wabtec, the successor to GE’s locomotive business, to develop a new locomotive that matched the specification of the successful C44ACI locomotive but by using the GEVO-12 engine, were able to meet the USA Tier 2 emission requirements. The result was the 94 class, and PN has ordered 50 units. Peter Clark profiles this latest edition to Australian railways' motive power fleets.

Mariyungs commence passenger operations
The Hyundai Rotem-built Mariyung (D Set) trains have been on delivery since December 2019, and undergoing testing since January 2020. However, as has been widely reported, they were delayed from entering service as planned during 2020/21 due to a prolonged industrial dispute regarding safety concerns tabled by the Rail, Tram & Bus Union. They soon became a familar sight being hauled between storage sites by diesel locomotives. Finally, the issues were resolved, the modifications made, and on Tuesday 3 December 2024, amid much fanfare, the first of the trains entered regular service, as Owen Roberts and Chris Walters report.

The Australian Electric Multiple Unit Fleets
Australia has six electrified railways which operate approximately 833 Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains. This train group has become the most common type of train in Australia. In the 106 years since 1919, 9,461 EMU cars have entered service on Australian railways, and there are currently contracts for 1,396 EMU cars. John Beckhaus provides an update of the situation on Australia’s suburban and interurban railways.

South Australian Railways 702
The 700 Class locomotives stand out in Australian railway development not just for their mechanical achievements but for the cultural shift they represented—a shift towards modernisation, efficiency, and adaptability that helped shape the South Australian Railways well into the 20th century. Kayden Akisan profiles 702, the last survivor of the 700, 710 and 740 class Mikados.

All this and more in our JANUARY issue!
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Print and digital formats available:
https://arhsnsw.com.au/railway-digest/

06/12/2024

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Inside the cover of RD December 2024, on the shelves of your local newsagent now.

NSW Government announces new program to replace Fixing Country Rail program​
On Friday 18 October the NSW Government announced a new strategy to replace the Fixing Country Rail program, which had provided funding for rail improvements across the NSW regional rail network since its announcement in 2016. The RNEW Program team will commence engagement with freight industry, rail operators and users, and local government in 2025, with the final strategy to be delivered in 2026. John Hoyle looks at some of the ways this new policy may play out.

Riding the Metro Tunnel ​
In October 2024, Tom McGuire had the privilege of riding a Metro Tunnel test train in Melbourne, as part of a promotional initiative by the Victorian Government. With the project due to open in 2025, train testing has been underway for over a year now, reaching a point where Tom, along with some other invited guests, were able to ride from Parkville through to Anzac station.

Mildura Corridor operations update ​
Mildura is a large regional city, located in the northwest corner of Victoria. Located on the Murray River and surrounded by fertile irrigated farming, it is around eight hours drive north of Melbourne. The railway runs from Melbourne, but the train takes close to 16 hours, partly due to following an indirect route via Ararat. Much freight arriving/leaving the region runs to/from Adelaide, which is even closer to Mildura. In the circumstances, rail probably does well to remain competitive. David Campbell provides a snapshot of current rail operations on the line.

Wimmera Weekender – Part 2
In our July 2022 edition, Graham Crichton reported on the successful Seymour Rail Heritage Centre tour to the town of Beulah on the Victorian Wimmera /Mallee standard gauge line to Hopetoun. This tour was repeated on Saturday 5 October 2024. The major difference with this recent tour being that it included a trip to Rainbow on Sunday 6th. Graham Crichton was there again.

Kilrie turns 100
On November 2nd and 3rd, the Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway commemorated a historic milestone with a weekend-long celebration for the 100th anniversary of their iconic Perry 0-4-2T steam locomotive, Kilrie. Enthusiasts, members, and passengers gathered to mark the occasion, paying tribute to the century-long legacy of this cherished locomotive. Jarrod Mitton reports.

25/11/2024