On the train

Yes, still on the Regional Rail Link topic – Ballarat and Bendigo trains now had their own tracks through Footscray to Sunshine, along with their own next train displays located away from the ones showing suburban trains.

But for now Geelong line services were still running along the Werribee line. Here we see a N class locomotive hauled train passing through Williams Landing.

A VLocity train passing through Laverton station.

And another passing through the platforms at South Kensington.

Which then took the crossover at the city end of the station to access the new V/Line tracks towards Southern Cross.

Freight trains

A decade ago Pacific National still had the contract to transport grain by rail to the flour mill at Kensington. Southern Shorthaul Railroad won the contract in November 2017.

Meanwhile down at North Geelong Yard Pacific National was busy scrapping surplus wagons – the bulk of which once transport freight that has been lost to road.

Down around Geelong

The North Geelong B signal box was still hanging around a decade after it had been decommissioned in 2005, and surprisingly it hung around almost a decade longer – eventually being demolished in May 2022.

While down in Grovedale money was getting spent on Baanip Boulevard, with a new bridge being built over the railway to link the Geelong Ring Road to the Surf Coast Highway.

And down at North Shore even the dive of a station was getting some attention – new asphalt!

Ding ding on the trams

Remember the ‘Melbourne Star’ observation wheel? This tram was advertising it, before the operator went broke in 2021.

But a tourist icon that people actually patronised was the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant – it ran until 2018 when their restaurant trams were kicked off the Yarra Trams network due to safety concerns.

Another safety concern that is having to dodge cars to climb onboard tram at South Yarra station. The platform stop there wasn’t opened until 2021.

Another crappy tram stop was the one at La Trobe and Swanston Street – on this December afternoon it was overwhelmed by a crowd of RMIT graduates spilling out onto the road. Platform stops were not provided along La Trobe Street until July 2024.

And continuing on that theme, now we’re at Collins and Queen Street – closed in 2015 following completion of a new platform stop at Collins and William Street.

Another stop to close being the one for southbound route 96 passengers at the corner of Spencer and Flinders Street.

Works about to start on new platform stops at Batman Park a short distance to the south.

A few buses

A decade ago route 400 between Sunshine and Laverton was operated by plain white liveried buses – an artifact of the shared operation of the route between Westrans and Sita. Today the operations are now CDC Melbourne and Transit Systems, and the white buses are gone – they’re mostly PTV orange, with the exception of a few buses still in the old poo brown Sita corporate livery.

Another oddball bus was the British-built Optare Solos used on the SkyBus hotel shuttle service around the Melbourne CBD. Later branded as ‘SkyBus Link’, the service was discontinued in 2020 thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, and never restored.

And the last bus is a Designline ‘bubble’ bus running on route 903 along Bell Street in Coburg.

Stuck in traffic waiting at the level crossing with the Upfield line – which was removed in June 2020.

Ticketing bits

Down in Geelong it was once possible to buy a ‘Short Term Ticket‘ from bus drivers rather than use a Myki card – an option removed in April 2013.

While in the lead up to the November 2014 election both parties promised to cap Melbourne suburban travel to zone 1 prices, and introduce the ‘Free Tram Zone’ in the CBD.

Both starting from 1 January 2015.

But don’t think they’re giving you something for nothing – PTV was simultaneously running yet another fare evasion campaign.

As well as promoting free travel on Christmas Day.

Car parking

What’s a worse use of prime CBD land than a ground level car park? This is the ‘Golden Square’ car park at 217 Lonsdale Street, which is still a car park today.

And this is the ‘Safe City Car Park’ at 132 Little Bourke Street in Chinatown – which has since been turned into a pop up event space.

And finally – a power station

Here we are at the main gate to Anglesea Power Station.

Located in the middle of the Anglesea Heathlands.

Next to a brown coal mine.

Opened back in 1969 to power Alcoa’s Point Henry smelter outside of Geelong, the smelter was closed down in July 2014 but the power station remained open pending a new owner, before it too was shut down in August 2015.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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Asking why

I went down this rabbit hole after Philip Mallis asked on Twitter why The Overland stopped at Dimboola for a crew changeover, partway through the 10 hour journey from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Waiting at Dimboola, for the crew changeover. Anyone know why they change? pic.twitter.com/qXilxOv6g0

— Philip Mallis (@philipmallis) March 11, 2022

10 hours without any rest breaks would be pretty full on, so how does it work?

But first: maximum shift lengths

The “Rail Safety National Law” spells out the maximum length shift that a train driver is required to work, but like everything railway related in Australia, each state does things slightly differently – so here is the NSW version:

Working hours for rail safety workers driving freight trains

The following work scheduling practices and procedures apply to a rail safety worker who drives a freight train–

(a) in the case of a 2 person operation where the second driver is a qualified train driver (including a qualified train driver who is learning a route or undergoing an assessment)–the maximum shift length to be worked is 12 hours;
(b) in the case of any other 2 person operation–the maximum shift length to be worked is 11 hours;
(c) in the case of a 1 person operation–

(i) the maximum shift length to be worked is 9 hours; and
(ii) a minimum break of not less than 30 minutes must be scheduled and taken some time between the third and fifth hour of each shift;

Working hours for rail safety worker driving passenger train–single person operation

The following work scheduling practices and procedures apply to a rail safety worker who drives a passenger train in a single person operation–

(a) in the case of an interurban or a long distance train–the maximum shift length to be worked is 10 hours;
(b) in the case of a suburban train–the maximum shift length to be worked is 9 hours;

Working hours for rail safety worker driving passenger train–2 person operation

The following work scheduling practices and procedures apply to a rail safety worker who drives a passenger train in a 2 person operation–

(a) in the case of a 2 person operation where the second driver is a qualified train driver (including a qualified train driver who is learning a route or undergoing an assessment)–the maximum shift length to be worked is 12 hours;
(b) in the case of any other 2 person operation–the maximum shift length to be worked is 11 hours;

So a maximum shift length of 12 hours when two qualified drivers are sharing the job, reducing to 9 hours for suburban passenger trains operated by a single driver.

So back to the crew changes

In the case of The Overland, Journey Beyond Rail contracts freight operator Pacific National to supply locomotives and train drivers.

Pacific National has a crew depot is at Dimboola, with Melbourne-based crews taking westbound trains to what is approximately the halfway point between Melbourne and Adelaide, swapping over with a fresh crew, take their meal break at the station, then meet the inbound crew of the next eastbound service, which they take back to Melbourne, where they finish their shift.

However customer service staff on The Overland have no such luxury – with only two trains each way per week, they need to work a whole day eastbound from Adelaide, stay overnight in Melbourne, then work all day back to Adelaide westbound.

The NSW TrainLink XPT service between Melbourne and Sydney operates on similar principles: train crew come from Junee, while the customer service staff are based out of Albury and work an “out and back” shift through Victoria.

Pacific National freight trains do something similar on the busy Melbourne-Sydney freight corridor.

Melbourne-based crews work their trains as far north as Junee in New South Wales then work another train back south.

Crew changes for other services can be little ad-hoc: in the case of the Great Southern train that travelled down the east coast of Australia, it pulled up at Brooklyn in Melbourne’s west at midnight to swap over train crew.

And on this Melbourne to Deniliquin freight train, the crew changed over at Echuca.

And when trains are delayed, crew who are approaching their maximum shift time sometimes just have to put their train away at a crossing loop, and await a relief crew to arrive by road.

Another way of splitting shifts for freight services on quieter routes is the “rest job” – where train crew take a train out of the city to the country. They stable the train at the freight terminal for loading, then head off to a local motel to sleep, then return later that day to take the train back to the city.

And the tough transcontinental jobs

As for trains running between Adelaide, Perth and Darwin – better strap yourself in – you’re living onboard the train for the next week!

Customer service staff on The Ghan and Indian Pacific work a week on / week off FIFO-style roster out of Adelaide.

Living onboard the train as it takes them all the way to Perth, Darwin or Sydney – and back.

Working one week on, one week off, commencing your week on either Sunday or Tuesday, you’ll be engaged part-time. The days can be long but will feel like they’re going fast. The job is physical but dynamic.

Train drivers on these routes also live onboard their train for days at a time, sleeping and eating meals in a self-contained carriage coupled up behind the locomotives.

The practice is known as relay working, and dates back to the early days of the Central Australia Railway and North Australia Railway systems.

Image via Wikipedia

As they made their way to the north of Australia.

Relay vans were used on all narrow gauge trains operating on the CAR and NAR systems thus allowing for four engine crew and two guards to work between Stirling North and Alice Springs, Darwin to Larrimah and Frances Creek in relay without the need for rest houses being constructed.

However recent research has shown relay working isn’t conductive to quality sleep.

Relay working operations typically require two crews of train drivers to work a rotating 8-h schedule for two or more days. While one crew is driving, the other has the opportunity to sleep onboard the train.

The current study investigated the impact of relay work on drivers sleep quantity and quality. Fourteen drivers wore wrist activity monitors and completed sleep/wake diaries for 3 d prior to and during short (<48 h) relay trips.

Drivers obtained an average of 7.8 h sleep per night while at home, and an average of 4 h sleep per opportunity during the relay trip.

Sleep obtained in the relay van was associated with longer sleep onset latencies, lower efficiency and poorer subjective quality than sleep at home. During the relay trip, drivers obtained significantly more sleep during opportunities that occurred in the evening, than those that occurred early morning or during the day.

These findings suggest that while drivers are able to obtain sleep during short relay operations, it is of poorer quality than sleep obtained at home.

Further, the timing of the sleep opportunities during the relay trip impacts on the quantity and quality of sleep obtained.

But research shows that the poor sleep was still “good enough”.

Overall, drivers reported that they felt more alert following each sleep period.

Drivers were able to sustain attention during the 10-min vigilance tasks administered before and after each shift.

These findings suggest that the amount of sleep obtained in crew vans during short relay operations is sufficient to maintain alertness during the trip.

As you might guess, the push towards relay working came from train operators, not staff.

Relay operations are normally undertaken in remote and isolated areas, and generally involve trips that are greater than 30 h in duration.

In many Australian states, relay working has been introduced to facilitate the delivery of goods around-the-clock and year-round.

While relay operations are often considered cost-effective and practical, there is widespread concern that relay work has a detrimental impact on the drivers sleep and performance.

One rail operator justifying the practice to their employees in their enterprise agreement.

The following characteristics are used as a basis for but not the limit of any decisions to introduce relay working:
13.1.1 The remoteness of the operation; and
13.1.2 The distances travelled. Relay working is best suited to long distance trips; and
13.1.3 The viability of establishing crewing depots at appropriate locations and being able to staff those depots.

Relay working is not designed to eliminate existing depots or to force the relocation of existing employees.

With the reason for train drivers to adopt the practice – extra pay.

During a relay operation time spent working will be paid at the employee’s rate for the day inclusive of weekend work payment if applicable.

During the relay operation time spent resting or sleeping in the crew van will be paid 100% payment whilst resting.

Enough compensation from being away from family and friends for weeks – that’s your own choice to make.

Footnote: Metro Trains Melbourne

Metro Trains Melbourne does things a little differently – their rosters are grouped into day and afternoon shifts, with each one having a different start and finish time. The most visible shift changes are at Flinders Street Station, where trains sit in the platform for a few minutes.

But drivers also take over trains at stabling yards, when based at crew depots called “outstations”.

And despite a kerfuffle back in 2012 over the decentralisation of driver depots, changeovers also happen outbound at North Melbourne station.

And at Clifton Hill.

Train drivers at Metro Trains also work shorter shifts than train drivers interstate, only 8 hours 29 minutes long, due to Victorian regulations that pre-dated the Rail Safety National Law.

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Building everywhere

The new footbridge at Footscray station was finally finished.

But the ‘roof’ was anything but – perforated panels let water through every time it rained!

In 2013 the bridge was partially demolished to make room for Regional Rail Link.

The Olympic Doughnut stall hiding in the shadows fared better.

Construction worked around the van until it relocated to a brand new store in 2014, remaining in business until the retirement of owner Nick Tsiligiris in 2017.

At the corner of Royal Parade and Flemington Road in Parkville, demolition of the former Royal Dental Hospital commended.

Abandoned since 2003 when the hospital moved around the corner to Carlton.

The site is now occupied by the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

Construction of the 717 Bourke Street office tower in Docklands were underway, with a new footbridge over Wurundjeri Way connecting it to Southern Cross Station.

TV station GTV9 moved their Melbourne studio from Richmond to the completed building in 2011.

Scenes that are gone

The skyline of Southbank hit pause between the completion of Eureka Tower in 2006, and Prima Pearl in 2014.

But today the even taller Australia 108 dominates the scene.

Back in 2010 V/Line trains to Geelong used the Werribee line tracks.

Since 2015 they have travelled via the new Melbourne suburbs of Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, follow the completion of Regional Rail Link.

While trains to Bendigo shared the Sunbury line tracks as far as Sunshine, passing through the Anderson Road level crossing at Albion.

The level crossing having been replaced by a road under rail bridge in 2014.

Changing of the trains

Hitachi trains were still clunking their way around Melbourne, like this one arriving into the old West Footscray station.

But brand new X’Trapolis trains were entering service, ready to replace them.

Meanwhile the Siemens trains fleet couldn’t stay out of trouble – another spate of braking issues saw additional restrictions applied to the fleet.

The issue finally resolved in 2011 following the installation of sanding gear to the trains.

Melbourne was also in the middle of the change from Metcard to Myki, but the reliability of the new technology left something to be desired.

Metcard being finally switched off in December 2012.

Rail freight

QR National was running colourful freight trains into Melbourne with their fleet of diesel locomotives.

The company rebranded itself as Aurizon in 2012, and quit intermodal rail freight in 2017, to instead focus on coal haulage.

Meanwhile rival freight operator Pacific National was busy clearing their yards of life expired freight wagons.

Cutting them up to take advantage of high scrap metal prices.

And track maintenance

When Metro Trains Melbourne took over the operation of Melbourne’s rail network, they made some big promises – improved track maintenance being one of them.

They ordered some shiny new spoil containers to help in the task rebuilding Melbourne’s tracks.

Replacing rotten timber sleepers with sturdier concrete ones.

But given how run down the network was, it made little difference – Metro had ‘inherited a dog’.

Down at Flinders Street Station the wheels were turning slowly – it took six weeks to repair a storm damaged ceiling.

But progress at Southern Cross Station was even slower – the $5 million in repairs was yet to start.

The only upside – the ‘temporary’ CRT next train displays were finally being removed, years after the station had been ‘officially’ opened.

The joys of a public-private partnership!

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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The sugar is refined at the Harwood sugar mill in northern New South Wales, near Grafton, in a plant established in 1989 by the Manildra Group and New South Wales Sugar Milling Cooperative.

Google Maps

It is then transported by road to South Grafton and stored in silos, ready to be loaded into rail hopper wagons.

Google Street View

Pacific National shunts the wagons using a 48 class locomotive, attaches them to a southbound freight train bound for Newscatle, and then onto the tail end of a southbound steel train for the trip to Melbourne.

On arrival in Melbourne the sugar hoppers are collected by the South Dynon shunter.

And taken over to the Manildra siding at the back of South Kensington station.

The empty wagons are taken away.

And the loaded wagons shunted in.

With the Manildra staff using their own shunting tractor to move the wagons into their unloading shed.

The empty wagons are then returned to South Dynon.

Then attached on the next northbound steel train for the trip back to Grafton.

But it has come to an end

In late 2018 Manildra Group listed their site in West Melbourne for sale.

Commercial Real Estate.com.au photo

The plant has since been shut down, with the site being cleared.

Manildra operate a second Melbourne plant at Altona North, around the corner from the paused Port Rail Shuttle terminal, so the sugar train is no more.

Some history

The Manildra Group complex dates back to 1907, when James Minifie & Co opened the ‘Victoria Roller Flour Mill’ on the site, with the adjacent concrete silos were designed by Edward Giles Stone were built beside the mill in 1910-11. The mill produced ‘O-So-Lite’ packaged flour and cake mixes, until it closed in 1969.

Photo by Graeme Butler, Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985

More photos

• Shunting sugar wagons at Grafton
• Grafton sugar loading facility
• Sugar wagon outside the Grafton sugar loading facility
• Inside the Harwood sugar refinery
• 48 class diesel locomotive shunting at Grafton
• Combined sugar and cement train on the North Coast Line
• 1971 track diagram of South Kensington

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Twice a day a train departs the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon.

The train skirts the edge of Southern Cross Station.

Then rolls through the river end of Flinders Street Station.

Then traverses the tracks at Richmond Junction.

Heads towards Caulfield.

Over the rollercoaster grades at Ormond, McKinnon and Bentleigh.

Eventually making it south to Frankston.

Then heads along the single track Stony Point line.

Turning off the main line at Long Island Junction.

To arrive at the BlueScope Steel plant beside Westernport Bay in Hastings.

Photo via Southern Peninsula News

Some history

The steel mill at Hastings was opened by Lysaght in 1972. Lysaght’s was acquired by BHP in 1979, demerged as BHP Steel in 2002, and then renamed BlueScope Steel in 2003.

The Victorian Government encouraged the development of the plant with the passing of the Western Port (Steel Works) Act 1970 – specific provisions relating to rail were:

The Premier on behalf of the State covenants that the State will ensure that there shall be provided –

• to the boundary of the Plant Site a suitable rail link by which rail facilities constructed by the Company at its cost within its boundaries may be connected to the Victorian Railways network;
• adequate rail motive power and rolling stock and suitable rail services to ensure the satisfactory movement of materials products and equipment to and from the Plant;
• rail transportation services for the conveyance of employees of the Company or its site contractors to and from the Plant

under such conditions as are agreed between the Victorian Railways Commissioners and the Company.

The 6.2 km long branch line from the Stony Point line opened in 1969, with 87,730 tons of traffic being moved over the new connection in 1972/1973. The efficiency of these trains was improved following the introduction of dedicated block trains, with 50,000 tonnes of coiled steel transported from Hastings during 1981/82.

Weston Langford photo #115670

The Hastings Port industrial area land use plan detailed the operation of the mill during the 1990s:

Steel slab is brought in by rail and ship, primarily from Port Kembla, for processing into a range of finished-steel products for the local, national and international markets. Products are sent by truck to the local market, by rail to interstate markets in South Australia and Western Australia, and by ship to international markets. Presently BHP sends 300 000 tonnes of steel a year by rail from Whyalla and Port Kembla to Westernport, but has an agreement which would permit this tonnage to be increased to 800,000 tonnes.

BHP is constantly reviewing and upgrading its operations to increase efficiency and become more export-orientated. A new cold-strip galvanised steel production line has recently been commissioned at a cost of some $138 million. Presently BHP steelworks employs 1500 persons and produces approximately 1.2 million tonnes of steel a year from a plant that has a capacity to produce 2.6 million tonnes. The new galvanised steel line increased production capacity by some 800 000 tonnes without requiring any large increase in staff numbers.

Today the steel trains are operated by Pacific National following the sale of the National Rail Corporation in 2002, and form the sole freight link to the mill following the 2012 retirement of the ‘Iron Monarch’ that moved slab steel by sea between Port Kembla and Hastings.

Facts and figures

Today each steel train is made up of 40 wagons and is hauled by a pair two 2,830 kW (3,800 hp) G class diesel locomotives, with approximately 600,000 tonnes of steel product per annum moved by rail to Hastings.

Made train is made up of a mix of wagons with pairs of ‘jumbo’ coils of steel.

And ‘butterbox’ containers of coil steel.

The average wagon has a tare mass of around 20 tonnes (based on a RKLX class wagon) and with a loaded gross mass of 74 to 79 tonnes – or 30 tonnes for a single container!

For the proposes of comparison, the permitted gross vehicle mass of a standard six-axle semi-trailer in Victoria is 42.5 tonnes – or a single container per truck. With 40 containers and 40 steel coils per train, and two trains per day each way, a total of 320 truck movements are required to move the same load.

Rail gauge troubles

Australia’s rail gauge muddle has complicated the operation of trains to Hastings – steel loaded on broad gauge trains from Hastings needs to be transferred onto standard gauge trains to head interstate.

Initially this occurred at Albury and Adelaide, until the gauge conversion of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor by the National Rail Corporation in 1995. This saw the opening of the Melbourne Steel Terminal in West Melbourne, where the steel would be transhipped between local broad gauge trains and interstate standard gauge trains.

This terminal closed in 2015 to make room for the ‘E’ Gate development, with transhipping of steel now occurring at the nearby Melbourne Freight Terminal.

The provision of standard gauge access to Hastings has been examined multiple times, via the Frankston or Cranbourne lines, but no progress has been made towards such a connection.

And elsewhere in Australia

Steel trains to Hastings form a small part of the work that Pacific National does for BlueScope Steel and Arrium across Australia. In 2003 the deal was valued at $400 million over four years, and was followed in 2006 by a $1 billion seven year contract, which was extended for another seven years from 2015.

A total of 2.3 million tonnes of steel moved by rail in 2013:

• 1.38 Million is Port Kembla and Westernport outbound
• 0.96 Million is transported on behalf of Onesteel

The reason for these massive numbers – each piece of steels moves an average of 3.2 times through manufacturing plants, rail terminals, distribution centres and customer sites.

To cater for this traffic, a specialised fleet of wagons is used:

• Steel Coil – 2.5-28t (Horizontal and Vertical), 285 ‘butter box’ wagons
• Steel Plate In & Out of Gauge – 67 flat wagons, 55 tilt wagons
• Structural Beams – Shared fleet, typical 5-15 wagon per week
• Scrap – 46 scrap box’s, 23 container wagons
• Raw Materials – 3 locomotive Sets, 100 wagons

Which results in varied trains.

Footnote

Think this look familiar? It’s an expanded version of my 2018 post Rail replacement trucks for the Frankston line.

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Twice a day a 40 wagon long train departs the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon bound for the BlueScope Steel plant on the Stony Point line at Hastings.

The train skirts the edge of Southern Cross Station.

Then rolls through the river end of Flinders Street Station.

Then traverses the tracks at Richmond Junction.

Heads towards Caulfield.

Eventually making it south towards Frankston.

Then heads along the single track Stony Point line.

To arrive at the BlueScope Steel plant beside Westernport Bay in Hastings.

Photo via Southern Peninsula News

So how many trucks are needed?

As you might imagine, steel is bloody heavy.

Each of the first 20 wagons are loaded with a pair of ‘jumbo’ coils of steel sheet.

While the 20 wagons at the rear carry a pair of ‘butterbox’ containers of coil steel.

The average wagon has a tare mass of around 20 tonnes (based on a RKLX class wagon) and with a loaded gross mass of 74 to 79 tonnes – or 30 tonnes for a single container!

For the proposes of comparison, the permitted gross vehicle mass of a standard six-axle semi-trailer in Victoria is 42.5 tonnes – or a single container per truck.

With 40 containers and 40 steel coils per train, and two trains per day each way, that is an extra 320 trucks on the Monash Freeway each day.

Good thing the trains will return in June 2018!

The impact of rail shutdowns on freight operators

Australian Paper is another industry dependent on rail as part of their supply train, with a daily train doing the work of 40 trucks. When the rail corridor to Gippsland was severed in 2012, they had to quickly shuffle their operations.

Australian Paper general manager packaging, procurement and external relations Julian Mathers said the Maryvale mill was one of the state’s largest users of the Port of Melbourne, transporting 240,000 tonnes of paper products to the port via the Gippsland rail line annually, with six freight train services using the line every week.

The temporary closure of the rail line east of Moe for seven weeks last year required a “huge logistical response” by the company to continue its output via road transport, Mr Mather said.

“When you consider the volumes that are going out – our rail freight represents about 40 per cent of products moved out of Maryvale – we had to put in a lot of work in rescheduling deliveries on the road,” he said.

As did a second unplanned shutdown in October 2014.

Meanwhile the train line’s largest freight user, Australian Paper, has been forced to source emergency road transport amid the rail line’s temporary closure.

Transporting more than 300 shipping containers of paper product to Melbourne ports every week across a minimum of seven services, the Morwell bridge closure has cut off a major supply route for the company.

A fully packed freight train sat idle on the line on Friday afternoon, as V/Line announced the track’s indefinite closure, before it was eventually allowed to pass through.

Australian Paper national logistics manager Phillip Porter said the company’s freight contractor Qube Logistics had reshuffled its broader trucking fleet to meet the sudden shortfall in transport capacity.

Mr Porter said Qube had brought in a fleet of ‘Skel’ trailers, capable of carrying single shipping containers, while extra ‘tautliner’ trucks had been brought online.

“Qube has a range of trucks performing different tasks, which they have shuffled… to free them up for us,” Mr Porter said.

“The trucks are working on 12-hour shifts so they can do two full trips in that time.”

But even planned shutdowns impact operations at the mill.

But generally speaking getting access to the track and setting up a regular schedule is reasonably achievable. It is accommodating the outages. If they are going to have a big break over Easter, we need to essentially get an extra four trains down in the previous couple of weeks, and getting the extra services slotted in is where the trouble is.

And we have to have made the product early, hence we have got a cash flow issue, or we have to get the containers early, or we have to purchase or hire extra containers. It results in either a stockpile of containers or a stockpile of product. I suppose the major thing really is the alignment of those outages.

What we observe is that the timing of the outages for Metro rail do not tend to align to the outages for V/Line, and we get a sequence of outages on following weekends, which should just be consolidated and minimised. I suppose we get a lot this second-hand through our rail provider. Qube is actually the one doing the service scheduling and deals directly with V/Line and Metro rail. What they are telling us is that there are these difficulties in coordinating these activities.

Nothing in logistics is ever simple!

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We start down at Geelong, where I photographed a SCT Logistics Perth-Melbourne freight service behind a trio of Pacific National locomotives.

Running from one other side of country to the other, the tank wagon at the front of the train removes the need for refuelling stops along the way. SCT Logistics continue to operate these services today, along with a newer Melbourne-Brisbane service, but now hauled by their own fleet of locomotives.

I also photographed a six car long VLocity train on a Geelong-bound V/Line service.

Made up of three 2-car VLocity sets, such a train is no longer possible – only 3-car long VLocity sets now exist.

A curious advertising campaign was launched by former suburban rail operator Connex Melbourne in September 2007, titled “There is no ‘I’ in Carriage”.

It featured a book authored by fictitious character Martin Merton, “America’s number one train etiquette expert”. The campaign was created by Leo Burnett Melbourne.

September 2007 also saw V/Line ramp up their marketing – covertly working on a new livery for their fleet of trains.

I spotted the first example poking out of the shed door at Newport Workshops.

With a matching carriage set breaking cover soon after, headed to Geelong and back on a shakedown run before the public launch.

September 12 saw the politicians out in force to launch the new visual identity.

Two trains were in place to show off the new livery – Sprinter 7007 and carriage set FSH25.

Around the corner at Southern Cross, I swung past the future site of platforms 15 and 16.

The bare concrete and gravel platform was partially constructed, minus tracks and escalators, as part of the redevelopment of the station, intended to form part of a future airport rail link. They sat empty until Regional Rail Link was conceived in 2009, with the decision made to incorporate them into the project to increase platform capacity at the Melbourne end of the V/Line network.

But change for V/Line was a backward step – the reintroduction to service of 60-year-old carriage stock.

Built between 1937 and 1956, the last five ‘BS’ type compartment carriages were retired from V/Line service in 2006 following the delivery of new VLocity trains. However the Kerang rail crash of June 2007 saw a 3-car train taken out of service, leaving V/Line scrambling to fill the gap. The decision was made to reactivate the previously stored carriages, and operate them on a return peak hour run between Melbourne and Geelong each weekday. They continued in this role until August 2010, when they were finally retired for good, thanks to the delivery of yet more VLocity trains.

September 2007 marked the Geelong Football Club’s appearance at the AFL Grand Final. V/Line operated a number of special trains from Geelong to carry Cats fans to the game at the MCG, where they saw Geelong defeat Port Adelaide.

V/Line still runs football trains today, but only with VLocity trains – the use of 8 carriage long ‘push pull’ trains ended in 2011.

And finally we end on something V/Line still does today – cancelled trains and platform confusion at Southern Cross Station.

The 11am train gets canned at 11:56

I was intending to catch the 11:00am Geelong train from Southern Cross platform 5. After waiting almost an hour, at 11:56am V/Line finally announced that the 11:00am train would not be running, and for everyone to board the 12:00pm train in the platform alongside.

The only difference today is that V/Line trains to Geelong now run every 20 minutes between peaks on a weekday, and every 40 minutes on a weekend.

Further reading

• More on the “There’s No ‘I’ In Carriage” campaign at The Age
• “There’s No ‘I’ In Carriage” TV commercial

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘

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My flight from Cairns approached Sydney from the north, so the Hawkesbury River bridge on the mainline to Newcastle was the first piece of railway infrastructure I spotted.

We then descended over the North Shore and crossed Sydney Harbour, where I spotted a tram on the Inner West Light Rail through Lilyfield, heading over the Wentworth Park viaduct. Can you see it?

A few moments later the plane was over the suburbs, and I was looking down on the mainline between Central and Parramatta. Six tracks running side by side, but unfortunately there were no trains to be seen.

We continued to descend, and finally I spotted a train – Pacific National locomotive 8173 shunting container wagons at Cooks River Yard. Thankfully the big numbers on the side made it easy to identify the unit!

And a moment after that, I found two more locomotives stabled in the siding next door – I had to look very closely to see ‘MZ1446’ on the side of the silver unit.

My plane then touched down on runway 16R – the main north-south runway – and taxied to the gate. With no more trains to see, it was then time for some planespotting until boarding commenced for my connecting flight.

Footnote

The tram photo was a bit of a Where’s Wally game, in part due to the red and white Transport for NSW livery. Here is a closer look if you couldn’t see it first time around.

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