19 October 2024
22 September 2024
CRT 30ft Boxes
It certainly isn't common these days to see CRT 30ft aluminium containers however on today's BM4 service, there were no less than 3 wagons worth.
These boxes can be a pain to handle as you need wagons that can handle 30ft containers. As you will see below, there was a mix of wagons used.
17 September 2024
Circue Du Soleil
Scored this modified container the other week coming in from Perth. It appears to be a ticket booth or similar for Circue Du Soleil
Enjoy!
08 September 2024
New Lindsay Transport Logo
Scored this upgraded Lindsay Transport reefer container today. Rebranded from a former ARLS, and now carrying LTCD 461579, this is the first LTCD container I have seen with new branding "Grow with Lindsay's".
Lindsay Transport would almost be completed rebranding all the ARLS reefers from their recent Scott's purchase.
This box was fitted with a Thermo King SB330RR refrigeration unit.
Enjoy
18 August 2024
Straittlink Recoding Whoopsie
Straitlink has been recoding and renumbering their reefers and the system seems to work reasonably well.
Former TSHR 1400 series is now SLHR 101400 series.
Former TSHR 1500 series is now SLHR 201500 series.
Former TSHR 1800 series is now SLHR 301800 series.
Former TSHR 2200 series is now SLHR 402200 series.
Former TSHR 2100 series is now SLHR 821000 series (original SCFU numbers).
1300 series don't appear to have a recoding plan which makes me think they are on borrowed time.
I came across this recoding error in July on a former Toll Shipping reefer TSHR 1541. Under the system it should have become SLHR 201541 but it has been incorrectly coded as SLHR 821541, which means it would have had to have been a former TSHR 2100 series reefer (which it is not).
17 August 2024
Coregas Tube Skid
14 August 2024
Rod in Coil
03 August 2024
Canberra Light Rail (CMET)
I recently visited Canberra for a short holiday and covered the light rail operation across a few mornings.
In a nutshell, the Canberra Light Rail is run by CMET (Canberra Metro Operations) with a 12km corridor from Canberra CBD to Gungahlin. The line has 14 stops and a fleet of 14 LRVs (trams). All the LRVs are Spanish built CAF Urbos 3 Series models which are a 5 carriage design. They have commenced a line extension (Stage 2A) towards Parliament House. The current track is double track mainline with cross overs at both termini and near Sandford St station is the LRV maintenance centre with access from both directions.
003 - Flemington Road / Sandford St Stn. Technology One
The line from Canberra to the Race Course/Exhibition Park is along the A23 (Federal Highway/Remembrance Driveway/Northbourne Ave) which basically has no parking and is pretty busy. The line runs down the middle of the highway (North-South mostly) so traffic is a pain for photos plus there are a lot of trees and tall grass plantings that kill your shots. Intersections and stations are probably the best bet if you want to shoot in this section. Aligna St station has some opportunities from pedestrian crossings.
I spent most of my time on Flemington Road which is basically the section of line from EPIC/Race Course to Gungahlin, but I stayed between the Federal Highway and pretty much Sandford St station. I parked the car at the EPIC park and ride and walked along Flemington St, shooting across the road (I generally like to shoot wide to get in the tram side adverts – I used a 70-200m lens all weekend). There are a few shots right near EPIC where you can get Telstra Tower in the background. I didn’t check out the Gungahlin end of the network.
For
the mornings (in winter) on Flemington Rd, the sun favours west bound (to
Gungahlin) running which means that you can have poles to contend with in some
locations as they are running on the furthest line. Some spots on
Flemington Rd have poles on the far side which is good and you can also shoot
at intersections a bit more head on to avoid poles as well. West of
Sandford St is a decent hill which can be interesting for shots.
Peak
running is Monday to Friday roughly between 7-9am, so trams are running in each
direction every 5 minutes. After 9am the trams run back from the CBD to
the maintenance centre, so between 9-10am you still get a tram every 5 minutes
between Alinga St and EPIC. During the peak, 12 of the 14 trams are in
operation, which means that if you wait for an hour, you should see all 12
trams on the network (or wait 30 minutes if you are near the network mid-point).
These trams are very similar to the Sydney light rail (qty 16) and the Newcastle light rail (qty 6).
Enjoy!
11 July 2024
Return of the K&S Curtain
The red and white K&S curtain is synonymous with the National Rail era however in the past decade (or longer) they have been few and far between.
There are a few kicking around, interestingly most are fresh curtains fitted to older Royal Wolf bodies.
Photoed during July 2024 below is RWTU 903018-8 heading from Perth to Sydney.
09 July 2024
PERR SCFU Curtains
Have noticed a few SCF 48ft curtain siders kicking around on Aurizon TGE services with PERR markings over the SCFU markings.
Here are PERR 823168-8 and 823173-3.