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.

Enjoy!

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.

Enjoy!

Former CSL box now Royal Wolf

SLZU 740004-0 is now RWLU 740004-0 with a simple paint out and a HIRE ME sticker added.  

The first run of the 740000 series CSL boxes date back to 2015, with several batches coming out over the years including a large batch (~200) marked as Strait Link (SLFD) appearing in early 2023.  

Now marked for Royal Wolf, 740004 some 10 years old.

As a comparable shot, this is SLZU 740001 sighted in 2023.

Here is SLZU 700069 from back in 2015 when it was fresh.

Enjoy!

Niche Logistics Containers

Niche Logistics containers started appearing around 6 months ago running primarily between Perth and Melbourne, with the some boxes running Perth to Sydney.  

It has taken me a while to get a shot, but finally, I scored FMHU 120232-1 on PS7 earlier this week.

The boxes are coded FMHU, with the FMH prefix representing the ownership of Niche by FMH Group.  Also within FMH group are large road transport companies like Bagtrans and Border Express. 

Based on sighting, there appears to be between 30-40 bright green general purpose 48ft containers with Niche, and 5 x curtain siders.  

Enjoy!

 

Wridgways

After going into liquidation in mid 2021, Wridgways containers quickly got rebranded to Royal Wolf after only being in service for about 24 months.  
From what I have seen, this batch was numbered from 401-750 or there abouts, with the WWRW code.  

Anyway, it is pretty rare to see a fully marked one still getting around as most have been rebranded with the Royal Wolf logo.  The below sightings are from May 2024. 

WWRW 000459 - In original condition

RWTU 000601 with the Royal Wolf logo

RWLU 000691 with the logo and HIRE ME panel.  I believe the 'L' stands for Wold Lock, which is a anti-theft design of door lock applied by Royal Wolf.

Prior to the green WWRW boxes, early Wridgways were a royal blue colour container and were coded WWTR and in the 990000 series.  There are also WWSF series which appear to be numbered pre 000400 series (probably 000001-000400), which were a light grey colour.  Many of these boxes were painted green prior to liquidation.

 

New Breeze Reefers - 10 Years on!

Its hard to believe that the little eskimo on Breeze Logistics (BRZC) containers started appearing 10 years ago.  I have documented the Breeze fleet here on my blog, and it is with great excitement to report new Breeze marked containers.  

During May (2024) a number of new SCFU 46'6 reefers have appears with the eskimo.  Similar to the last batch that appeared in 2020, these too have the SCFU markings rather than BRZC markings.  

Sighted so far are SCFU 823216-0, 823219-6, 823220-0, so possibly at least 5 units if they are sequential.  

These are fitted with a Carrier Vector refrigeration unit and stand out with the bright orange 40ft lifting posts.  

Enjoy!

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Classic SSR Combo

Due to a derailment in Cootamundra, the mainline loco was blocked in the yard, resulting in a whole bunch of branchliners continuing the train from Lake Cargelligo to Maldon.  

Here are a couple of quick shots in the Cullerin Ranges between Goulburn and Yass NSW.  

Enjoy!

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DHL Container

Never seen one of these before.  GLQU 101022-1 is a 22G1 type container painted for DHL.  Sticker on the side say 'Bulk Liquid Handle with Care".  

Enjoy!

Funky Load!

You don't get cool loads like this very often on the east coast.  I have seen photos of these same loads going to WA in recent months.

Here we have RQJW 60016 loaded with an Austrans special.  An SLZU 800000 series flatrack, carrying a VATN 48ft container skel trailer, carrying another SLZU flatrack, carrying another VATN skel trailer.  

Super cool load.  These two were likely headed to Brisbane, and another two were on a following MB4 service also.

Enjoy!

 

StraitLink Reefer Recodes

Noticed during March that some of the StraitLink 40+ reefers are being recoded and numbered to ISO standards.  It was only a few months ago that the newest units started getting logos as discussed in my post here.

Formerly TSHR (Toll Shipping), they are now coded SLHR (StraitLink), and have had a prefix added to the old number, plus a check letter.  I'm not entirely sure why the older unit has a 10 prefix and the new unit has a 40 prefix although maybe as more are converted the logic will become clear?

Newish unit TSHR 2201 is now SLHR 402201-9.

Former TSHR 1414 is now SLHR 101414-9.  

Enjoy!