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.

CQBY 2162 is a third series CQBY from Rail First.  These were build for maximum flexibility in loading and have a lot of pin positions.  CQBY wagons were heavily used in CRT traffic in the mid to late 2000s.

CQGY 549 is unique in being one of only three of 75 CQGY wagons painted in light blue for CRT.  CRT never took up the lease on the CQGY wagons which was being negotiated around the time of the Cargo Sprinter.  Those with a good memory will recall the Cargo Sprinter trialling with light blue painted VQCY wagons.  The CQGY wagons can handle 30ft containers as they were designed to handle the CFCLA 30ft grain containers (of which there were 24).  

RQGY 35017 is a long term 30ft capable wagon, being converted back in the Freightrail/Freightcorp days to handle CRT traffic between Yennora and Altona.  4 x RQGY wagons were sold to Ettamogah Rail Hub (owned by the former owner of CRT) for 30ft traffic but they haven't entered service.

Enjoy!   

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! 

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

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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).

Hopefully it gets corrected in the near future.

Enjoy!

Coregas Tube Skid

Scored this the other week on a Perth to Sydney job.   It is a 8 tube Compressed Hyrdogen skid for Coregas running as H586 / AFLU 100323-0.  

Manufactured by NK, this looks to be a TT08-2250 with a water capacity of just over 18,000L and a gas capacity of 3173 cubic metres.  

Enjoy!

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Rod in Coil

The IFRU (Infrabuild) flatracks frequently carry long lengths of reobar (see post) however during July a Melbourne to Brisbane service was sighted with rod in coil which I haven't seen before on these flatrack.

Two loads were in a 6 x 2 configuration and the other is a 8 x 1 config.  

Neat load, and check out how they are strapped down and together.

Enjoy!

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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.    

001 - Flemington Road / EPIC Stn.  NAIDOC Week.

 

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.

003 - Northbourne Ave / Alinga St Stn.  Technology One.

004 - Flemington Road / Federal Highway.  Village Building Co.

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. 

006 - Flemington Road / Sandford St Stn.  PAWS - Safety.  The other side has a Super Hero theme.

007 - Flemington Road / EPIC Stn.  ING

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.    

 

009 - Flemington Road / EPIC Stn.  Uni Super.  This tram was rebranded from a smaller Asics advert overnight.

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).

 

011 - Flemington Road / EPIC Stn.  MenuLog.

During my time, I noted the same 12 trams in service each day (both 002 and 005 where not in operation at all and appear to have been out for the past 6-7 days; possibly for battery installation or heavy maintenance).  

Interestingly, at least one tram was rebranded overnight, coming out on Tuesday fully blue for UniSuper, after having Asics adverts on Monday.  Most of the branding and advertising looks pretty good.  Some nice fully marked trams are getting around with only 012 still a cleanskin (at least on one side).    

012 - Flemington Road / Sandford St Stn.  CMET no adverts on this side.

014 - Flemington Road / EPIC stn.  Don't be bait - Safety.  The other side has Don't get cracked branding.

The safety messages on 006 and 014 are well done,  and they span the window line only and are different on both sides.  

These trams are very similar to the Sydney light rail (qty 16) and the Newcastle light rail (qty 6).  

Enjoy!

 

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!