New Manildra Trains

The last two months of 2024 has seen the introduction of new locos and wagons for Manildra Group, being operated by SSR.  

Here are a few photos of new Manildra services on the main south NSW.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wishing you a happy new year for 2025.

Enjoy!

 

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QTKR Reefers

Have come across a pair of QTKR 46'6 reefers in the last week on BM/MB services.  

These are former TOLL 4CB reefers that have been painted all white and only carry the QTKR code and numbers 0053 and 0054.  

If anyone knows the new owners of these, please leave a comment.

Enjoy!

 

New Primary Connect Reefers

Turning up this week on Melb-Bris services were wo brand new Primary Connect 46'6 reefers.

Number PCTN 221330 and 221331, they appear to be from the same supplier/factory as the SRTF reefers.

The fridge unit is a Carrier HE19.

While Primary Connect boxes are somewhat common on the Darwin line, apart from the two Lindsay Reefers, we don't often see the Woolworths distribution company branding, Primary Connect, on the the east coast.  

Enjoy!

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 Earlier in the year new 48ft Sadleirs boxes started turning up, about 30 in total.  The other day I scored a new 40ft box being SLGC 400156-7.  Appear to be at least 60 or so of these.  

As per the 48ft boxes, these too are Seaco supplied.

Enjoy!

 

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!

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!