AusTube Mills Flatracks

AusTube Mills have just taken delivery of more than 150 flatracks for steel product transport.  They are coded ATMU and are numbered in the 400000 series.  They have only started turning up on PN services this week!

If you think they look like the Infrabuild IFRU flatracks, that is because AusTube Mills is a division of  Infrabuild.  It is most likely these flatracks have come from CSL also.     

These flatracks are painted black and stand at 2.5m high (8'3") at the end posts.  The end posts are collapsible to allow stacking but the centre stanchions appear to require removal before stacking.

It appears that these may be replacing a number of older 42P3 shipping flatracks and possibly also K&S KT and KHS flatracks that have previously moved this product from the manufacturing hubs in Brisbane and Newcastle, although the K&S flatracks were moving Orrcon steel (Bluescope).    

During the week, these new ATMU flatracks have appeared on NY3, BM4, and SM2 services, with clear, black, and no wrapping around the product.  Appears the clear wrap is from Newcastle and the black is from Brisbane.  

These look awesome - Enjoy!

.

Port Chalmers Straddles

We had a great day and a half berthed at Port Chamlers, with awesome views over the container terminal.  The port is run primarily with manned Kalmar straddles and a few forklifts.  The straddles run most of the boxes to and from the stacks to under the quayside gantry cranes.

I observed over a dozen straddles running around, with both 9 and 12 metre high varieties.   Numbers 22-28 appear to be CSC 350 models (9m), 29-32 appear to be CSC 450 models (12m), 35 and 36 were diesel-electric ESC 350 models, and 37 was an ESC 450 model.  

Enjoy the shots!

 

Port Chalmers NZ

We had a day and a half in Port Chalmers, near Dunedin NZ (South Island).  It is a nice little town with a decent container and log port.

From what I can tell, trucks are pretty much banned from running to the port, and instead, there are constant port shuttles running back and forth from Dunedin.  

The shuttles are run by a DSG loco built by Toshiba in 1981, and are remote controlled by a driver on the footplate with a control pack.  

The port sidings comprise of 4 track with run arounds, and most of the freight is carried by Maersk shipping lines.  

The most interesting thing I found was that they unload and load the train with straddles.  I haven't seen this done at any other terminal but would be interested if anyone knows of a terminal where rail is loaded and unloaded with straddles.  

I was lucky enough to capture four straddles all unloading at the same time on rail.  Must have been in a hurry to strip the rake for departure.  

More port photos next week.

Enjoy! 

.