The final look back at what graced the rails in western NSW during 2024, not everything was covered, as attention here was diverted to harvest, but close to it.

It was indeed an interesting year with Pacific National being knocked off it's position as Australia's biggest rail freight operator, the title is now held by Aurizon.

Aurizon/TGE's Sydney to Perth WA intermodal service is now over one year old and they have taken a few customers off rivals Pacific National and SCT. Pacific National has been cancelling the Adelaide-Brisbane intermodals as they are uneconomical to operate. The slack is being picked up by the Sydney-Perth intermodal services in both directions.

Pacific National has been placing large numbers of locomotives in "short term" storage as they are deemed "surplus to requirements". The "AN" class, 81 and 48 class are the latest targets, also some NR class have been stored from time to time. Many say the "G" and "BL" class down south are also on borrowed time.

The much touted and promoted "94" class are also an issue as they have weight problems restricting them from the NSW main western line, for which they were intended. Seems they will be relegated to the main south for the time being.

The "assist" locomotives, that provide that extra power to get the train over the Blue Mountains, has fallen back to the "NR" class, it's been well over one year since an "AN", "TT" or 93 class have been seen at Goobang Junction NSW.

Southern Shorthaul Railroad cemented its presence in western NSW with the Manildra Group contract, taken from Pacific National in November 2024. Some say SSR has bitten off more that than they can chew with ongoing motive power issues and a shortage of crews.

SSR didn't get off to a very good start with the Manildra Group with some Safe Working breaches, a couple of derailments and locomotive failures causing delays to both the bulk flour and grain train services. The biggest issue that SSR has in general, is their aging locomotive fleet and the costs and time to keep maintaining them.

The Manildra Group hasn't had a very good 2024, a silo collapse at Bomaderry NSW and a fire at the flour mill at Manildra NSW adding to their rail operations woes. The Chinese made "MGHH" two pack bulk flour hoppers, built by CRRC-Meishan, in China have proved to be a headache with venting issues during loading and leakage problems from the wagon doors. At one stage 85% of the MGHH hoppers were booked "out-of-service".

Currently the Manildra Group have only two branch line locomotives in service, the two "MM" class former SRA of NSW 49 class. So servicing the grain facilities at Tottenham and Trundle NSW is left to the aging SSR branch line loco's until Manildra procure their own. They currently have three or four "T" class branch liners at SSR's Bendigo VIC workshops for "reactivation."

Specialised Container Transport (SCT) have also had their share of headache in 2024 with locomotive failures making trains up to a day late. Both the "SCT" and "CSR" class experiencing reliability issues throughout the year with SCT leasing locomotives from RFAM.

The first series "CSR" class SDA1's are starting to show their age, things were so bad that SCT hired some aging EMD locomotives from the railway heritage group at Seymour VIC to keep trains running.

Currently they are leasing "CF" class locomotives from RFAM. It was rumoured in late December 2023 that SCT has ordered a further 12 CSR class "Generation-3" locomotives (with a V16 rather that the V20 prime mover) from CRRC-Ziyang, although nothing is confirmed.

Qube Logistics has also been quietly picking up a few grain contracts in western NSW and like the others, often have locomotive reliability issues. The former Danish owned "Country Split" MZ 1400 class locomotives are being gradually withdrawn from service as the new QE and QL class come into service.

Like SSR and the Manildra Group, modern branch line locomotives are scarce as the proverbial hens teeth with Qube Logistics, and thus aging ALCO and EMD units, most well over 50 years old continue to plod along with the usual reliability issues. The spare parts pool to keep them running is also slowly drying up.

During 2024 numerous new rolling stock appeared on the main west, most of it built in China, 40 and 60 foot container flat tops, AWAY well wagons (used for double stacking of containers) and MGIH two-pack grain wagons plus the two pack MGHH bulk flour hoppers for the Manildra Group. The only Australian built seen out this way was the "CQPY" 40 footers built by RFAM.

Locomotive emission levels will see the "retirement" of many of the aging ALCO and EMD units over 50 years old. "Pollution Kits" are available for them but are deemed too expensive to install. Loco's that fail to meet the emission levels set down by government will be put off the road. 2030 has been set as the year these emission levels will come into force.

Saturday 04th of January 2025.

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