Railway Digest Magazine Dec-14 Back Issue

Northern Sydney Freight Corridor Update
The opening of the Australian Rail Track Corporation’s Southern Sydney Freight Line on 21 January 2013 enabled freight trains from Melbourne and southern NSW to travel between Macarthur, near Campbelltown, to the Chullora area and on to Port Botany without impinging on Sydney Trains’ suburban passenger network. However, that restriction remains for freight services travelling along the Northern Line in the Sydney area as they have to share tracks with passenger trains on the line to Newcastle. John Hoyle reports on the progress of the imaginative scheme currently being implemented to ease congestion on the northern route.

The Pacific National PB Class Locomotive
Peter Clark takes a look at Pacific National’s new PB Class, the second ‘generator set’ locomotive type in Australia, following the 1200 Class from the same manufacturer, NREC. These locomotives are the first new locomotives purchased by PN specifically for use on the Port Kembla industrial network serving the Bluescope steelworks, and follow a long line of specialised locomotives built for that purpose.

Parliamentary report into WA’s freight rail network
Much of the WA Government’s current policy on the freight rail network is based on a 2009 report titled Strategic grain network report (SGNR). The SGNR developed the rail line categories Tier 1, 2 and 3 to refer to the economic efficiency and viability of each line. David Whiteford examines the implications of the recent Parliamentary report into management of WA’s freight rail network.