Industrial Action

T331 sits shunt down on a block grain train in Ballarat yard. A yellow 8300 guards van on the rear of 9135 Melbourne - Adelaide Express Goods can be seen further down the yard in the number 2 road.

A rail strike stopped all Victorian train services from midnight 4th December 1983 in protest against the State Transport Authority's plan to close 24 regional centres.The strike delayed the movement of the state's bumper grain harvest, of approximately 30,000 tonnes a day.

The strike lasted 4 days, with the rail workers agreeing to return work after the Minister for Transport agreed to a review of the STA's plans. A working party representing the Victorian government and Australian Rail Union was established to undertake a region by region review of the centres threatened by closure. The government also agreed to railway workers affected by the closures being offered alternative positions.

So how to incorporate industrial action into operations on the model railway? All services were stopped by midnight on the Sunday 4th December. A Sunday timetable was operated but some services were cancelled (those that would not reach there destination by midnight). Other service were halted at stations/crew depots, the train secured and the locomotives shunt down.  This meant that a number goods trains were halted at Ballarat and that neither of the overnight passenger trains operated.

An almost full house at Ballarat East with T381, B65, X31 and Y111 around the turntable. S313 and S305 on a empty block grain to Dunolly have been reversed and shunt down on the Eureka branch   

T354, X48, S300, B72, Y150 and DRC 43 sit at Ballarat East awaiting the resumption of services.

In operating sessions over the next few days extra services will be operated to clear the backlog, This will include extra long interstate express goods, grain extra's, and additional workings of the Fruit Flyer and the Horsham and Mildura block oil trains.