Mornings through Ballarat North included an interesting mix of trains, from the Overland to the local flour mill and Redan Pilots, to an Up Dimboola and Down Horsham pass.
At 0650 the sun is only starting to rise as Y170 on no.72 Redan - Ballarat Pilot glides downhill towards Ballarat. The loading includes 2x VFLX and VLCX from freezer sidings trailed by ZL333. This ZL is restricted to local Redan pilots.
At 0710 the Overland slows as it approaches the MacArthur St crossing. Today the Overland is hauled by freshly repainted S310 with a grubby S305. There is no parcels van or monorail wagon behind the locos so there won't be a need for any shunting at Ballarat and the train should be able to make up the 5minutes its behind the schedule.
At 0751, the horn of Y170 sounds as it approaches the Doveton Street crossing on the no.75 Flour Mill pilot. Y170 is pushing it's load of 4 x GY-FJ=VPFX as it avoids a runaround move and makes shunting the flour mill sidings easier. The GYs arrived at Ballarat overnight with grain from the silo at Skipton while the FJ and VPFX are empty for loading with flour.
Once the Y has reached Ballarat C Box, the points are thrown and the train reverses into the mill sidings. The Y couples to 2 VPFX loaded with flour for Williamstown in the through siding and then pushes them through to the Doveton St sidings.
It then returns down the through siding pushing the GYs into the loop. It then pushes the VPFX and FJ to the end of the siding near MacArthur St.
These will be positioned under the loading shoots later in the day. The Y retrieves the 2 × VPFX stored in the Doveton St sidings and then couples to 3 empty GYs and returns to Ballarat yard. The flour hoppers will be attached to the Ballarat = Melbourne goods this evening. The GYs will be combined with empties in the yard and from the mill at Redan to form a wheat special to Berriwillock overnight.
At 0935 X48 bangs through the double slip that forms the junction of the Serviceton and Mildura lines with the 8130 Dimboola - Melbourne pass. Instead of the usual consist of an N set, today it has a mix consist of red wooden cars and blue and orange steel cars (BCE-AS=BRS=BWL). This is most likely the result of the failure of a car before departure from Spencer St the previous day with a set of equalivent capacity being substituted.
Twenty minutes later B81 powers up the grade with the 8105 Melbourne = Horsham pass with a consist of VBPY=BN=BRN=ACN.
The final train of the morning is C501 on a very long interstate goods. It had been delayed for a number of hours after C503 had failed near Box Bank loop. C501 was dispatched from South Dynon to replace C503. The defective loco was detached at Ballarat and shunted to Ballarat East Loco for repairs with C501 continuing the run west solo.
At 0650 the sun is only starting to rise as Y170 on no.72 Redan - Ballarat Pilot glides downhill towards Ballarat. The loading includes 2x VFLX and VLCX from freezer sidings trailed by ZL333. This ZL is restricted to local Redan pilots.
At 0710 the Overland slows as it approaches the MacArthur St crossing. Today the Overland is hauled by freshly repainted S310 with a grubby S305. There is no parcels van or monorail wagon behind the locos so there won't be a need for any shunting at Ballarat and the train should be able to make up the 5minutes its behind the schedule.
At 0751, the horn of Y170 sounds as it approaches the Doveton Street crossing on the no.75 Flour Mill pilot. Y170 is pushing it's load of 4 x GY-FJ=VPFX as it avoids a runaround move and makes shunting the flour mill sidings easier. The GYs arrived at Ballarat overnight with grain from the silo at Skipton while the FJ and VPFX are empty for loading with flour.
Once the Y has reached Ballarat C Box, the points are thrown and the train reverses into the mill sidings. The Y couples to 2 VPFX loaded with flour for Williamstown in the through siding and then pushes them through to the Doveton St sidings.
It then returns down the through siding pushing the GYs into the loop. It then pushes the VPFX and FJ to the end of the siding near MacArthur St.
These will be positioned under the loading shoots later in the day. The Y retrieves the 2 × VPFX stored in the Doveton St sidings and then couples to 3 empty GYs and returns to Ballarat yard. The flour hoppers will be attached to the Ballarat = Melbourne goods this evening. The GYs will be combined with empties in the yard and from the mill at Redan to form a wheat special to Berriwillock overnight.
At 0935 X48 bangs through the double slip that forms the junction of the Serviceton and Mildura lines with the 8130 Dimboola - Melbourne pass. Instead of the usual consist of an N set, today it has a mix consist of red wooden cars and blue and orange steel cars (BCE-AS=BRS=BWL). This is most likely the result of the failure of a car before departure from Spencer St the previous day with a set of equalivent capacity being substituted.
Twenty minutes later B81 powers up the grade with the 8105 Melbourne = Horsham pass with a consist of VBPY=BN=BRN=ACN.
The final train of the morning is C501 on a very long interstate goods. It had been delayed for a number of hours after C503 had failed near Box Bank loop. C501 was dispatched from South Dynon to replace C503. The defective loco was detached at Ballarat and shunted to Ballarat East Loco for repairs with C501 continuing the run west solo.
Absolutely brilliant modeling. Great captions for your photos. Thanks
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it, I'm trying to do more regular blogs while we have COVID19 restrictions. Unfortunately progress on the layout has slowed as the workbench has been turned into home office.
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