Flour Mill Pilot

The Garden City Flour Mill at Ballarat North is serviced by 3 pilot workings each weekday. The busiest is the afternoon pilot, which is used to deliver grain to the mill and clear VPFX flour hoppers and VLCX lourve vans. 

VLCX and VLBY lourve vans and are loaded with pallets of bagged flour from the sheds at the Macarthur Street end of the flour mill sidings. These vans are forwarded overnight on 9170 Ballarat - Melbourne Goods to the Melbourne Freight Centre for distribution to suburban bakeries.

Flour transported in FJ and VPCX hopper wagons and in flour containers on KMQ or KQ flat wagons are loaded from the loop siding via pipes that run above the grain unloading bay. This creates complicated shunting moves as the hopper wagons need to be moved each time the pilot enters the flour mill sidings. 

Y170 rounds the curve past the Doveton Street Sidings with the Afternoon Flour Mill Pilot. The load consists of an empty VPFX flour hopper, 4 x GH hoppers loaded with wheat from Cope Cope, and an empty lourve van.

Y170 arrives at the mill. The loco will pause near the Macarthur Street gates, while the points are changed to provide access to the mill sidings. The VPFX hopper in the loop will need to be pushed clear to allow the grain hoppers to be placed in the siding with the grain discharge pit.

Y170 pushes its load into the mill sidings,couples to the VPFX and pushes the wagons towards the Doveton Street sidings. The push button on post will be used to activate the boom gates on Doveton Street.

 

The VPFX is pushed into one of the dead end sidings. The flour hopper is uncoupled and the Y pulls forward back down the loop siding. Open wagons with briquettes await unloading in the adjacent siding. The loaded GH wagons are awaiting room in the mill siding.

The points are changed and Y170 pulls into the siding with the grain discharge pit. 

Y170 couples upto the VHGY and two empty GHs at the discharge pit.

The Y then pushes the empty grain wagons forward to couple onto a VLCX lourve van loaded with pallets of bagged flour. 

Y170 then runs back out into the loop siding, It's now sandwiched between the wagons that it collected from the discharge siding. The VLCX, 2xGH and the VHGY are pushed out onto the mainline.  

Y170 then uses the points to run to the end of the discharge siding adjacent to MacArthur Street. 

Y170 then reverses up the discharge siding to the Doveton Street sidings collecting two GY's on the way. Here it will collect the 3 loaded GH's that were awaiting space in the mill siding.

Y170 then runs down the discharge pit siding stopping when the GH's are over the discharge pit. The Y is then used to move the hoppers to discharge grain into the pit below the siding. 

The Y uses the loop to reverse back onto the rake of wagons that it brought from Ballarat yard and pushes these towards the Doveton Street sidings.

The VLCX and GH's are shunted into one of the sidings, while the VPFX is shunted into the adjacent siding.

The Y couples to the VLCX and GH's and runs back to the mill.

The GH's with wheat from Cope Cope are left at Doveton Street end of the siding. The Y uncouples and runs forward, the points are switched and the Y reverses back out onto the loop siding.

Y runs to the points near the Doveton Street level crossing. The points are changed and the Y runs forward to pick up the VLCX off the end of the rake of GH grain hoppers.

Once the points are changed the Y pushes the VLCX to sheds at the Macarthur Street end of the mill.

The van will be loaded with bagged flour by night shift at the mill.

Y170 then runs down to the Doveton Street sidings to pick up the two VPFX hoppers. It then runs forward along the loop siding stopping adjacent to the discharge pit.

The hoppers will be loaded overnight (via the overhead loading pipes) and picked up by the morning flour mill pilot

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Y170 couples up to the wagons left on the mainline and departs for Ballarat yard.