Morning Mayhem

 

On the morning of 6th March 1984, 2 VHGY's were derailed at Lal Lal blocking services on the Ballarat - Geelong line. This resulted in a busy morning at Ballarat with a number of Geelong bound trains being held in Ballarat yard. 

The first movement observed was B69 running to the carriage sheds to pick up the set of cars forming the 8122 pass to Melbourne. B69 then shunted the set with a consist of  CW-AW-BW-BW-BW to platform 1, . This was the first working of a full wooden carriage set on a Ballarat passenger train since 1983, with this set having arrived at Ballarat overnight on the 8135 pass. 

At 7:45am B69 departs Ballarat with 8122 pass to Melbourne. T359 sits in arrival and departure sidings with a block grain working from Litchfield waiting for the derailment at Lal Lal to be cleared. W250 assembles the Flour Mill pilot within the yard. 

At 8:35am W250 on the 75 Flour Mill pilot pushes 2xVHGY, a VLBY and VPFX towards the Garden City Flour Mill. 

W250 returned 28 minutes later with a KMQ with a flour container and a VLCX loaded with pallets of bagged flour.

At 9:40am B81 arrives at Ballarat on the 8105 Down Horsham pass. Before the Horsham pass departs, S310 arrives on the 8130 Up Dimboola pass. It isn't common for both platforms to be in use at the same time.

At 9:50am S310 snakes its way through Ballarat yard on the 8130 Up Dimboola pass.

At 10:55am recently repainted X32 arrives at Ballarat on the 8109 pass. X32 uncouples from the cars, pulls forward across Lydiard Street and reverses down the no.2 road to run around the cars to form return service to Melbourne.

Whilst X32 waits departure time with the 8134 pass, X50 runs past via no.4 road with 9146 Adelaide - Melbourne Express Goods. X50 will run ahead of 8134 pass to Box Bank loop.

  

At 11:15am DRC43 arrives on the Up Donald railmotor. Melbourne bound passengers will transfer to 8134 pass in platform 1.  

 

With X32 on 8134 pass at the platform 1 and DRC43 at platform 2, T354 arrives via No.3 road on the 222 block gypsum train from Nowingi. 222 will be held in the No.3 road and will follow X32 on 8134 pass once it clears the section Ballarat East - Warrenheip.

DRC43 runs to Ballarat East Locomotive Depot to refuel at the fuel point.

At 11:45am X32 departs Ballarat on 8134 pass to Melbourne. T359 on a short block of GH's still waits for the derailment at Lal Lal to be cleared. T354 on the block gypsum train can be seen stabled in no.3 road back at the station.

At 11:52am Y152 arrived in Ballarat yard on a short 392 Pittong - Ballarat Goods. The train consists of  4 open wagons with shipping containers loaded with Kaolin and a ZL. 

Refueling complete, DRC43 is stabled at the carriage shed sidings until required to run the afternoon service to Donald.

With the derailment at Lal Lal finally cleared, T354 departs at 12:10pm for Geelong on the 222 block gypsum train.

Y152 runs to Ballarat East Loco and stables around the turntable. W250 shunts the kaolin loading from Pittong into no.7 siding in Ballarat yard. These wagons will be attached to the 9170 Ballarat - Melbourne Yard Goods. 

W250 then prepares the workshops pilot, departing at 12:35pm pushing a VFAA, HR and VPFX to Ballarat North. Now that T354 has cleared the section Ballarat East - Warrenheip, T359 will finally depart for Geelong after a 5 hour delay in Ballarat yard.