Northern Coal 2013 Pt 1 & Northern Coal 2013 Pt 2 followed the path of empty coal trains from the Newcastle (Port Waratah/Kooragang Island) area to Singleton and from Singleton out to the extremities of the coal operation on the Main North Line to Narrabri respectively. In Northern Coal 2013 Pt 3, we start to follow loaded trains on the return journey, in this case from Narrabri though to Willow Tree.
In addition to loaded coal trains, we also view loaded grain trains, including those operated by QUBE and PacNat. We also make a short deviation up the line towards Tamworth where we catch and follow a loaded QUBE containerised grain train heading for Newcastle. We take a brief look around the Gunnedah Whitehaven coal loader balloon loop, the Gunnedah goods yard and the Werris Creek maintenance depot, view the displaced and replaced Braefield passing loop and the extended passing loops at Breeza and Willow Tree. Grain is seen being loaded at both Curlewis and Willow Tree silos.
Locomotives seen include EL, L, 80, T (stationary), RL, TT, VL, XRN, 11, 48 (active and stored), 482, 49/MM (stationary), 80 (stored), 81 and 82 Class in the liveries of CFCLA, Freight Corp, Grain Corp, Independent Rail, Manildra Group, PacNat, QUBE, SRA and Xstrata whilst passenger traffic is represented by CountryLink’s Explorers.
Approximate run time: 99 minutes.