The presentation Pilbara Power 1995 & 2001 covered operations of heavy iron ore trains in the Pilbara at those dates, and included the railway companies of BHP Iron Ore, Hamersley Iron, Robe River and the merged (Hamersley & Robe) Pilbara Rail. This presentation, Pilbara Review 2019 Pt 2 Dampier & Cape Lambert, gives a close comparison of the current operator of these locations in 2019, which is Rio Tinto, and the previous operators, now part of Rio Tinto, these being Hamersley Iron and Robe.
In 2001, after take over action, Rio Tinto brought Hamersley Iron and Robe River Rail operations under the common banner of Pilbara Rail. Shortly after Rio Tinto undertook more merging of other operations, leading to the emergence of Pilbara Iron. February 1995 saw delivery of 29 General Electric 9-44CWs, the 70 Class for Hamersley and 94 Class for Robe. These eventually started to move to the common Pilbara Rail and subsequently to Pilbara Iron livery, although today many are still in their original delivery colours. Since 2007 a total of 97 General Electric ES44DCi (the 81 Class) have been accepted by Rio Tinto rail operations.
Rio Tinto recently introduced some autonomous (driverless) iron ore trains operating out of Cape Lambert. These trains, which when operating in AutoHaul mode have blue lights illuminated on the roof of the lead locomotive, are monitored by operators in Perth, some 1500km away.
Approximate run time: 183 minutes.