I live a few doors along Coleman St from the Bourke st level crossing in Wagga. We have a good view of the railway line. The "empty" train goes through around 7am heading north to Port Kembla. A few hours later, the loaded train heading south passes here before mid-day. The times vary quite a bit. I enjoyed your video - well done.

The Alexandra Timber Tramway at various times were interested in extending beyond what amounts to a circular loop around the station and back with a few works sidings... one option was to extend back to Koriella (originally Alexandra Siding), with the possibility of Yea or Bonnie Doon eventually - this was before Rail Trails were even considered... the more promising option was to reconstruct the original Tramway to the Rubicon Forest, initially to the timber mill 500m away.

I think it was a slip of the tongue.... it's Menzies Creek in the Dandenongs (ie. former Emerald/Gembrook line / Puffing Billy), the long serving bus company in the Yarra Valley is McKenzie's - they operate the Route 684 formerly Spencer Street to Eildon via Healesville, Marysville and Alexandra, since curtailed to Ringwood - Eildon via Healesville, Marysville and Alexandra. As for the Healesville station, it seems similar in design to Alexandra, down to the forestry infrastructure. There were very vague plans at one stage to extend the line from Healesville to Marysville and even Alexandra.

What do they do with the coils at Hastings?

The "Spirit of healesville" rumbled through platform 3 at Burnley around 1983 and I haven't since it since. Electric suburban trains must be extended to Yarra Glen as a priority.

They go right past the Frankston cricket ground. Players think it is an omen and a wicket will fall.

Good info on this commonly seen freight train,living at Glenhuntly on the Frankston line very familar with the steel train,coming home recently after 9pm saw it travel through the new trench railway through glenhuntly 👍

Re your comment about coil weights ... a loaded RCJF is anywhere from 65 to 76 tonnes, depending on coil size. The tare weight of an RCJF is 22 tonnes, so each coil is around 21 to 27 tonnes, definitely a weight requiring a great deal of respect when being moved by the reach stackers. Obviously precise placement of the coils in the cradles is important for balance & weight distribution, sometimes necessitating the coils being repositioned before the locos can be attached. The night shift 40 block, running as 9569 can weight anywhere from 2,600 to almost 3,000 tonnes. There have been times in really poor weather, where it's raining & windy, where the climb up through Leawarra to Langwarrin is fraught with peril where loss of adhesion can get the train down to scarily slow speeds, or on a few occasions, the train stalls, unable to keep going. If unable to get it restarted, the train has to set back to Frankston to drop off part of the loading, obviously causing massive delays & service disruptions. Generally speaking, the vast majority of services run to plan, with most disruptions caused by external factors, eg : track occupations, system failures, extra Metro services, or Metro trains issues.

Always wondered where these trains went and why. Nice.

Great work, one correction for you, the weight of the majority of black steel (Raw coils) coming into Westernport weigh on average between 21 to 25 T. Ex Bluescope worker.

Another reason for keeping the Steelie - safety. Transporting rolled/coiled steel by truck is the stuff of nightmares. You need trucks or trailers with headerboards, proper drivers, yard hands that know how to load coils properly etc. The steelie working it’s way through Flinders in the evening always has commuter gunzels reaching for their phones 😀

The Long Island steel trains initially carried steel slabs, not rolled coils. The slabs were transhipped at Albury for many years. There was a hot strip mill that rolled out the coils at Hastings.

Good Effort Mate, Cheers.

Loved the journey "guide" style, would definitely watch more freight journey vids!!

WM7 does not travel up the grade from Unanderra to Moss Vale, but goes through Enfield. The returning empty MW7 does use the Unanderra line.

Thanks for the video. I drove one of the very first of these from North Melbourne (second crew change over) to Lysaghts while a driver at South Dynon Loco.

thanks for this valuable video as I mistakenly believed that the steel was coming from South Australia probably because trans shipment across the two gauges seemed quite silly but there you go eh, how long does that process for each train take? now when I'm suffering frequent insomnia while listening to the locomotive horns in Frankston I'll be far better informed

Liked the signal at benalla, benala b box towards Glenrowan for the main line , disc to loco ,turntable and wagon repair shed , worked benalla b in the 80,s and 90,s

Oh dear. I used to get caught by this train in the evening park hour at the Neerin Road level crossing coming up from the Westernport Mill. If I wasn’t there by a certain time I’d sit there as it slowly crawled across the crossing then often get caught by a suburban train as well so you’d sit there for some time. Now they have got rid of that level crossing.

Another great video, well done!

Great video! How did you make the diagrams?

Well researched info. Very familiar with the process at PK as a person who used to provide data when coils were despatched from PK. n.b. Cringila has a soft G so Crin-jill-a is the local lingo. The Springhill plant (ex JLA Australia) is a finishing one for products like ZincAlume and galvanised. There is also a paint line for Colorbond. Of interest is that the famous WW2 Owen gun was produced at this plant..designed by Wollongong's genius Evelyn Owen. Such a shame to see the Iron Monarch pensioned off after she ran the route efficiently for over 30 years as a roll on /roll off vessel.

Thanks for presenting a great video. At least I now know where these coil trains go. Why don't they just make one of the railway line in Dynon yard dual guage and also the line to the long island steel mill at Hastings. This would alleviate the need to transfer the coils at Dynon yard.

Nice video!

It often runs via Sydney to access the south line

Would you consider doing a video of the South Australian narrow gauge network from Port Lincoln to all out reaches of the Eyre Peninsular and to the far west of the state.

Thankyou for making this! I just learnt so much, and to make it better, I have seen the Long Island even when it was operated by Pacific National. Your coverage is great and very informative. The productiqon is solid and your voice is clear and understandable. Great job!

Amazing keep up the good work!

My friend lives right on the Frankston line and we see this train go past every right between midnight and 1am, we were just wondering about this exact question the other night and now this video pops up! crazy

I have had no luck filming the long island steel, 2 times i didnt know it was coming so i missed it, 1 time i thought it was going to be on the up but it was on the down and 1 time it was very very late and i had to go

You know it’s bad when PN loses a broad gauge contract. Unless SSR takes it.

W new documentary 🗿 and btw does the Long Island steel train run during Saturday or Sunday and what time does it pass through Frankston on weekend days

The line was also built on embankments (especially around Yarra glen) due to being built on large flood plains

I learned a lot from your video, very interesting, especially to see that the state gauges still cause a problem today (5:00 mark), a legacy from the colonial past.

I’ve see this train

Another mystery of the universe solved! Seen these trains many times, never knew where they came from or where they were going. Great video - thank you!!

This thing wakes me up around 2-4am every night.

Why can't they dual gauge all the way to the steel works

Australia National never operated this train, well not to Hastings. It would've come under V/Line Freight's business unit, but may have used AN power as required.

What are the steel coils used for?

Interesting, there has to be a simpler way to swap gauges, that method seems WAY to labour intensive. Alto the various operators, ending in Qube seems nuts, way to much government intervention with all those name changes.

Great video. Always wondered about this train so appreciate all your research!

Great video, you should do more freight themed stuff

Amazing video! Always like learning the history of these things! Keep up the amazing work!

Very interesting, always asked myself why there was a siding in hastings.

Under PN, the BG wagon fleet were the same RCJF's that still in use and RKLX's (what the SQSY's replaced)