Summit Tank To Unanderra Cab View (Steepest Continual Railway Grade In Australia)

Construction began on the Unanderra - Moss Vale line in June 1925 and was completed in August 1932 with the rail industry eager for a direct link between Moss Vale and Wollongong/Port Kembla. Today the line sees only freight with the occasional heritage train traversing the line with ticketed passengers. Summit Tank where this video begins has an old station and is situated around 575m above sea level. Unanderra where this video ends has an elevation of just 14m above sea level making for a steep descent down to the South Coast of NSW. This video takes place in real time as a fully loaded grain train drops from Summit Tank to Unanderra heading to Wollongongs Inner Harbour. Drivers utilise both Dynamic and train braking to get the load down the Illawarra Mountain safely. Trains heading to Wollongong must not reach a maximum speed of over 30km/h, due to the steep grades it is thought that any speed reached over 30 train crew may not be able to bring the train to a stand again. Crew will usually aim to keep the train travelling at no more than 25-28km/h making for a relatively slow but safe trip. The hold test conducted at Summit Tank indicates to drivers the time in which it takes from releasing the brakes to when the train starts rolling, this indication gives a rough idea as to how long it takes for the brakes to fully release on the train. The video has been posted without sound out of respect for crew privacy.

[@kevharper1378]

I worked this line in the 80's, mainly at Dombarton and briefly at Summit Tank. The views were incredible. I also worked as a site officer during the reconstruction and duplication works for the disbanded Maldon Dombarton project, thanks LNP Mr Greiner. In this video it has all changed so much that I couldn't recognise Dombarton at all, not where you labelled it that's just the portal where the tunnel was to be built, The old signal box was about 2km up from there (down the hill). I also took a group of track machines up the line once and caught the railmotor back from Mossvale in thick fog. Too bad they don't use this line for passenger services anymore.

[@davidelliott5738]

Thanks for the video - great! Reminds me of when I was teaching in Bowral in the 1960s, a friend of mine was teaching in a small school near Robertson. He arranged with the station master at Robertson for us to go for a cab ride down to Unanderra. I didn't get out to Robertson in time after school, so I drove out to the old Ocean View station (now gone), dumped the car in the paspalum beside the road, and made it up to the platform to join the train there. The drivers were good enough to stop the train for me. Two 44s were looking after the train, and they were running number 2 end first. At Summit Tank, a couple of 44s had assisted a train up the hill, and they were hooked on to the front of our train. That gave two more locos with dynamic braking. So my friend and I joined the crew in the front locos. On arrival at Unanderra, the crew let us off in line with another train waiting to tackle the grade up the escarpment. We spoke to the crew of that train and they let us on board. To add interest to the trip, light rain was falling by this stage, so we saw how the wheel-slip management worked - sand wasn't enough. That occurred quite a few time, especially near the top of the grade. At Summit Tank we had to go back to the following loco, to complete the trip because the lead locos were returning to Unanderra. The 44s' cabs weren't all that well noise-proofed, so it was nigh-on impossible to converse with the crew. But they were all friendly - all four sets of them. Best of all my car was still there waiting patiently in the long grass at Ocean View when my friend drove me back to pick it up.

[@bradharrison644]

Great video. I enjoy watching your content. Looking forward to the next ones

[@user-un9th2oi7g]

This run was pretty stressful but I still enjoyed it I guess I was lucky I did many round trips with over 3000 tonnes without incidents

[@slepper98]

Good one.

[@sydneylightrailfan290]

Do you think they will ever run normal passenger services like opal ever agin??

[@payneful165aap7]

Great video! Such a picturesque line. But no sound…. Or just me?

[@justinwilliams9291]

There is no sound due to protect the privacy of the train crew

[@south_coast_freight_]

Yes video was posted without sound out of respect to the crew

[@peejay1981]

@@south_coast_freight_ If you have the know how you could try and run the audio through "Ultimate Vocal Remover" to remove the voices from the sound.

[@Sebastian.Roberts367]

since when did you hit 1k subscribers

[@nathandunnn]

Is that a VL class loco?

[@south_coast_freight_]

Yes

[@nathandunnn]

@@south_coast_freight_ recognised the thing on the bottom left corner of the frame (forgot what it is), assuming thats an SSR grainy. Also, how did you get this footage?

[@billy3424]

NO SOUND, NO GOOD.

[@south_coast_freight_]

Ok do better