There is No need to Waste Money on things Not needed and with a loss of Victorian Pride to the People North of the River. The NSW gauge's effects are truly devastating as shown by the standardisation of the Northeast line, Half Arssed Murry Basin conversion attempt and the Standardisation of the Adelaide line and it's Tributaries. I am Victorian, a believer in NSW creating this National gauge conundrum and Gauge Diversity In this nation

Mad as a sack full of hammers!

And I am South Oz born and bred, now living in Victoria!

BG

Coupla Snags short of a BBQ !

And I'm Victorian born and bread, now living in S.A.

BigShunter.

You also Forgot Qube Logistics with
-the Pair of VLs
-The Qube and CFCLA G class
-CFCLA, Steamrail and SRHC Ts
-The 2 Preserved S class and the 'preserved' X31
-SSR's B75, SRHC B7? and The CFCLA Bs

and By the Way, I love Your videos they are Excellent

The QUBE BG grain has made its' last run, with the hoppers sat in Tottenham Yard awaiting gauge conversion (whenever AWB/Cargill decide to get around to it).

Thanks!

Perhaps It has... for now as the conversion has been put on hold it may run again. You do need to remember that Qube does more than BG grain

I'm well aware they do run other stuff on BG (I've videoed it plenty of times!) however none of it is in the area we're talking about. The closest one is the Deniliquin rice and that runs via Bendigo.

As for state parochialism, that's the reason you want to keep our rail system splintered and segregated?

As for state parochialism, that's the reason you want to keep our rail system splintered and segregated?

A most effective form of road freight advocacy.

I'm well aware they do run other stuff on BG (I've videoed it plenty of times!) however none of it is in the area we're talking about. The closest one is the Deniliquin rice and that runs via Bendigo.

As for state parochialism, that's the reason you want to keep our rail system splintered and segregated?

I'm Just A foamer @Greensleeves, It is in the Realm of possibility as the Standardisation has been halted for the Qube Grain Services to Possibly resume. However, victorias rail network has been splintered since they Converted the Adelaide line and its tributaries, Now is an island. There are ways to get around the Gauge Conundrum aside from converting major all lines, as with the murry basin lines the travel time is longer and slower as a result of a half-arsed quick fix by the government converting these lines to SG. State Patriotism is the only Reason why (yes I sound like a Victorian Ultra Nationalist).

Now Let's Not Continue this Discussion here if you wish to continue it Refer to this Thread For all future Gauge Debates as I did not mean to start a gauge war.

https://www.railpage.com.au/f-t11396342.htm

Now Back onto the topic of this thread what is going on with the works at the moment? are they still attempting to fix the Mildura and Ararat to Maryborough lines?

Maryborough to Donald has been cleared for essentially full speed at 80kph (barring any other minor restrictions), and Emu and Watchem Loops are now able to be used. Sutherland, Speed and Carwarp are yet to be recommissioned.

As for grain loading sites, both Birchip and Woomelang are able to be used. Donald Sub could in theory, however the inability to use Donald yard at the moment essentially makes it impossible. From what I saw today, it looked like Dunolly was receiving more truckloads of grain with 13 B-doubles lined up, so that might not be far from re-opening as well.

Just curious Dangersdan707, what do you think is funny about a splintered rail network encouraging the market to go for road transport? Seems like a serious subject to me.

If you just want to play trains, I would suggest forgetting about BG and focusing on HO.

Just curious Dangersdan707, what do you think is funny about a splintered rail network encouraging the market to go for road transport? Seems like a serious subject to me.

If you just want to play trains, I would suggest forgetting about BG and focusing on HO.

That The attempts to 'Standardise' Have had more negatives effect and have splintered the network in Victoria even more, thus I view it the other way round (on forcing more freight to go to road transport. I honestly Am fine with SG only on the North east line north of Mangalore Junction.     I have Marklin HO if you are curious

Just curious Dangersdan707, what do you think is funny about a splintered rail network encouraging the market to go for road transport? Seems like a serious subject to me.

If you just want to play trains, I would suggest forgetting about BG and focusing on HO.

That The attempts to 'Standardise' Have had more negatives effect and have splintered the network in Victoria even more, thus I view it the other way round (on forcing more freight to go to road transport. I honestly Am fine with SG only on the North east line north of Mangalore Junction.     I have Marklin HO if you are curious

There is truth to the statement you make as to have done this properly we should have approached the gauge issue holistically instead of piecemeal and poorly as is the case.

There is truth to the statement you make as to have done this properly we should have approached the gauge issue holistically instead of piecemeal and poorly as is the case.

Neither the Victorian or National Governments of the last few decades have had the appetite for the type of game-changing spending that it would have taken to gauge convert all Victorian freight lines (plus a couple in SA, Pinaroo and Mt Gambier to complete the puzzle).

Add to that trying to sell a multi billion dollar spend on a bunch of grain lines to whoop whoop to Jo Taxpayer in Melbourne and you end up where we are now.

Even spending $440M on the MB works was a hard sell. If it turns out that the project doesn't deliver then trying to get the next lot done might take another 100 years. And as Greensleeves and others are saying that won't be good for anyone except the truckies.

BG

The real key to the Capital cost of the great bulk of standardisation in Victoria is not the actual change of the rail gauge as this should be a relatively simple and quick exercise given adequate resources. AN proved this between Adelaide and Port Pirie and between Adelaide and Serviceton.
The real cost in Victoria is due to rectifying the enormous arrears of maintenance which have been allowed to develop over the years which, of course, should have been paid for progressively as Working Expenses.

The real key to the Capital cost of the great bulk of standardisation in Victoria is not the actual change of the rail gauge this should be a relatively simple and quick exercise given adequate resources. AN proved this between Adelaide and Port Pirie and between Adelaide and Serviceton.
The real cost in Victoria is due to rectifying the enormous arrears of maintenance which have been allowed to develop over the years which, of course, should have been paid for progressively as Working Expenses.

For which you cant blame the conversion constructor - this falls at the feet of the Victorian Transport Department.

The real key to the Capital cost of the great bulk of standardisation in Victoria is not the actual change of the rail gauge this should be a relatively simple and quick exercise given adequate resources. AN proved this between Adelaide and Port Pirie and between Adelaide and Serviceton.
The real cost in Victoria is due to rectifying the enormous arrears of maintenance which have been allowed to develop over the years which, of course, should have been paid for progressively as Working Expenses.

For which you cant blame the conversion constructor - this falls at the feet of the Victorian Transport Department.

If you are going to tender from the very start to do what will inevitably end as a shoddy job because the government has no idea of the real task you need to have all your legal ducks and due diligence in a row or your reputation and your finances will be destroyed at the very least.

It now seems very clear this work will not form a part of the MBRP project with the funding issues we are now experiencing.  Further new traffic has now commenced on the Robinvale line making a change to SG less convenient with Qube now running both grain and containers on the line.  I also link SSR might be running on that line also.

May as well lock this thread for another decade...

It now seems very clear this work will not form a part of the MBRP project with the funding issues we are now experiencing.  Further new traffic has now commenced on the Robinvale line making a change to SG less convenient with Qube now running both grain and containers on the line.  I also link SSR might be running on that line also.

Total nonsense. The Ultima siding has been built with dual-gauge sleepers anticipating gauge conversion. The business case will likely be based on the further reduction in rail-side costs that gauge conversion will bring.

Gauge conversion has merely been postponed.

I'll let you in on a secret: no freight operator (with the possible exception of SSR) actually likes running on Backwater Gauge these days. It's a separate rollingstock fleet that needs to be maintained in addition to all of their SG fleet. There's a reason that none of the operators have bothered to gauge-convert modern motive power - it just doesn't stack up commercially for them.

It now seems very clear this work will not form a part of the MBRP project with the funding issues we are now experiencing.  Further new traffic has now commenced on the Robinvale line making a change to SG less convenient with Qube now running both grain and containers on the line.  I also link SSR might be running on that line also.

Qube Has left broad gauge Grain operations market.

It now seems very clear this work will not form a part of the MBRP project with the funding issues we are now experiencing.  Further new traffic has now commenced on the Robinvale line making a change to SG less convenient with Qube now running both grain and containers on the line.  I also link SSR might be running on that line also.

Qube Has left broad gauge Grain operations market.

And it appears PN is doing likewise.

Who knows there still might be a chance for Qube to return the BG grain!!

Who knows there still might be a chance for Qube to return the BG grain!!

I sure hope so!  They might need more than one consist though if there's a good harvest.

Who knows there still might be a chance for Qube to return the BG grain!!

I sure hope so!  They might need more than one consist though if there's a good harvest.

SSR could pick up some of it, The are just too small of BG to do so.