Grass Valley Open Wagons

An "interesting" morning at Grass Valley this morning. It seems that "Stuff Up" was the order of the day.

As Jim said, D49 arrived around 9:30AM to shunt. Hooked onto 8 wagons & pulled forward past the departure signals in order to set them back into a small spur at the East end of the grain siding. The driver's mate just about gave himself a hernia trying to set the points for the spur before it was realised that Westnet Rail had clamped the points!

The main problem here was that John Holland had a track machine stored on the West end of the grain siding, blocking access from the Perth end. The driver phoned Avon Control & "plan A" was that as there was no one from Westnet available to come & unlock the Eastern points, some one from John Holland would come & move the track machine out of the way. In the meantime, the Loco would set beck to clear the Mainline & Loop & wait there. A small crane there for shunting purposes would push the remaining wagons together after clearing all the men still working on them. Moods were not good enough to take the risk of asking for details!

That was the situation when Lois & I had to leave around 11:00AM & still when we went into Northam about 12:30.

When we went past Grass Valley on the way home, D49 was gone, all the wagons were still there & the track machine hadn't moved!

As far as moving these wagons by road goes, I very much doubt it. I am working for a company that specialises in oversize loads so I'll ask the boss tomorrow but, there has been no talk of that kind of contract around that I've heard. My guess is that they'll be tacked onto the end of a PN steelie or a Queenslander. (I think they're rated for 110 Kmh.) There isn't really enough of them to warrant running a special train but, you never know. It wouldn't be the first short train to work the paddock.

I'll post what I find out.
Cheers,
Dusty.

D49 ran 5S37 light engine to Grass Valley this morning to shunt wagons and run brake tests looks like they might be leaving soon.
D49 returned light engine to Bellevue in the afternoon as 5S36

any idea how they are going to get the wagons to newcastle? would be a bit expensive to put them all on the back of trucks. maybe the cheapest and easiest way would be on the back of a PN steelie. unless of course they haul them east with their own loco's and crews.
wal.

Were still working on bogies/brakes on the wagons today,
All have had their numbers painted on in white and are the old Westrail class/numbers
WOAX in 33xxx series.

Still there on Friday. They are still working on the bogies, though all of them are painted now.
No codes, numbers or logos on them yet.

Cheers,
Dusty.

have they moved them yet?

Actually they're not too bad, Wal.

A bit knocked around & a few holes poked in them by rough forkies But all in all the rust isn't too serious. They should get to NSW before they crumble into red & bright orange heaps.

Cheers.
Dusty.

i hope they are getting the rust remover on to them as well dusty as they have been sitting there for quite a while i believe .
wal.

G'day all.

It seems the Open wagons stored at Grass Valley are on the move again!

After a bogie & air line overhaul & a coat of bright orange paint, 25 of them are heading East to Newcastle NSW to go into container traffic for South Spur.

According to the painter, they have 6 weeks to get them ready to move.

Cheers,
Dusty