SRA - FreightCorp - Pacific National Locomotives

The first train in NSW began operation in 1855, only a year after Victoria, and since then, the state's network has evolved to become one of the largest in Australia. In the last few years, the State Rail Authority was broken up into Cityrail (Sydney and Sydney region suburban/interurban passenger services), Countrylink (intra- and inter-state passenger services), and FreightCorp (the now corporatised/privatised freight services), along with the Rail Infrastructure Corporation (track maintenance).
Currently, some 400 locos are operated on around 7500 kilometres of track. The main commodity within NSW is coal, with over 40 megatonnes being railed annually.
With the deregulation of the Australian railway network, FreightCorp is also now doing interstate operations; such as the Leigh Creek coal traffic in SA, and work with Great Northern and CRT into Victoria.

Joint privatisation of FreightCorp with National Rail occurred during 2002; the two were sold to Toll-Lang Corp, and the new operator is now Pacific National. After a fierce battle in the courts between Toll and Patrick, Toll was able to buy out Patrick.


The following locos are in National Rail liveries (NR class excluded): 8112, 8114, 8117-8, 8124; AN1-2, 8; BL26, 32; C505, 508; DL41, 44, 47, 49-50.
Those locos in National Rail's Steelink livery are (NR class excluded): BL29-30, 33.
Some locos are also painted in GSR livery for that companies trains, these being : NR74-75, 109; AN3 (Ghan livery) and NR25-28 (Indian Pacific livery).

Locos painted in PacNat's new livery are 8005, 8015, 8050; 8105, 8107-8108, 8110, 8113, 8125, 8129, 8131, 8144, 8150, 8154-8155, 8158, 8160, 8166, 8176, 8178-8180, 8183; 9032-9035; AN5; BL26-28, 31, 34-35; DL38, 42, 45-46, 49-50; NR8, 29, 45, 52, 73 & 104; - although it is basically a cross between the Freightcorp and NR liveries.

PacNat have also bought ATN and also Freight Australia, thus greatly increasing their east-coast presence.

National Rail Corporation - a brief history

NR is a fairly new organisation, created by the Federal government in 1991, with the intention of having a single company for interstate rail freight. While this was a good idea, it was to be the death knell for AN, which promptly lost most of its revenue (an example of typical government shortsightedness). NR is to be privatised in the not-too-distant future. NR's traffic consists mostly of containers, Trailerail, and steel. Prior to the NR class loco contract being completed, NR hired locos from FreightCorp, V/Line, AN, Westrail, and Silverton.
NR also acquired locomotives from V/Line, Freightcorp, and AN/ASR.

Note: All of the operational locomotives belong to Pacific National, except for the following:
Countrylink
All the XP class and 7301.
Railcorp
4819 and 4827 (both in RIC livery).
Railfleet Services
XT106i.

Other National Rail / Pacfic National classes:
 

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© Copyright John Cleverdon