Australian trains :Dash 9's GEVO's K5LA's blue skies and red dust

[chileo1]

Your videos are really good

[Rocketboy1950]

@chileo1 Thanks, I try hard. My ex wife says I was one of the most trying bastards she ever met.

[chileo1]

@Rocketboy1950 Do you have to wait around for a long time to get the footage?

[Rocketboy1950]

@chileo1 No, the iron ore railways are like conveyor belts. The stuff just keeps coming.

[MrZkr123]

Im surprised that the other Australian rail companies haven't looked into getting AC4400's, Dash-9's especially for their stack trains.

[Rocketboy1950]

@MrZkr123 The axle loads are too high for the old systems to handle plus they would be too big for much of the system. At this point in time the companies are better off with units that can run all over. Most new stuff is based on EMD GT46 variants.

[Rdrake1413]

Nice video and beautiful country

[ConrailForever]

Fantastic video! I especially liked the last horn, RTIO 7076 it looked like. I'd love to go to Australia and shoot these ore trains. How many run per day?

[Rocketboy1950]

@ConrailForever I'd need one of the locals to answer that with any accuracy but I can say enough that you wouldn't be bored.

[RedDogPhoto]

@ConrailForever They dump about 27 consists a day. You'd be unlucky not to see one every 45 odd minutes. Between the three lines that is, WMLTP, EMLTP and Deep Dale.

[Narutofanfiction]

How do you go about getting your license to drive the trains in Australia QLD i am moving there in a few months and want to know if i could get it easier then some of the other stuff i will need to get a cert in when i come over

[Rocketboy1950]

@Narutofanfiction You have to apply for a trainee position with one of the railway companies. In QLD you have either Queensland Railways or Pacific National and good luck with that.

[shovel20]

To anyone WOW dash9 out back?! How do you maintain it

[Rocketboy1950]

@shovel20 This is a many billions of dollars business. They have huge maintenance facilities for all heavy machinery.

[gjn71]

you cant beet the sound of them

[balacantillo]

just beautifull, I am a train driver in Colombia Bored of corruption at the railwais enterprices!! Iwant go there!

[Rocketboy1950]

@balacantillo Start at the Australian Consulate. They need a lot of new drivers for the ore trains.

[EFC429]

Dosent the bell automatically ring when the horn is blown?

[Rocketboy1950]

@EFC429 What bell ? As far as I know only two operators in Australia have taken up that completely stupid idea and then only when moving a loco about in areas where people are on the ground. There is no logic in having a cowbell ringing when something like a Nathan or Leslie has just blasted out 130 decibels of compressed air that can be heard for miles.

[CuseRecorder]

@Rocketboy1950

it seems more like a tradition to me.

[ConrailJon]

@Rocketboy1950 Bells are supplementary warning devices, not stupid at all. To answer the original question, on most new locomotives the bells do automatically ring when the horn button is pressed. Seeing as the GE's in this video are exports, they were either not built with bells, or the feature was disabled.

[Rocketboy1950]

@ConrailJon A complete and utter waste of time when approaching a crossing. They may have some merit in a confined space but are as useful as tits on a bull out on the road.

[ConrailJon]

@Rocketboy1950 Very useful when moving through densly populated areas at slower speeds, but what would you know about that.

[Rocketboy1950]

@ConrailJon Obviously a lot more than you. I have travelled the world and train whistles ( or bells) get very little use in many countries. You will be hard pressed to hear them in Europe and Japan where they are used as deemed necessary. Whereas in the US where they have become another background noise to be tuned out. Warning devices work best when they are used infrequently. Then when they are used people actually take notice. 37 years driving all types of trains gives me a little insight.

[jackovendetta]

Conrailbuff,we have been using american locos from the sixtys.or first were ALCOs.

[jackovendetta]

We allways dim the head lights when we have some with a cam aimed at us.lol

[Webber362]

@jackovendetta so yall like the new loco's austrila got from the us?

[ipwnu981]

is that all the freight they pull?

[8747csx]

@conrailbuff Yep BHP still has a brand new AC6000CW at the bottom of the Ocean. Some years ago a ship carrying brand new AC6000CWs from the US to Australia hit rough seas. It was either drop one of the new locomotive over board or the entire ship would have sunk. The BHP AC6000CWs weigh in at 440,000lbs. Thats 8,000lbs more than the CSX units which weigh in at 432,000lbs.

[8747csx]

@conrailbuff Yep BHP still has a brand new AC6000CW at the bottom of the Ocean. Some years ago a ship carrying brand new AC6000CW from the US to Australia hit rough seas. It was either drop one of the new locomotive over board or the entire ship would have sunk. The BHP AC6000CWs weigh in at 440,000lbs. The 8,000lbs more than the CSX units which weigh in at 432,000lbs.

[PoathArchives]

Excellent movie with great locations

[chestybondrod]

Good work mate

[sneadfootball]

thats really cool right there!!!!!!!!

[Rocketboy1950]

@conrailbuff Most of our power is US equipment but other than the iron ore roads it has all been manufactured to fit a smaller loading gauge and lighter tracks.

[Erictheirritated]

@Rocketboy1950 I think that you will find that on the iron ore roads the axle loadings are as high as you will get anywhere.

[Moltixar]

american diesel power OWNS :)

[nsrailfann4life91]

Lol. Buddy, these are made by America. They are General Electric C44-9W lcomotives. They are just exported to other railwas around other parts of the world.

[mike6206]

K5LA horns like those are the sweetest sounding horns ever to grace a locomotive!

[asjghahn]

You know in retrospect I question why his headlights weren't on. It was at about

0:56. But the the video's perfect! Great quality!

[Rocketboy1950]

Just starting the thing off......we all forget at times. Not much to hit up there and cows, camels, donkeys and kangaroos don't take much notice of headlights anyway :-)

[mountainlova1009]

Wait a sec..... Those Cabs..... They look.... THERE CANADIAN DASH 9'S!!!! YAY the Canadians are invading as well :P

[mountainlova1009]

The American GE's are invading your raillines... i suggest you run & hide...

[OutbackSpot]

Nice Video.

[k5lta]

K5LAs in the land down under are awesome

[TrainNThusiast]

Nice paint job pretty sick

[TrainNThusiast]

ye i thought US and CA were the only ones with those engines.

[CoasterFan2105]

GEVO's in australia, now who would have thought?! Nice video!

[Rocketboy1950]

We got the lot down here including the first ever EMD six powered axle units. Double ended ML2's from the 50's and still got em running.

[AvonRailFan]

great video mate 5 stars and fav i love the horns

[Modeltrainguy]

NICE Horns!

5 Horn Blasts!

[KSE828]

Diesels(cars) for a fair price are very hard to come by in the USA. Massachusetts specifically. Most are manufactured out west or far down south and are never shipped up here.

[KSE828]

Diesel cars are awesome!

[Rocketboy1950]

You answered your own question :-) It still goes to my email once you hit "add comment"

[mattdean1003]

At the end I almost thought he was going to blow the crossing sequence...lol

[aussietraindriver]

Great video! and some great K5LA's in Aus.

[MattyMaurer11]

I've been wondering the purpose of the 2 blue strobe lights on top of the cab of the dash 9 and es44dci units. (At least I think they are strobe lights) What are they for? BTW great video!! 5**

[littleguy2001]

Hey mate,

They are distress lights to let people know a drivers in trouble or has left the cab, best thing especially in the middle of the night looking for a train in the middle of nowhere the blue lights stand out!

[lutrains]

pas mal.

[signaller44]

Nice work Rod, nice to see your enjoying your time away from Melb

[Rocketboy1950]

I'd like some more Nate.

[littleguy2001]

Rio runs 234 car trains and at the moment they are pretty strict on it, then again we do have a couple of trains running short by 10 pairs or so because of not having any good orders to put into the trains because we have had issues with bearings lately a shitload of cars are being taken out of service.

Hope we put on a good show for you!!, any vids of 7 mile?

[Rocketboy1950]

Can't debate the point but I thought I counted more a couple of times.

Yep a good show and nothing at 7 mile it was quiet and pissing down when I went there.

[Rocketboy1950]

Goes without saying that you were right I did some more counting with stop frame just to make sure I got it right. this time.

[dutchtrainmanserie22]

Awesome video 5***** Ore railroad cars 100? 160? 200? 300? 360?

[Rocketboy1950]

depends on the company, can be 224 to 250+ loaded and up to 336 empty