Freight railways in Melbourne
The rail network of Melbourne, Australia, has a significant number of railway lines and yards serving freight traffic.
On the broad gauge, the main freight operator is Pacific National, as well as Qube Logistics and Southern Shorthaul Railroad.
The heaviest freight traffic is intermodal services carrying shipping containers to Sydney and Adelaide, and then on to the rest of the country.
Vanload freight to Adelaide and Perth is carried by trains operated by SCT Logistics from their own terminal in Laverton.
The Newport to Sunshine line was opened on 24 September 1887 to permit freight trains from the western and northern areas of Victoria to access the then-important port at Williamstown.
Built as double track, two major steel viaducts were required to cross the Maribyrnong River and Moonee Ponds Creek valleys.
The country end is connected to Tottenham Yard, as well as the Newport to Sunshine and Albion to Jacana freight lines.
The North East line links Melbourne to Albury, and then onto the rest of the standard gauge network across Australia.
Constructed from the late 1950s to eliminate the break-of-gauge at Albury for Melbourne to Sydney rail traffic, the first standard gauge freight in Victoria ran on this line on 3 January 1963.
Located between Footscray and Dynon Roads, it is provided with standard gauge access, and is operated by Pacific National.
[4] Sidings serve both Swanson Dock east and west, permitting the transfer of shipping containers between sea and rail transport.
Originally equipped with overhead cranes, the terminal was located at E-Gate between Footscray Road and North Melbourne.
The Canal Yard or Contrans sidings were constructed by Thomas Nationwide Transport (TNT) in the 1960s for the transfer of containers between gauges.
Over the years the sidings spread westward towards the docks, and a number of goods sheds were erected for the unloading of freight.
[15] The land for Tottenham Yard was acquired by the Victorian Railways in 1912 as a location to dump soil and building material removed from the grade separation project between South Yarra and Caulfield stations.
The majority of freight traffic in the state was from the north or western areas, and was being remarshalled into trains at Melbourne Yard.
Laid with broad gauge trackage, Tottenham is a gravitational yard with a slight slope from the Sunshine end towards the city.
SCT Logistics established a terminal at Laverton on the Western standard gauge line in the 1990s for the use of vanload freight trains operated by the company.
Provided with a large number of sidings as well as both refrigerated and non-refrigerated warehouse space,[17] trains from the terminal operate to Adelaide and Perth.
As late as the 1970s, most suburban railway stations had goods yards for general freight, as well as the local distribution of huge quantities of brown coal briquettes and firewood, which were the principal forms of industrial and domestic heating.
[19] The majority of goods yards have since been removed and the land used for car parking, or converted to stabling locations for suburban trains.
