J Car at Wickham entry statement

Rio Tinto has very recently plinthed Nippon Sharyo ore waggon 001 at the Wickham town entry statement, joining ex NSWGR 40 class 9401 which was used during the construction of the railway and after that in operations.

Ore waggon 001 was built by Nippon Sharyo of Japan in 1971 as the leader of a batch of 285 waggons with 100-ton capacity ordered by Cliffs Robe River Iron Associates. The order was subsequently increased to 325 waggon.

These 'J cars' as these waggons were known that ran on the Robe River 'J trains' or 'Robe Valley' to Mesa J and Deepdale have now all been recently retired and have been being scrapped. The original Car Dumper One at Cape Lambert has also been decommissioned. And the Robe Valley line is now operated by a standard Rio Tinto train of three locomotives and 240 waggon which is banked from either Mesa A [Warramboo] or Deepdale / Mesa J to the siding at Maitland.

These images were captured on June 19, 2024.

Pilbara Rail's C36-7M units stored at Seven Mile.

These two C36-7M units are rumoured to be getting scrapped shortly. They have been sitting here on a spur within the Seven Mile complex for many years, since ~2009.

History - 5051 [Bill] started life for Mount Newman Mining as an ALCo C636 model originally numbered 5461 and built by AE Goodwin (NSW) in 1969 with serial number G-6035-2. In 1987, in a world first, eight ALCo C636 locomotives were rebuilt into GE C36-7 units, with everything above the frame new, and the bogies and fuel tanks remaining ALCo. 5461 was rebuilt by Goninan at their Welshpool WA plant into 5507 with new serial number4839-03/87-072. 5507 went on to carry several names, in 1991 the original name was transposed with 5506 following repainting from Mt Newman orange to BHP blue, then other changes took place. When delivered 5507 carried Ethel Creek. Then 5507, once wearing BHP livery carried Mt Whaleback, then Corunna Downs and finally Nimingarra. 5507 along with the entire C36-7M fleet were retired in 1999 after the new AC6000CW locomotives were delivered. After a period of storage at Nelson Point, then the Flashbutt yard, and then back to Nelson Point, they were sold, four units to Goninan and four units to Asset Kinetics.

5507 has the distinction of carrying four names for Mt Newman / BHP Iron Ore and two liveries, and then a further livery once overhauled and leased to Pilbara Rail as 5051 when used as a yard pilot loco in the striking Pilbara Rail livery operating out of Dampier's Seven Mile yard with sister loco 5052 [Ben] which is an overhauled 5508.

***Postscript, I have been informed, on the 8th of June 2023, that both 5051 and 5052 have now been moved to the 2 Mile yard, no doubt scrapping them is easier there.

***Postscript 2, a site visit in early June 2024 and these two units are still very much in the same location. So they have not been scrapped, yet...

Pilbara Railways Historical Society visit.

Went down and checked on the status of the museum as it has been a while. The museum is unable to be accessed by the general public now as it has a locked Rio Tinto access gate at the Dampier Salt end of the road. However, being a member access was arranged to do a quick inspection of the place.

In this image you can see from the left, the PWD crane, waggons and Simplex loco from Point Samson, a couple of ALCo engines, the Locotrol 'cab'; off of BHP 5663, the ALCo S2 Hamersley Iron 007 'Mabel', ALCo C415 demonstrator Hamersley Iron 1000, former NSWGR ALCo RSC-3 Robe River Iron Associates 9405 renumbered to 4002, English Electric ST95B Goldsworthy Mining 1, ALCo M636 BHP 5502 and EMD F7A Mt Newman Mining 5450.

15 years ago, stored Robe River ALCo M636 units.

Robe River AE-Goodwin built M636 ALCo locomotive 9416 serial G-6046-16 was originally built for Hamersley Iron as 4045 but sold to Robe River and delivered in HI green and yellow in 1973, and originally numbered 1716 by Robe.

The piping on these units is for air-to-air intercooling in an effort to lower the air intake temperature and all three had the 251 Plus ALCo engine.

Behind 9416 are fellow AE Goodwin built M636 ALCo units, 9413 serial G-6060-4 built in December 1971, originally numbered 262.004 then 1713, and 9415 serial G-6060-6 built February 1972, originally numbered 1715.