Railway_Digest__February_2018

That said, Bali is in reality just three hours flying time from Perth, closer
than the Australian east coast centres.
Since the tough days of late 2015, the iron ore price has bounced
between US$55 and US$70 per tonne for an extended period, and is
expected to remain within this range as long as demand from China’s
insatiable steel mills doesn’t diminish.
But despite the changes in philosophy due to financial considerations,
to its credit, FMG has continued to maintain an indigenous workforce
level of at least 15%. This factor being a firm commitment initiated
by the FMG company founder and chairman Andrew Forrest that will
likely stand in perpetuity. The company also respects the diverse cultural
needs of its indigenous employees, which can sometimes make filling shift
rosters a challenge.
Tuesday – Arrival In Port Hedland
With anticipation replacing the trepidation that was felt last time while
travelling alone to this then unknown and distant destination, I landed
in Port Hedland on Tuesday 30 August 2016 after once again taking the
weekly five hour direct Qantas flight from my hometown of Brisbane.
That afternoon was spent simply socialising and settling in at Greg
and Julie’s South Hedland home. No sight-seeing was planned until
after a good night’s rest. Helping to lull me off to sleep in a strange
bed that night, BHPBIO’s Finucane Island line being just a few hundred
metres away, provided the soothing sound of hundreds of ore car
wheels humming along on well-grinded rail every hour or so.
Wednesday – Taking In The Local Sights
Wednesday provided the chance to be reacquainted with some familiar
local places of interest. Fortunately my hosts very kindly made their
faithful Ford Ranger utility available to me for touring the region as I
pleased once more. But a close eye needed to be kept on the time, as
later in the day Greg had offered for me to join him during the early
part of his overnight shift as an acting driver supervisor at FMG’s
Kanyirri depot beginning at 5pm. Compromising Greg’s perfect
punctuality record would be a blight on the friendship.
Success was achieved in seeking out the new Roy Hill marshalling
yard and loco depot (anything to do with their railway or mine is always
referred to by locals as ‘Gina’s’) on the south-western outskirts of town.
GE ES44ACI series loco RHA1001 bearing the name ‘Ginny’ was found
conveniently parked where it could be readily seen up close, albeit behind
a fence. Twenty one of these 4,400hp locos were constructed by GE
Transportation in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA and shipped to Port Hedland
in 2015. Company chairman of Hancock Prospecting, Gina Rinehart,
named RHA1001 after her loyal youngest daughter, Ginia. RHA1002 is
also named, bearing the identity ‘Ginbata’ after the Roy Hill mine airport.
Roy Hill employ 232 ore car rakes in a 2 x RHA locos + 116 car + 1 x
RHA loco + 116 car distributed power arrangement. Loaded trains are
banked using two RHA locos at the rear for the first 30 kms from the
mine. An annual export figure of 55 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) is
expected, with each trainload delivering just over 31,000 tonnes of ore,
five times per day.
Located a further 8 kilometres west of the marshalling yard are Roy Hill’s
ore car dumping and iron ore stockyard facilities. Ore from the stockpiles
is sent 3.2 km kilometres to their two shipping berths on the harbour by
a very prominent overhead conveyor system. The extensive bridge-like
structure dominates the flat landscape and has you pondering at the first
sighting as to what it actually is. Similar to Roy Hill’s major competitors,
virtually all functions performed at the port end, except for the loading
of the ships, are conducted from a remote operations centre in Perth.
Autonomous train operations between the mine and port have been
hinted as a possible future development, but it is likely Rio Tinto’s difficult
experiences with their still ongoing and very expensive long term
development of such advanced technology will determine that outcome.
Although, it is claimed by manufacturer GE that their new RHA locos
were delivered with the ability to be locally operated by a driver on the
ground using a portable remote control unit when required.
Recapping from my previous article, both FMG and BHPBIO each
have lookouts and picnic shelters to allow tourists to observe their
trains passing by at close quarters. The long-established lookout at the
Redbank Bridge is far more popular as it carries the main road into Port
Hedland over the BHPBIO rail line very close to their extensive Nelson
Point yard. From here, BHPBIO’s exclusive fleet of EMD SD70ACe/
LCi 4,300hp locos in their attractive ‘Bubble’ livery, or simple BNSF
orange which is better known as ‘Pumpkin’, are regularly seen with a
loaded train waiting to enter the busy yard. Their 268 car consists use
distributed power utilising two locos up front and two mid-train. In
years past, 336 car trains were once commonplace until the majority
of the 426 km line south to Mt Newman became duplicated. The 3.5
km long, 336 car consists also employed distributed power, but with
locos at the lead of each of three 112 car rakes. However, unreliable
communications between the lead locos and slave locos would often
challenge drivers to avoid trains being broken apart and result in costly
delays. Sadly, the trusty old iconic ‘Pilbara Cab’ CM40-8M locos from
that era, better known simply as Dash 8’s, no longer feature, having all
been withdrawn in favour of new SD70’s. But I can be grateful quite a
number of them were still operating back in 2014.
FMG’s lookout is located on the side of the relatively new Great
Northern Highway overpass, which was constructed in partnership
with the state government as a condition of FMG’s large $8.4 billion
expansion program. It was dubbed ‘T155’ and completed in early 2013.
The end result of the project was production capacity being tripled
from 45mtpa to 155mtpa. If your timing is right you can witness trains
arriving or departing, plus perhaps a light engine movement or two
within a short space of time.
At 10.44am on
Wednesday 31 August
2016, at the southern
end of Roy Hill’s Port
Hedland marshalling
yard, GE ES44ACI series
locomotive and class
leader RHA1001 Ginny
sits alone and shut down.
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