Victoria 'road trains'

The mine is east of Ouyen, but is being relocated to south of Ouyen.
Kalari has been transporting the mineral sand by road to the processing plant at Hamilton.
I watched several pass through Balmoral and Cavendish on Tues.10.3.09, but didn't take a photo.
The processed output used to be taken in half-height containers by Kalari to Portland, to be loaded onto a train there, and carted back to Melbourne. Recently it has gone in the same containers by road to Warrnambool to be loaded onto the nightly container freight.

A road-rail transfer facility has been built at the north end of Hopetoun station, on the alignment of the former continuation to Patchewollock.
A siding has been built to serve the processing plant (5 km south of Hamilton). Delivery of raw mineral sand will be by rail, but export of processed product will still be by road to Warrnambool.

My memory of Kalari was a short high-side truck, towing a short two-axle trailer (ie not a semi, and not a B-double). Mineral sand is heavy.

The only mine which I have inspected was Eneabba (WA). The main product was titanium dioxide, used as a whitener for paint and for toothpaste.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Probably a Stag trailer
www.lustyems.com.au/images/large-25m-stag.jpg

Well having read a coupla emails and had a look at Vicroads' website I can safely say that this is mainly for the transport of grapes..
A bit of local knowledge and a bit of perusal of the routes AND a bit of guesswork leads me to that end...
There are a lotta lotta grape joints that would benefit from this.
One of the routes that interests me is the M.V.Hwy ( Piangil to Robinvale ).
Piangil to Tooleybuc ( NSW ) is maybe 10 km , yet I note that they would rather use the Robinvale route??
I guess they don't wanna run the risk on the Tooleybuc bridge ( one of the main Adelaide - Sydney crossings ).
One lane bridge and woe betide anyone that doesn't call it... >

There has been limited routes on trial in mildura for some time there was a train running thru town for the citrus season good to see they have expanded the routes wouldn't mind been able to run a train down the calder to calder park maybe 1 day cheaper rego than a dbl and more volume got to be a winner all round

There has been limited routes on trial in mildura for some time there was a train running thru town for the citrus season good to see they have expanded the routes wouldn't mind been able to run a train down the calder to calder park maybe 1 day cheaper rego than a dbl and more volume got to be a winner all round

It's comin'...
Remember B-Doubles also started out under permit up here in North West Victoria.
I would hazard a guess that within 5 years we'll see road trains all over vic..
The only thing is , the authorities will call em " A-Doubles" so as not to upset Mr and Mrs Public with the nasty " Ro*d Tr*ain " description.
I've seen road trains and I've seen " A-Doubles" and quite honestly I fail to see the difference.
The Australian freight task is gonna double in the next ten years and the Govt recognises that fact.
This is the only way ahead.
The revolution is a-comin!
Mark my words...

BIDSTBC...

Same as has been pulling from the Govt funded Broadmeadows plant to the other Govt depot in Geelong two A's and one B I would be guessing on designated routes

It's comin'...
I would hazard a guess that within 5 years we'll see road trains all over vic..
The only thing is , the authorities will call em " A-Doubles" so as not to upset Mr and Mrs Public with the nasty " Ro*d Tr*ain " description.
I've seen road trains and I've seen " A-Doubles" and quite honestly I fail to see the difference.
....
The revolution is a-comin!
Mark my words...

BIDSTBC... [/quote]

Hello 903CAM Your right there is no difference...an A-Double is a Road Train. The a refers to the configuration of the trailers. Where the second trailer is hooked to a dolly with a ringfeder onto the front trailer it is considered an "A" type combination.
That is why "B-Doubles" are called "B"
Because they use a different configuration of trailers than what was traditionally out there.

If you are not already confused enough check this out
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train

I would agree an "A-Double" sounds far nicer to Joe Public than a big scary "road Train"

Cheers.