Left: QR National’s UGL-built C44ACi locomotive was delivered in September for use on Melbourne - Perth intermodal services. Photo: Maikha Ly
output standard-gauge units do not come cheap, while the GT42CU is unforgiving on some of the lightly-laid track found frequently in Australia. With a new mainline unit costing
around $A 6m ($US 6.3m), rail operators have increasingly been looking for cost savings from foreign manufacturers. They have also been seeking a greater variety of products, the latter especially with regard to narrow-gauge operations, with US- based MotivePower and Progress Rail at the forefront of recent locomotive orders.
When Western Australian agribusiness CBH decided to take a greater control over its logistics operations by owning its own rail fleet, it turned to MotivePower for the supply of 22 locomotives (16 narrow-gauge MP27CNs and six standard-gauge MP33cs) for its grain haulage operations - management of which is contracted out to US shortline operator, Watco. Powered by Cummins engines, a type not widely used in Australia, and nominally rated at 2015kW narrow- gauge and 2640kW standard-gauge, delivery took only a year following the signing of contracts.
MotivePower subsequently secured
are on average around nine years old. The decision in June this year by locomotive manufacturer Downer to cease production in Australia at a time when new locomotive deliveries are at their highest level for over a decade caught the rail industry by surprise leaving only UGL as the established local manufacturer. Downer and UGL and their antecedents have delivered well over 80% of the current Australian motive power fleet, but there were already
IRJ November 2012
signs rail operators were starting to look outside of the duopoly. In recent years, operators have had to
pick from just three locally-produced ‘off the shelf’ products. UGL and Downer both produce a standard-gauge 3200kW model (the GT46C-ACe and C44ACi respectively) while Downer also produces a narrow-gauge 2260kW GT42CU-AC. A combined total of close to 360 of these locomotives have been built in just over a decade. However, the high-
an order to supply 10 standard-gauge MP33C locomotives to CFCL Australia’s leasing rail joint venture. This will instigate the retirement of some of CFCLA’s older lease units as well as accommodate increases in intermodal grain haulage in the eastern states. Since the late 1970s, government and post-privatisation owners of the narrow-gauge railfreight network in Tasmania have maintained operations by purchasing second-hand locomotives from other operators as well as rebuilding a handful of their own. With the state government having resumed ownership, it is somewhat ironic that it will be responsible for acquiring the first new locomotives for the island’s railways in almost 40 years. Progress Rail beat off competition
from Bombardier, National Rail Equipment Corporation (NREC), United States, and CSR Qishuyan to secure the contract for 17 new locomotives valued at more than $A 60m. With Downer as its Australian partner, Progress Rail will supply the 1640kW units powered by Caterpillar 3512C engines, another engine
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