The Flickr Railpage:Livery=39 Image Generatr

On 27 February 2019, Genesee & Wyoming Australia EMD-powered locos 1303/GWN004 haul an empty iron ore consist between Whyalla and Middleback Jct. The rail operations at the time were for GFG Alliance subsidiary Simec Mining.

With ongoing financial problems at the GFG Alliance owned Whyalla Steelworks, services on this isolated 1067mm narrow gauge network have been erratic since late 2024. In May 2025 the current rail operator, Aurizon, announced that it would be cutting its Whyalla workforce and only one rake (instead of four) would be required for limited haulage of iron ore.

It should be pointed out that most of the ore carried on the line was for export purposes, with only a small amount required by the steelworks itself.

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Genesee & Wyoming's CLP8/CLP14 lead a Melbourne to Port Adelaide 5MA6 P & O shippers service through the crossing loop at Mile End, Adelaide. Lurking in the shadows is light engine DL42 on the Mile End turntable, waiting to be attached as second unit to the Sydney bound Indian Pacific.

CLP8 was built in 1971 by Clyde Engineering as CL9 for the Commonwealth Railways. In 1993 it was re-manufactured by Morrison & Knudsen for then owner Australian National. It is rumoured it will be given a major life-extending overhaul by its current owner Aurizon later in 2025.

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3142 loaded Loxton grain climbs away from Wynarka, South Australia, passing the 151km post on 4 April 2015, in the last months of trains operating over the line

Motive power is vintage Geneseee & Wyoming Australia EMD-powered units GM43/GM42/2214 with a combined aged of 142 years.

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At the time owned by Genesee & Wyoming Australia's, EMD-powered 1067mm (3'6") gauge units 1907 (G26C) and CK3 (G18B) head a load of export iron ore between Middleback Jct and Whyalla, South Australia, on Saturday morning 9 February 2013.

Export iron ore trains on the narrow gauge at Whyalla appear to have ground to a halt at the moment (mid March 2025), and only a rake of the older RSK hoppers seems to be operating roughly every second day with lump ore for the steelworks.

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Genesee & Wyoming locos 1603 ( with 902/859/851 hidden) a few kilometres west of Ceduna, South Australia with the mid-morning train #3DD2 of empty hoppers bound for the gypsum mine at Kevin - 26 February 2019.

This isolated 1067mm (3'6") gauge line carries over a million tonnes of gypsum a year, with three return trains of 62 hoppers running seven days a week.

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Australia Southern Railroad locos CLP11/CLP9 head train 1AP4T bound for Perth, colloquially known as 'The Toll Train', passes Direk on the northern fringes of Adelaide, South Australia on 13 August 2000.

The locos were built in the early 1970s by Clyde Engineering, and then underwent a major rebuild in 1993 by Morrison Knudsen Australia. CLP11 now owned by RailPower has not run for over a decade, but CLP9 is in active service with Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

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In May 2003, after a day's work on Alice Springs to Darwin construction duties, 3101/3102/2203/2202 head back to the work camp at Katherine in the late afternoon, seen around Edith River.

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As part of the construction of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway, two former Westrail L class locos operated by Australian Railroad Group haul a ballast train between Pine Creek and Adelaide River in the Northern Territory - May 2003.

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Australian Railroad Group's CLP17 with the ARTC's AK Cars track recording train waits in the crossing loop at Zanthus, Western Australia, while a Sydney-Perth freight passes on the mainline - 16 August 2004.

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Not long after sun up, on the 1067mm gauge Whyalla 'tramway', 1Australia Southern Railroad locos DE1/DE8 head a loaded iron ore train a few kilometres west of Whyalla, on 14 November 2001.

Originally built as EMD export model G12B by Clyde Engineering in 1957, they were completely rebuilt and upgraded with 645E power plants and reclassified G14M by Morrison Knudsen Australia in 1993.

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Genesee & Wyoming Australia units CLP14/GM47 pass through Mallala, South Australia, with a loaded grain train no.4112 from Port Pirie to Outer Harbour on the evening of Wednesday 17 December 2014.

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A few kilometres west of Whyalla, Australia Southern Railroad, 1067mm gauge, locos DE8/DE1 head an empty rake of RSK iron ore hoppers bound for the mine at Iron Duke, on 13 November 2001.

Originally built as EMD export model G12B by Clyde Engineering in 1957, they were completely rebuilt and upgraded with 645E power plants and reclassified G14M by Morrison Knudsen Australia in 1993.

DE8 was withdrawn the following year after collision damage, but DE1, now renumbered 1301, remains in service today on similar duties.

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The sun was a bit too high and too acute to really make this work properly, but a bulldog is a bulldog! This angle is always backlit, but can work with softer light, though new power poles have sort of messed it up.

Aurizon;s CLF5 leads ALF23/CM3306/ALF20/CM3314 on train 1281 empty grain to Tailem Bend passing the Kanmantoo mine near Callington on 16 February 2024.

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Fresh from overhaul and repaint, Genesee & Wyoming Australia's CLF5 at Islington Workshops (Adelaide) on 23 November 2007.

CLF5 originally entered services with the Commonwealth Railways in July 1971 as CL12, and was built by Clyde Engineering in New South Wales .

Ownership transferred to Australian National Railways in 1978 and it was rebuilt by Morrison Knudsen Australia at Whyalla in 1993, re-entering service as CLF5. Now in service with Aurizon, still mainly in South Australia and The Northern Territory.

On 4 April 2015, GM43/GM42/2214 with a combined age of 142 years, head a loaded Loxton grain train between Karoonda and Wynarka, South Australia.

Services on this on this line were abandoned a couple of months later, but remarkably GM43 still soldiers on in 2023.

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Fresh from overhaul at the EDI Rail workshops at Port Lincoln, Genesee & Wyoming Australia, 1067mm gauge, Alco 902 was in its 48th year of service when photographed, leading EMD-powered 1302 on an empty iron ore train departing Whyalla, South Australia, on 22 December 2008.

The first four wagons were brand new and also on their first run.

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In September 2008, Genesee & Wyoming Australia's EMD units CLP8 and 2210 are seen near Birkenhead, South Australia with empty containers for loading at the Mindarie mineral sands plant in the Murray Mallee.

The track here is dual gauge trackage (broad and standard), this train being standard gauge.

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On standard/broad dual gauge trackage near Largs North, Genesee & Wyoming Australia's standard gauge CLP8 heads the empty Mindarie mineral sands container train past GWA Alcos 831/841 working the loaded Penrice Soda limestone train (broad gauge) on 29 September 2008.

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Genesee & Wyoming Australia's EMD-powered units GM43/GM42/2216 catch the last rays of sun as they roll their loaded grain train 3152S from Pinnaroo to Outer Harbor into Peake, South Australia, on 11 April 2015.

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Aurizon's Alco-powered loco 907 was recently overhauled at Port Augusta. On Sunday 3 September 2023 it was at Spencer Jct awaiting transfer to Whyalla for internal standard gauge duties within the steelworks.

Built under licence by A E Goodwin of Sydney, 907 originally entered service on narrow gauge as loco 27 of the Silverton Tramway in 1960, later to be sold to the South Australian Railways in 1970, becoming their 874.

Ownership has changed several times since then. It received its chopped down nose for one man operations c2001, and more recently saw service working narrow gauge ore trains at Whyalla.

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