N469 C502 RL301 and N457 tackle the slight grade out of Horsham with a loaded SSR grain from Dimboola by bukk05
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Southern Shorthaul Railroad's GM10 originally entered service with the Commonwealth Railways on 3 June 1952, and seventy years on, it is the oldest locomotive in regular service in Australia (still going in 2025). Working Australian Rail Track Corporation's 'AK Cars' track recording train it was captured on 10 June 2022 with GM22 at Fosters Corner, near Belair, in the Adelaide Hills.
GM10 was one of a small class of eleven locos built by Clyde Engineering to replace steam on the isolated Trans-Australian Railway across the Nullarbor Plain. These first eleven only had four traction motors, while the later series GM12-GM47 had six.
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On Sunday 3/8/2025, GM22 and just out of sight GM10 wait at the head of the AK cars at the north end of Islington workshops.
Star of the show at the 'Streamliners 2022' event held in Goulburn, New South Wales, was Southern Shorthaul Railroad (SSR) locomotive CLP9, seen centre-stage on the turntable on 1 October 2022.
It carries one-off promotional livery for Auscision Models, the company having close links with SSR. After almost a decade stored out in the open CLP9 was is in the process of being returned to active service for SSR.
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One of the best rail fanning days ever: Southern Shorthaul Railroad locos B61-S317-GM27-GM10-S302 power past a field of golden wheat near Jamestown in the mid-north of South Australia with a long-distance wagon transfer bound for New South Wales on Dec 2, 2016. The former Leigh Creek coal hoppers were all later converted to carry grain by SSR.
Sometimes it pays to just jump on a plane, hire a car, pick up a mate and go train-chasing!
While not everything went to plan, this day was one of the most memorable railfan days in decades. It had everything, one of the most amazing lash-ups of vintage locos ever seen in South Australia, breakdown drama, variable lighting conditions, buggered access tracks, closed petrol stations but in the end, gorgeous late afternoon golden light.
And as of July 2025, all of the locomotives except S302 remain in regular service with SSR.
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An unusual colour-matched trio of Southern Shorthaul EMD-power, RL306/4908/RL302 with 8242 'the Grey train' from Nyngan to Inner Harbour on Sunday 2 October 2022, seen near Oolong on the Melbourne to Sydney mainline
The origins of the functional looking RLs go back to a fleeting brain fart by Morrison Knudsen Australia in 1994, that then took another ten years to materialise into something quite different under the auspices of National Railway Equipment Company (NREC).
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Former V/Line N classes now with SSR awaiting gauge conversion to broad gauge
