NR29 & NR47 Gunningbland NSW. Thu 17th July 2025

A bright and sunny winters day greets "Indian Pacific" liveried NR29 and NR47 as they pass through Gunningbland in western NSW with Pacific National intermodal service 5SP5 bound for Sydney NSW. The train is well loaded and running spot on time. The train is passing through the "MSM Milling" site which handles canola, manola and barley only. Grain is received by road transport and dispatched by same, the Silo Siding is only used by ARTC to store ballast trains and track machines. MSM Milling is part of the Manildra Group and has leased the site from GrainCorp which closed it back in 2013. MSM Milling was established back in 1991 by Bob and Peter Smith, a family business, from Orange NSW. A joint venture with the Manildra Group was established in 2005. Gunningbland opened on the 15th of December 1896 as a small siding, the concrete silos were erected in 1930 and the large steel circular bins were built in 1978. The small town was built around the railway; a small passenger platform was built. Gunningbland was closed on the 26th of April 1976 to passenger train working. The NR class were specifically designed and built for high-speed point to point long distance intermodal express trains. Goninan's at Newcastle NSW built NR1 to NR 60 whilst their Western Australian factory at Bassendean built NR61 to NR120. The loco's were originally built for the National Rail Corporation, an Australian federal government initiative involving state government shareholders. The NR class are designated GE model Cv40-9i series using imported American technology from General Electric USA with the locomotives built by Goninan & Co under license from GE. Powered by a four stroke V16 turbo charged GE 7FDL-16 prime mover delivering just over 4,000hp and a published track speed of 115KMh. Nearing 30 years of age the NR class have been a success story and have proved to be a most reliable locomotive, however, in recent years some reliability issues have surfaced as the locomotives age. Pacific National started a fleet overhaul programme in June 2006 which will probably give them an extended life of another 10 to 15 years. All members of the fleet have covered millions of kilometres since their introduction and paid for themselves many times over. High speed express freight locomotives have come along way technology wise since the introduction of the NR class. GE's latest product is the C44aci series, although based on the Cv40-9i series concept, vast improvements in technology and fuel efficiencies have been made. All of the 120 NR class remain in service, except for NR33 which was written off and scrapped due to the level crossing accident damage incurred at Lismore VIC on the 25th of May 2006. NR41 & NR79 were scrapped after suffering damage from level crossing accident 31st December 2023. To conserve fuel the NR class have a three-stage horsepower setting activated in the driver cab, this is to provide only the power needed to the tonnage hauled at the time. Settings are: 2,850hp, 3,560hp and 4,020hp. The locomotives weigh 132 tonnes and have a 13,500 litre capacity for long distance nonstop running between NSW and Western Australia across the famous Nullarbor Plain on the Trans Australia railway. Although all Pacific National services stop at Cook SA for refuelling and a crew change. NR29 was delivered new on the 14th of August 1997 and sister unit NR47 on the 16th of December 1997 built by Goninan's at Newcastle NSW. NR29 features the "Indian Pacific" passenger train livery and was the first NR class to receive it back on 11th of March 2008. Other class members in the Indian Pacific livery include NR25, NR26, NR27, NR28, and NR86. Did you know? The shipping container construction market is dominated by just three companies, CIMC (China International Marine Containers) Group Co Ltd of Shenzhen, China. CIMC has 11 factories in China producing two million containers per year. DFIC (Dong Fang International Container Group) of Shanghai, China with six factories producing 1.8 million containers per year and CXIC (CXIC Group Containers Co Ltd) of Jiangsu, China with three factories producing 900,000 containers per year. Have you noticed? Many of the NR class no longer have the builder's plate on the cab sides, removed during overhaul they have not been remounted. Also the "star" pattern livery configuration on the side of the locomotives vary throughout the fleet. Some have one star only, others two or three and some have none at all. Those with three stars are varied in how they are configured too. 1444hrs on Thursday 17th of July 2025.