Evening Parade at Heathcote Junction - March 2021

Heathcote Junction is a small station located on Victoria's North East main line. It marks the summit of the line's climb over the great dividing range, with 1 in 50 grades approaching from both sides. The name is somewhat misleading as the station is not in Heathcote, nor is it a junction - it is actually the site of the former junction of the (now closed) line to Heathcote. It was standard VR practice to name junctions after the destination of the branch. This video shows the evening parade of trains passing on Tuesday 16th of March 2021, over a two hour period between 16:30 and 18:30. We see a number of Sprinter railcars on local Seymour services, an N class hauled Shepparton train, and a number of freight trains. The second last train is a Qube cement train with a pair of QBX's and a pair of 48 class. Annoyingly I was half way through changing lenses when I realised the train was moments from appearing - I threw the lens back on just in time but didn't have time to focus. Those 48's still sound rather good though! The final train (and the one I was waiting for) is Southern Shorthaul Railroad's 3MC3 empty grain train behind CLF3-4917-48s28-48s36-S311-GM10. As an interesting comparison, here's a video I took at the same location 16 years earlier: https://youtu.be/YWBd0gB0LGQ #railways #trains #australia #railroads