Carrington: rails to Newcastle's dockside

Australia's railways all have the tendency to lead to the sea, and when it comes to a meeting of trains and ships, the city of Newcastle is one of the busiest in the country.

The above two photos show an GWF export grain train being unloaded at Carrington, May 2016.

These photos were all taken at Carrington yard during my visit to Newcastle in May 2016. The Carrington Coal terminal has an annual export capacity of 25 million tonnes per year, which pales in comparisson to the Kooragang Island facility which has a capacity of 120 million tonnes per annum, making Newcastle the largest coal export port in the world. The railway yard at Carrington also acts as a loading point for export grain from the north-west of New South Wales, such as the yellow George Weston Foods hoppers being unloaded by Southern Shorthaul Railroad that I photographed in May 2016.

8103 + 8133 + 8162 working Carrington Yard in Newcastle. Photo taken May 2016.

There is a lengthy pedestrian walkway that crosses Carrington railway yard to access the riverfront from the rear of Darling Street. Known only to locals, dock workers and rail enthusiasts, it provides a great multi-angle location to photograph trains working the yard. Fortunately, my morning visit on Thursday 12th May coincided with a trio of 81 class locos dropping by with a short string of container flat wagons.

These 81 class locos were first introduced back in 1982.

The pedestrian walkway leading to the foreshore makes for a great place to watch trains....

Carrington dock is pressed hard against the skyline of Newcastle city.

After an hour of soaking up the morning sunshine while watching trains shunting and ships being tugged out to sea, I left Carrington with the photo I was looking for in my new book 30 Years Chasing Trains. While the above photos are merely a teaser of what's inside, I really must thank fellow railway blogger Mat Hughes for the tip-off on this location. His blog Rusted2therails often features some great shots of trains in the area and is one of my personal favourites.

That's me marking another train watching location off on my bucket list at Carrington, in May 2016.

So with Carrington now ticked-off as one of the locations I wanted to visit on my railway bucket list, it was time to jump back in the car in search of some more trains, but not before donning my Newcastle Knights cap and posing for a photo with the city of Newcastle in the background. Watching ships sail out to sea from the busy port reminds me a lot of my home of Caloundra, where my apartment overlooks the shipping channel leading into the Port of Brisbane. But Carrington dock goes one better. Its where the rails meet the sea.

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See also; Hamilton: Newcastle's historic railway station and Broadmeadow: 5 minutes watching trains