Six Locomotives And 240 Wagons on the Fortescue Bridge!

At 366 meters long and 33.5 meters tall, the Fortescue River bridge is the largest viaduct in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was originally built by Robe River Railway in 1971/72. Today Rio Tinto operates this line running their standard 240 ore wagon rake with 3 locomotives on the head end and 3 more locomotives as bankers.

We were near Greenpool when we heard the bankers connecting to the rear of the Mesa J train at the loadout. We hurried down to the Fortescue Bridge and waited. This train did not disappoint.

Fittingly the lead locomotive is Pilbara Rail #9408 with the "Robe" logo on the short hood. The 3 bankers shove the train uphill all the way to the top of the grade at Maitland. The train was moving faster because of the extra power, thus overtaking this train was very difficult. We were unable to catch up with them until Maitland.

I filmed this video with my DJI Mavic 3 Pro on 6/20/2024.