Steamrail Victoria is set to restore one of Australia’s few remaining RT-class shunting tractors, thanks to a generous donation from GrainCorp, bringing a rare piece of Victorian rail history back to life.

The RT46, a shunting unit that began its first day of service more than 58 years ago in December of 1966, is set to be restored and join the organisation’s heritage train tours.  

So, what is shunting? Essentially, it’s the process of moving rolling stock, like wagons, onto complete trains, helping build the length of the train.

The rail tractor was first used in the construction of the Hazelwood Power Station, then went on to be used at the Australia Paper Mills paper plant in Broadford, VIC, before arriving at its final destination – the Deniliquin terminal, in the early 2000s.

Prior to GrainCorp operating at the Deniliquin site in 2005, the rail tractor was primarily used to shunt wagons of containerised rice.

“This rail tractor was specially designed for shunting containers and wagons and is larger than other shunting tractors that were in use in the 1960s,” says GrainCorp’s Rail Commercial & Contracts Manager Alex Donnelly.

“The tractor has a similar design to larger diesel locomotives, with the controls facing forward along the hood, opposite to the usual Victorian practice of controls facing away from the hood,” says Alex.

As time has progressed, so too has the way trains are built and managed.

“Eventually, the size of trains grew, and the tractor struggled to keep up with the weight of the trains it had to put together,” says Alex.

“Nowadays, trains are managed as one big commodity, rather than individual wagons – so retirement has come for the RT46,” Alex says.

As the RT46 will be the only one of its type in Victoria, and is only one of few in Australia, Steamrail Victoria is happy to receive this piece of history.

“We at Steamrail Victoria are very grateful to GrainCorp for the generous donation of the RT46,” says Cash Williams, Manager – SRV Rollingstock Department at Steamrail Victoria.

“Once restored back to operational condition, the rail tractor will become an important part of Steamrail operations and give us the greater shunting capacity that we need as our trips become more and more popular.

“Victorian Railways Rail Tractors revolutionised shunting operations at railway yards all around the state – Steamrail is honoured to be given the opportunity to welcome RT46 into our fleet and preserve this useful piece of equipment.”