A $5 million investment in regional NSW is helping to support a host of government and privately funded projects and programs to build greater resilience and reliability in Australian rail networks.
Brimble Managing Director David Brimble said his company has already invested $5 million to develop a large-scale modern facility in the Hunter Region to efficiently accommodate specialised machinery and equipment involved in the maintenance and upgrade of Australian rail networks.
“Government initiatives to enhance the resilience and reliability of critical rail networks, like the Australian Government and ARTC jointly funded $1 billion Network Investment Program, means Brimble has a bright future in providing track resurfacing services across the nation,” he said.
The new facility at Maxwells Creek near Dungog will provide Brimble with greater capacity to cache, service and deploy highly specialised machinery and equipment utilised by both government and privately-owned rail networks to resurface and upgrade track infrastructure.
Brimble is repurposing an old timber mill at Maxwells Creek into a modern fit-for-purpose staging and maintenance facility for specialised rail rollingstock. The site occupies seven hectares (17 acres) with direct access to Dungog Road and most importantly is adjacent to the ARTC Sydney-Melbourne and Hunter Valley standard-gauge rail corridor.
“Since its establishment in 2017, Brimble has been providing extensive rail resurfacing and upgrade services to a host of government and privately owned rail network owners across Australia in every conceivable type of terrain, environment and gauge-type,” he said.
“This includes the ARTC in the Hunter Region, BHP and Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, Aurizon in the Northern Territory and South Australia, Queensland Rail in the state’s southeast, and passenger and freight rail networks managed by Transport for NSW.”
Brimble said the company is proud to be a 100 per cent Australian-owned and family operated business employing more than 100 skilled staff based in the regions handling 100-plus machines.
“Brimble now has the most extensive and technologically advanced fleet of rail resurfacing machines in Australia, including tampers, regulators, stabilisers, and ballast wagons and cleaners,” he said.
“As a case in point, Brimble is in the unique position of possessing the largest fleet of narrow-gauge rail resurfacing machines in the country – a significant competitive advantage in a state like Queensland which features an extensive narrow-gauge network.
“By developing a modern fit-for-purpose facility in the Hunter Region, adjacent to the 8,500-kilometre ARTC network, Brimble will have the ability to efficiently and cost-effectively connect it’s highly specialised machinery to railways across the length and breadth of Australia.”
“As a key provider of essential rail track resurfacing services, I congratulate industry groups like the Freight on Rail Group of Australia, Australasian Railway Association and Australian Logistics Council for working closely with government agencies like the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, ARTC, National Transport Commission and National Transport Research Organisation to develop and deliver programs and projects to build greater resilience and reliability in state and national railways.”