International Railroad Discussion > Watco in Australia

Watco have managed a fleet of locos/grain wagons for a bulk grain cooperative in West Australia for a number of years, plus a handful of locos for hire to the open access track owner for maintenance work.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watco_Australia

Watco are now moving onto Cape gauge in Queensland as an open access operator. Far less capital is required if no track ownership, so fits the Watco business model. Some of the track they will use is wet spaghetti, 15.75 TAL, so ultralight locos required
July 2015, page 2. https://www.watcocompanies.com/news/dispatch/

8 GT42CU-3 clones ordered from NRE https://www.nre.com/news/international-spotlight-new-class-locomotives-australia

Possibility that NRE may be behind schedule. Competitors who won't cross hire locos, and a shortage of Qld profile Cape gauge hire stock, means that Warco are casting wide for additional motive power. Their contract kicks off in Q4 this year

It appears that Watco have purchased 5 rebuilt ex Queensland GT22CU-3 in South Africa. Owned by Progress Rail, and rebuilt by a contractor in SA for potential sale to Zimbabwe. Apparently this deal collapsed.

The yellow locos in this clip. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/tmh-africa-unveils-rolling-stock-manufacturing-facility-2019-05-02/rep_id:4136