J class locomotives in
Newport in May 2008 Southern Shorthaul Railroad was established in December 2003, when the remains of
Great Northern Rail Services were purchased from
Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia. Current rail operations include grain haulage for Arrow Commodities, Emerald Grain,
Newcastle AGRI Terminal, Allied Mills in NSW and VIC,
George Weston Foods and
Manildra Group hauling grain, wheat and flour as well as intermodal trains to Port Botany, intermodal operations for
Fletchers International Exports,
Grainforce,
Swift Transport,
DP World and
Toll Group with 4 of these services terminating at Port Botany in NSW, coal services for
Centennial Coal in NSW, infrastructure trains for
RailCorp/
Sydney Trains and
Australian Rail Track Corporation/
UGL Rail in NSW, locomotive and wagon maintenance services for
Pacific National and
V/Line in Victoria, EMU deliveries for
Metro Trains Melbourne and various transfer workings in NSW and Victoria. In 2010, SSR entered the coal haulage market. Operating on behalf of Centennial Coal, it operates trains from the NSW Western Coalfields (Airly, Clarence, Charbon and Lidsdale collieries) and Newstan Colliery to ports at
Kooragang Island,
Carrington and
Port Kembla. In 2018, the company began Hunter Valley operations, using 3 CEY class and 90 PHTH hoppers. The company also refurbishes and repairs locomotives and rolling stock at the former
Bendigo Workshops in
Victoria. It also has a maintenance facility at the
Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park & Railway. In May 2012, SSR purchased
GM3 from
Clyde Engineering and transferred it from
Kelso to Lithgow for overhaul. In 2012, SSR formed a subsidiary, BRM Leasing. In October 2012, the name was changed to
Consolidated Rail Leasing. Some of the SSR fleet has been made available for lease through CRL. In 2013, SSR celebrated 10 years in business, created a special logo, and painted the then-new SSR class in a variation of its standard yellow and black livery. In December 2013, SSR began operating a container service from
Kelso to
Port Botany. The train primarily carries containerised grain, and has considerably grown in size since it first started running. In 2014, SSR commenced operating grain services in New South Wales for
George Weston Foods. In 2015, S317 and GM27 were repainted into a livery reminiscent of the one used by
Australian National on the rebuilt CLP classes in 1993. 2016 was a year of rapid expansion for SSR, when it bought the
Greentrains locomotive fleet (excluding 8026 and T383 which Greentrains retained), which meant that SSR no longer had to hire motive power, such as the
VL class locomotives, and could expand its operations. SSR also purchased 180 coal wagons, after the
Leigh Creek coal train ceased running. SSR has since converted them into grain wagons, by modifying the bottom discharge doors and fitting fibreglass lids, and have formed three grain trains, ranging from 50 to 60 wagons. In 2017, SSR continued to expand, when it won the contract to perform maintenance on
Pacific National broad gauge locomotives in Victoria. That required the company to operate light engine transfers between Bendigo and
South Dynon. It has delivered new
Metro X'Trapolis EMUs from Alstom's
Ballarat North Workshops to Metro's Epping Workshops, as well as performing maintenance and overhauls on some
V/Line locomotives and passenger rolling stock at the Bendigo workshops. SSR won the Allied Mills contract from Pacific National. That led to them serving Allied Mills facilities in
Maldon, New South Wales and
Kensington, Victoria. Due to the Kensington facility being located on the broad gauge network, locomotives S302 and S317, and 10 BGKF and 9 BGGX wagons, were converted to broad gauge, and new standard gauge wagons were purchased to service the NSW facility. Victorian grain operations were further ramped up when SSR won a contract with Emerald Grain to provide grain services from Southern NSW and Western Victoria for export through
Appleton Dock. In 2018, SSR commenced operating monster 100+ wagon grain trains into South Australia and Victoria to help alleviate the effects of a drought in New South Wales. South Australian operations commenced in June and Victorian trains commenced in September. The operations were usually powered by x5 C classes, but SSR, BRM, RL, G, 49 and 45 class locomotives have been used. The operations have continued into 2019. In August 2020, CLF1, one of the company's latest acquisitions, was repainted into SSR black and yellow, the first locomotive to be painted into that livery in almost a decade. It was named "Milton Bromwich", after one of the three directors of Southern Shorthaul Railroad. It was later destroyed in a derailment in Rock View near
Junee NSW on 8 March 2023. In April 2023, in an agreement similar to SSR's existing operating agreements with Fletcher's International Exports and Centennial Coal, it was announced that SSR had signed a long-term agreement with
Manildra Group to provide train crews and oversee daily operation of Manildra's grain and container trains. To provide rolling stock for these services, Manildra ordered 17
GT46C-ACe Gen II MAN Class locomotives from Progress Rail, built in and imported from the
United States, 222 100t aluminium bodied grain wagons, 60 100 tonne flour wagons and 103 100 tonne, 60ft container wagons. This replaces Manildra Group's existing agreement with
Pacific National, who provided their own rolling stock to service Manildra Group's requirements. The contract gives SSR 100% of the market share of domestic milling grain hauled by rail in NSW and Victoria. The contract began on 1 November 2024, using a mix of 8 MAN class locomotives as well as hired motive power from RailFirst Asset Management and
Aurizon to account for the delayed arrival of the remaining 9 MAN class units. In the latter half of 2023, SSR repainted RL304 into a train crash awareness livery, along with C505, C506 and C507 receiving a “tiger” livery like that of the SSR class, all three C class members have also been given new names. SSR has the Contract to haul the AK test cars in NSW, VIC, QLD & SA with a pair of GM classes normally doing the service. SSR has new locomotives on order to be classed the CAC Class (AC50) built by CRRC China. ==Liveries==