Railways and Tramways of Australia
21 June
The world’s longest freight train, a BHP iron ore train in Western Australia’s Pilbara, 20 June 2001. Photo: international Cargo Express Facebook page.
Longest in the world
The world’s longest freight train operated in Western Australia on 21 June 2001.
The Pilbara region is an area of over 500,000 square kilometres located in the north of Western Australia. It is an arid region that has significant deposits of resources, particularly iron ore. Four privately-owned standard gauge railway networks transport iron ore from mines to ports. Numerous mines over a large area are linked by these railways.
BHP purchased eight model AC6000CW locomotives for hauling iron ore trains, with all arriving in Port Hedland in April 1999. They were the heaviest, most powerful and longest diesel locomotives ever to operate on Australian railways.
The world record for the longest and heaviest freight train was set on 21 June 2001 by a BHP Iron Ore train between Yandi Mine and Port Hedland. All eight of the AC6000CW locomotives were used to work the train.
The train consisted of 682 wagons, was 7.353 km in length and had a gross weight of 99,732 tonnes. Locomotives were arranged throughout the train into three pairs and two single units to enable traction and braking to be optimised. Locotrol was in operation, which uses remote control technology to enable motive power to be distributed along the train under the control of a single driver, Tom Forrest. 6076 and 6072 were at the front of the train, 6077 and 6070 were in B remote position, 6071 and 6073 in C remote position, 6075 in D remote position, and 6074 in E remote position at the rear of the train.
The train ran 276 km on the BHP Mount Newman line from Yandi to Nelson Point at Port Hedland. Total journey time was five hours and 24 minutes.
View
Footage of the world’s longest train:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz4djk6UaE0
Bibliography
‘Behemoths of the Pilbara’, Australian Railways Illustrated, no. 24, February 2014, pp 10–16.
‘BHP Iron Ore’s record breaking train’, Railway Digest, vol. 39, no. 8, August 2001, p 6.
R Dawes, ‘BHP Billiton’s iron ore railway in the Pilbara’, Railway Digest, vol. 42, no. 12, December 2004, pp 25–9.
World record breaking train’, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz4djk6UaE0, accessed 14 June 2026.