transport founded 1999 defunct 4 june 2013 headquarters australia area served new south wales victoria key people ray evans managing director revenue approx . 100m p.a. at peak number of employees approx . 180 at peak website www.elzorro.com.au y145 in el zorro livery in june 2008 el zorro legal name el zorro transport pty ltd was an australian railway operator hauling freight and intrastructure trains in victoria and new south wales that ceased trading on 4 june 2013 . it was a private company founded in 1999 by ray evans who has a taste for things spanish el zorro being spanish for the fox . 1 at the time of liquidation the company had two shareholders director ray evans and ex director lisa trezise . geoff tighe a co founder and past shareholder and director was formerly chief executive of great northern rail services a now defunct operator which provided locomotives and crews to other operators in victoria until november 2002 . 2 3 contents 1 history 2 financial difficulties 3 services 4 fleet 5 references 6 external links history edit t413 preservation group s w241 and w244 and the railmotor group s y168 on infrastructure trains in melbourne in april 2006 seymour railway heritage centre s t357 and el zorro s s302 hauling a melbourne to warrnambool container service near warncoort in june 2008 in 2004 the company won a contract from qr national subsidiary interail to provide crews for their brisbane to melbourne rail service on the southern leg from junee to melbourne . 2 3 today the company is an accredited rail operator in victoria and new south wales 4 operating freight and infrastructure trains . 1 5 in december 2006 el zorro commenced operating a contract for p & o trans australia to operate container trains between melbourne s swanson dock and an intermodal container terminal at somerton . 6 in august 2007 el zorro was awarded a contract by awb limited to operate two grain trains one standard gauge one broad gauge in victoria and new south wales . 7 8 in december 2007 when pacific national announced that it was scaling back its victorian operations el zorro who were the only other grain operator admitted that the logistics of moving an entire victorian wheat harvest were beyond its capabilities at the time its fleet comprissing of only two t class locomotives and 80 wagons . 9 the first el zorro grain train was operated on the standard gauge on 11 december 2007 and the first broad gauge grain train on 18 january 2008 . 10 in april 2008 el zorro took over the westvic container handling warrnambool to melbourne container service from pacific national before it returned to pacific national in october 2008 . 11 12 13 problems el zorro faced in running the service included a lack of broad gauge locomotives and container wagons the removal of crossing loops on the line by infrastructure manager v line which resulted in late running and delays and the inability to carry high cube containers though the geelong tunnel due to a lack of low platform wagons . in august 2008 awb limited awarded el zorro a new five year contract to operate four trains moving grain throughout victoria and new south wales . to operate these 84 wgby standard gauge wagons were purchased by awb limited from china for this work and delivered in 2009 . 14 15 16 these were followed by 90 wgsy wagons in 2010 for both standard and broad gauge use . 17 18 in september 2008 miner iluka resources awarded el zorro a contract to haul containerised mineral sands from portland to melbourne . 3 19 trains would run three times a week carrying 40 containers making up a load of 1 000 tonnes . 20 in october 2008 the company operated a trial service to the gippsland intermodal freight terminal outside morwell in what was the first train to use the facility in almost three years . el zorro was said to be in talks with local companies who wanted to utilise rail freight . 21 in december 2008 el zorro started supplying rolling stock to regional rail logistics a new south wales based freight operator running services from the riverina region to sydney . 22 financial difficulties edit in may 2013 consolidated rail leasing filed a petition in the supreme court of new south wales to wind up el zorro . 23 el zorro director ray evans said cash flow problems had been caused by agricultural products distributor cargill refusing to pay his company for work carried out during the previous four weeks . evans said that although el zorro owed cargill 2 million as a long term debt there was a repayment plan in place which was not being fulfilled . due to this cargill had recently stopped all payments to the rail operator . 24 25 michael vines president of the victorian goldfields railway which leased a locomotive to el zorro through the seymour railway heritage centre said in a newsletter that his organisation had not been paid for nine months for the use of the locomotive . 24 at the same time the nsw branch of the rail tram and bus union said it was talking to legal representatives over el zorro s failure to pay full superannuation entitlements to its members since february 2013 . 26 the seymour railway heritage centre is reportedly owed more than one million dollars by el zorro in relation to the hiring of the centre s rolling stock to the company . 27 the company ceased trading on 4 june 2013 . 28 the australian securities and investment commission listed el zorro transport pty ltd as being under external administration following the submission of documents on 14 june . 27 the company subsequently entered liquidation with the liquidators hoskinghurst appointed by the supreme court of nsw . 29 cfcla s s311 leads a mix of hired and el zorro locomotives on a broad gauge grain service near meredith in january 2008 seymour railway heritage centre s gm36 leads a standard gauge grain service through corio in january 2008 services edit services formerly operated by el zorro included containerised mineral sands between portland and melbourne grain trains for awb limited in victoria and new south wales infrastructure trains for v line fleet edit locomotives accredited to be operated by el zorro on hire from others as at december 2012 included those owned by australian locolease awb limited cfcla consolidated rail leasing genesee & wyoming greentrains junee railway workshop and sct logistics as well as various preservation organisations including 707 operations dermpav seymour railway heritage centre south gippsland railway and steamrail victoria . 30 they also included locomotives owned by rlg a related entity of el zorro s302 t386 tl152 tl154 tl155 and y145 . 30 t386 was the first locomotive to receive any el zorro branding receiving a z painted on the end of each hood . in may 2008 y145 was the first locomotive to be painted into el zorro s grey orange and yellow livery 31 in january 2009 south gippsland railway s t342 was painted in el zorro livery after being hired on a long lease . 32 in august 2009 s302 was also repainted in to the corporate livery . 33 el zorro made approaches to acquire unwanted rolling stock from competitor pacific national but were told that rolling stock would be scrapped or exported . 34 wagons included container flats open wagons rail transporters and ballast hoppers . grain hoppers sleeper discharge wagons container flats and ballast hoppers were also leased by the company . 30 a list of el zorro operated locomotives at the time the company ceased trading can be found on railpage australia at list of el zorro operated locomotives . references edit a b max berry 5 december 2006 . rail freight competition unmasked . melbourne www.theage.com.au . retrieved 2008 04 04 . a b philip hopkins 14 april 2008 . el zorro aims to make grain long running cereal . theage.com.au . retrieved 2008 04 14 . a b c the fox gets on track business review australia nsw accredited operators nsw independent transport safety regulator 6 december 2012 el zorro s submission to the essential services commission proposed rail access arrangements victorian rail access regime may 2006 philip hopkins 5 january 2007 . corrigan back on wharves for p & o competing against patrick . www.smh.com.au . retrieved 2008 04 04 . awb limited awb grainflow and el zorro rail freight agreement . www.awb.com.au . 27 august 2007 . archived from the original on 2008 03 17 . retrieved 2008 04 04 . el zorro awb grainflow join forces railexpress.com.au 4 september 2007 easdown geoff 12 december 2007 . asciano delivers grain haulage shock to farmers . herald sun . www.news.com.au . retrieved 2008 07 30 . news archive western victorian railfan guide el zorro runs first service for westvic railexpress.com.au 1 april 2008 warrnambool freight wongm s rail gallery the end of the line operator dumps rail freight company the standard 12 october 2008 awb limited awb on track to export bulk grain by rail on east coast . www.awb.com.au . 2008 08 25 . retrieved 2008 08 25 . geoff easdown 26 august 2008 . el zorro to grains rescue . herald sun . www.news.com.au . awb el zorro sign new grain contract railexpress.com.au 25 august 2008 awb doubles grain trains weekly times 16 november 2009 awb rail fleet makes tracks into sa north queensland register 15 june 2010 rail freight back on portland maroona line . abc news . www.abc.net.au . 3 september 2008 . retrieved 2008 09 04 . alex johnson 2008 09 04 . sands to travel by rail portland line back in action . warrnambool standard . yourguide.com.au . retrieved 2008 09 05 . el zorro makes a gippsland dry run railexpress.com.au 29 october 2008 peter hemphill 2008 12 19 . freight boon . weekly times . www.weeklytimesnow.com.au . retrieved 2009 01 08 . notification to wind up company form 519g australian securities & investments commission 21 may 2013 a b hemphill peter 2013 05 28 . el zorro court application . weekly times . retrieved 2013 05 29 . el zorro s financial woes resurface loco express 29 may 2013 el zorro super payments stalled . loco express . rtbu nsw branch locomotive division . retrieved 2013 05 29 . a b dalton tyrone 2013 07 02 . debt blow for railway . north central review . retrieved 2013 07 02 . el zorro stops trading . weekly times . 5 june 2013 . retrieved 2013 06 05 . australia s el zorro enters liquidation . international railway journal . 22 july 2013 . retrieved 2014 01 03 . a b c network access information pack v line victorian y class where are they now . railpage australia forums locomotives and rolling stock . www.railpage.com.au . retrieved 2008 06 02 . wongm s rail gallery search t342 . wongm.railgeelong.com . retrieved 2009 09 05 . wongm s rail gallery s302 transfer . wongm.railgeelong.com . 14 august 2009 . retrieved 2009 09 05 . philip hopkins 21 march 2008 . off the rails . the age . business.theage.com.au . retrieved 2008 06 22 . external links edit archived copy of el zorro website vicsig.net el zorro locomotive fleet discussion of the events surrounding el zorro s collapse retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title el zorro railway & oldid 738669569 categories defunct railway companies of australia1999 establishments in australia2013 disestablishments in australiahidden categories use dmy dates from november 2012pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print