Last weekend saw the annual visit to the Wimmera railway branch lines of the inspection train, known as the AK Cars.

Although this train looks deceptively like a passenger train, it is not the long-awaited return of passenger trains to the Wimmera. The train consists of two locomotives and three former passenger coaches fitted out with equipment to record the condition of the tracks.

This train covers the mainline network between Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane twice a year and includes the Victorian branch lines once a year.

The train travelled the Mallee lines, to Ouyen, Mildura, and Murrayville last week, to Hopetoun line on Saturday and covered the Rainbow branch on Sunday.