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Aus loco discussion mailing list
I guess it all comes down to the old saying "where there's a will there's
a way", and unfortunately there appears to be no will. I am glad to hear
that at least one XA is under cover receiving attention, it all seems pointless
though if ARHS WA Div. can not run it.
For the Eastern States readers who are not aware ARHS & Hotham Valley
Railway were the two main railtour operators in WA, with ARHS using mainly
the Dd 592 4-6-4 suburban tank loco and XA's 1405 and XA1402. Hotham Valley's
main motive power was and still is 'W' Class steam locos, PM706, and English
Electric 'C' class, as well as EE F40 and EE G50.
Unfortunately after a rather prolonged overhaul ARHS never had the pleasure
of running S 549 'Greenmount' on it own trains and sadly from an enthusiast
point of view it looks like we will never see it run again. This was as
a result of Westrail requiring operators to gain accreditation to operate
railtours, and to have insurance for each train which because of the high
costs involved, sadly saw the demise of ARHS railtours. As Hotham Valley
are a commercial operation, they were able to shoulder the extra costs
involved.
English Electric 'C' Class and Steam locos are still permitted to work
"under the wires" out of Perth City Station however they can only
enter and depart from the Armadale & Midland lines. There are no run-round
facilities so trains have to "top 'n' tail" as demonstrated last year with
the Perth Mint Centenary train from Midland to Perth, with PM706 &
C1703 as motive power. Trains are only permitted to stand for a short time
while in City Station to avoid causing problems with suburban train workings.
noel m forster wrote:
Aus loco discussion mailing list
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, 26 February 2000 8:48
Subject: Re. New Railtour Operator
Aus loco discussion mailing list
1401 has to work under the wires at Armadale and is indeed permitted
to.
Xa1401 has been modified to the extent that part of the roof has been
cut away to accomodate the muffler thus lowering its overall height. This
took some years to achieve successfully.All other locos have their mufflers
sitting on top of the roof. Mind you when introduced they were unmuffled-
the mind boggles!! To those on the eastern seaboard I should point out
that Armadale is on the southern extremity of the metro area and for any
tour operator to run a successful trip you need to pile the punters onto
the train at Perth, not Armadale or Midland where leaving one's car parked
for a considerable period of time will make it susceptible to break-ins
etc. unfortunately, due to the aformentioned clearance problems, it is
just about nigh on impossible to run a trip out of Perth with XAs or any
other class of loco.
it appears sadly, that ARHS WA has no interest in returning these magnificent
machines to operating condition, and hiring them out to an accredited rail
tour operator.
XA1405 is under cover at Midland workshops where it is undergoing radiator
repairs. XA1402 is unfortunately stored out in the open at the ARHS Museum
at Bassendean. It too requires radiator repairs along with electrical work.
It is not that the ARHS doesn't want to repair it, it is just time and
cost which is the bugbear.
I would love to see these machines running again to relive the old days
when with oil pouring down the sides they used to smoke their way around
Western Australia. Unlike Alcos which used to smoke when notching up, X
(a & b) locos used to constantly pour out volumes of smoke, blue-white
when starting up, then grey and finally black in 10th notch. X1005,1011,1013,1021,1028,1031,Xa1407,1411,1413
and Xb 1032 were particularly notorious.
Cheers
NMF
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