Re: [VIC] Parallel run (was: Headboard 2000)

["Stuart Thyer" <s.thyer@anatomy.unimelb.edu.au>]

>
>Unfortunately I also found out the tour is using the high speed steel cars, so
>unfortunately we all have to put up with tin cans and windows that are hard to
>see out of. Luckily I booked first class non-airconditioned so I'm in the AK. I
>feel sorry for the people on the wrong side of the BK cars. Is Steamrail trying
>to lose customers?

No James, if we were trying to lose customers we would have tried to run the
tour with wooden cars. There is no 80kph path to run in either direction in
the North East. Had we not had the steel cars, the tour would not have taken
place or would have taken place in a rake of air-con cars. If there were
more crossing places in the North East it would still be possible to run at
80, but now that the infrastructure has been destroyed you run fast or don't
run.

 So you can either be grateful for a little forward planning that buying
those cars means tours like this can happen or you can continue to bemoan
how good things were in the 'old days' of preservation.
We all want the 'old days' of preservation, plenty of steam crews, lots of
places to run to, a less unhelpful railways to run on and plenty of places
to cross but from here on, this is as good as it will probably ever get.

The K cars will be repainted sometime too, back to blue.

Stuart Thyer
Photographer
University of Melbourne