Re: Today's Parallel Run TRAIN CONSISTS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Overall, the AK (500) and BKL (600) cars are ok for a tour of this type. Its a pity that many
of the 500 and 600 series cars went to Northern Rivers Railroad for their "Ritz Rail" train and
we got stuck with the BK centre aisle cars. Even so, the AK and BKL cars aren't anywhere near
as good as the wooden cars because of the pathetic windows in them.

You also have to remember that J515 is restricted to 80kph. It's only a branch line loco! :-)

This is what I think the best solution would have been if there was an 80kph path available to
and from Benalla. It would have also been nice to have the Steamrail K cars in the proper VR
livery at this stage instead of waiting for the hideous Explorer livery to wear out.

Thursday:

Spencer Street to Albury and stay overnight in a motel.

R707 - BS - AK - BKL - BK - BK - BRS - Norman.

Friday:

Albury to Benalla (or Seymour):

R707 - BK - BK - BKL - AK - BS - BRS - Norman.

Spencer Street - Benalla (or Seymour):

R761 - BW - BW - BW - ABE - BE - BCE.

I'm not sure if there's a turntable at Benalla so if a TF path wasn't available from Seymour to
Benalla then a SRHC T class could be used for this part of the trip.

Benalla (or Seymour) - Spencer Street

R707 - R761 (or SRHC T to Seymour) - BCE - BE - ABE - BW - BW - BW - BK - BK - BKL - AK - BS -
BRS - Norman.

If Steamrail's K cars were painted in the proper blue and gold livery then this train would
look much better than the circus train on Friday. We would also have two R classes in the red
and black livery hauling the train. Although I like R711, it really isn't an appropriate loco
for this type of trip with it's modern WCR livery.

The livery would have appeared like this:

Traditional R class red and black on both locos - Red - Red - Red - Red - Red - Red - Blue -
Blue - Blue - Blue - Blue - Blue - Brown.

If this was possible the 38's should have left Albury much earlier so both BG trains could meet
up at Benalla (or Seymour) early in the afternoon. The SG train could have then sat in the loop
while the BG trains were shunted into the yard and re-organised.

Of course this probably wouldn't be possible exactly as I have written it but I think the
overall plan should have been to have the Steamrail K cars in the blue and gold livery and use
these along with some blue and gold steel cars for an overnight trip to Albury. On the Saturday
morning there should have been a wooden car train from Spencer Street to Seymour or Benalla,
preferably Benalla if it were viable. Then the combined train could continue the parallel run
back to Melbourne. This would have resulted in a much nicer looking train as well as more
options for distance and carriage choice. For a trip like this, the look of the train should
have been as traditional as possible so the WCR and Explorer liveries shouldn't have appeared
on it.

David wrote:

> It is a shame that Victoria's train looked like a rainbow as there are so
> many carriages available for use.
> I know there are speed restrictions and all that kind of humbug but a train
> like... <snip> (sorry its just a bit too long to re-post it all! :-) )



--
- James Brook -

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