Re: Harris trains

["Peter J. Vincent" <pjv101@netspace.com.au>]

Harris train sets in the 1970's and 1980's were:
from WE:
7 car
M-T-T-M-BT-T-M = std 7 car block and 3 car unit

The 3 car unit was detached and left in the siding off peak. These 3 car
units/with Tait combinations were not used after about 1974 unless an
emergency

8 car:
M-T-T-M-M-T-T-M
ran on Belgrave / lilydale mainly others such as Frankston maybe

4 car off peak operation, recoupled for peak use.

There have been 
5 car sets occassionally / sandy /stk/ptm
6 car sets / sandy /Stk/PTM
2 car sets M-M for Pakenham shuttles

They grey ghost rebuilds were M-T-T-M and were slotted for
Belgrave/Lilydale use. However the power to weight ratio was so low
after rebuilding they were only suitable for flatland ( Sandy / StK /
PtM )

The powere door sets were
M-T-T-M-BT-T-M where the block trailers were 75' and the rest were std
length, c60'.
These sets ( 3 of them, were power door, forced air ventilation ). The
trailers were the test for the Martin & King "silvers".

All train set consists were listed from the West End until the start of
loop operations when sets reversed. In most cases, an even number of
trips through the loop, made the sets right way again.

>From 1978, Tait D cars were removed from Sandy running and were replaced
by M cars. This improved acceleration dramatically ( sets were
D-T-M-D-T-M ). Within a couple of months M&K silvers were being
remarshalled to M-T-M configuration in anticipation of loop running and
the abolition of West End/East End configurations.

Harris BT 560 was fitted with a stainless steel panel for weather
testing.
Up to the end of Harris running the set
501M-601T-602T-502M-501BT-603T-503M (without or without the additional
1000 series number for M's and 2000 series for T/BT's )
remained together. This set was used for all mods and testing from the
1960's to the 1980's (except rheo braking ). The last major test was the
fitting of Westcode Triple valve and EP gear ( no 7 step EP relay ).

The greaser train to traralgon usually ran M-M-Greaser-M-M.

-- 
Peter J. Vincent

Website ............ http://www.netspace.net.au/~pjv101/index.htm