Re: [VIC] R700 transfer

[Craig Haber <albatross@harnessnet.com.au>]

Howdy,

James Brook wrote:

> Late February or early March would
> have been a much better time because there aren't any railfan trips.

Bits of 700 are to go into the rebuild of 766 (in particular the tender).  The aim is to
have 766 happening around Easter time (late April).  Taking 700 up in "Late February or
early March" makes this exceedingly difficult!

> The only tours
> during those weeks are the ones aimed at normal people.

<insert your own comment here about "railfans" and "normal people"> :) :)

> This would have also had the
> added advantage of giving everybody a bit more time to think about the trip. Just out of
> interest, could the tour have been run with wooden cars if it left Ballarat at 1700
> instead of 1800? If it had wooden cars on it I would have booked just to have a ride in
> them.

Nup, there's a 1710 up Sprinter (formed by a 1643 arrival, so you can't go before then), so
you would have to get to Bungaree early enough for it to run through (hence no photostop at
Warrenheip), and again you're going to struggle for a path to Melbourne (no I don't have the
graph in front of me to fully work out the path).  The timetabled path which we had on the
up was very tight - we had very neat crosses which worked perfectly.  We ran early all day,
which allowed an extra photostop at Navigators, a stop at Ballarat East to set down people
who wanted to visit our depot, then another unscheduled stop on the up to pick them up
(must've been a while since Ballarat East's had such a good service!).

A lot of time was allowed at Ballarat partly to allow for any problems on the down, and for
re-marshalling.  (Arrival was scheduled for 1520 - departure at 1800).  Had all cars been
full, we could not have placed the Steamrail BK's behind the DT and run them empty to
Melbourne (access is required through the train, and you can't walk through a D van), and
the whole train would have been reversed, which takes time.  We also had to go over the
Ballarat East to position 700, and reverse the diesel loco's (T385 not to lead).  We
expected a delay of 20 mins at Nth Geelong while the signalman from 'A'
box put us onto the loop line, then waited to signal through another pass, then went over to
'C' box to let us onto the Ballarat line.  Because we got to Nth Shore early (hence
passengers were very quickly re-boarded and we departed as soon as the food was loaded),
this fortunately did not eventuate, as the signalman had enough to time to get us going,
then get back to 'A' box for that pass.  Because the timetable was pretty much a "worst case
scenario" (ie, plan for the worst but hope for the best) and things went well, the TT looked
slow.  Had circumstances been different, we'd still have time up our sleeves to not cause
delays to other services, and get people home on time.

Cheers,
Craig.
--
Craig Haber
albatross@harnessnet.com.au
http://www.harnessnet.com.au/ch/
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out