[VIC] Misleading advertising on a tour brochure

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

I don't know if anyone else here has seen the brochure for the Classic
Railway Tours trip to Maryborough and St Arnaud, but I think it is very
misleading. This is the statement about the trip on the brochure:

   "Did you miss the early 1900s
    Experience rail travel of a by gone era in
    restored 1906 style heritage carriages with
    opening windows and compartment seating, or
    enjoy the comfort of historical steel air
    conditioned carriages from the ex Sydney train,
    Spirit of Progress.
    The Recentrly resored AVOCA Dining Car will
    be attached to our train, with its Tasmanian Oak
    tables & chairs you can sit down and enjoy a
    cuppa enroute.
    Hauling our train will be the famous R711
    Steam Locomotive and 2 heritage T Class Diesel
    Locomotives in Victorian Railway BLUE &
    GOLD livery."

There is a photo of R707 hauling Seymour's wooden cars right next to
this statement and the term "Heritage Steam Train Tour" is used in the
heading. While most of the train can be classified as heritage, you can
hardly describe R711 as heritage. While they don't actually say R711 is
a heritage loco, everything else is described as heritage, the tour is
advertised as a "Heritage Steam Train Tour" and they have a photo of a
normal R, not R711. In addition to this, the VR didn't run their
passenger trains with an R class and two T's so this combination is not
very historical. While it is fair enough to describe the carriages and
the two T's as heritage, I think that the use of a very modern loco and
a strange combination of locos means they shouldn't advertise the whole
trip as a "Heritage Steam Train Tour". If you don't know much about R711
and you see a photo of a normal R that can't be identified as R707
(except for the huge nameplate), then you would probably expect to see
what is in the photo, not what will actually be hauling it. Everyone
seems to be using the term "Heritage" quite a bit these days, but very
few operators do it properly and this is just another example.

-- 
- James Brook -

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