Re: D57 Class [was Re: 6029]

["Robert Lee" <robsl@ozemail.com.au>]

I agree that a 57 could not be based at Thirlmere.  In fact the whole issue
of what work a 57 would do if restored is another issue altogether!  And not
one I want to buy into just now!!!!!

It always was a mystery to me that 38s were permitted on the loop line,
albeit at low speeds.  I was told that the reason was that steel sleepers
were laid experimentally just after the new main line was opened in 1919.
There was a suggestion that these were war resparations and were made in
Germany.  Are the rails really 1880s vintage?  POssible I suppose, but the
Price-Williams report of 1890 said that the rails needed replacement, which
suggests to me that they were still the original chaired 1867 rails then.
My guess would be that the rails were replaced in Eddy's rebuilding when the
Hill Top deviation was built, but it's just a guess.  Those 1890s main line
steel rails certainly could last till now, given the light traffic since
1919.

ANyway, back to the 57s, the main problem would be clearances not weight
today.  I'm also mystified as to how the 57s met the clearances in the circa
1886 single-track Scarborough tunnel.  Every other tunnel they ran through
was double-track and 20th century.  I'd always assumed that Whitton's
double-track tunnels between Cowan and Kotara were the problem with the 57s
on the short north.

Any comments or corrections VERY welcome!!!

cheers,
Robert
David Bromage wrote in message ...
>Ben Armstrong (ba13@uow.edu.au) wrote:
>> On Thu, 25 May 2000, Robert Lee wrote:
>
>> > >Newcastle because they were out of gauge. Perhaps this is another
reason
>> > why RAC don't
>> > >want to see 5711 running again?
>
>> If it was operational again it would have to be based in Sydney.
>
>Or perhaps Valley Heights?
>
>> I know
>> for a fact that the 1886 vintage 80lb rails on the loop line near Picton
>> would have something to say about a live 57 class running across them!
>
>You'd have to tow it to Picton with an empty boiler.
>
>Cheers
>David