[Vic] Heritage train to St Arnaud Sun 17/9

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

Was Conny for much of the Heritage Train trip operated using equipment
from Seymour Rail Heritage Centre, plus R711, to Maryborough and St
Arnaud via Bacchus Marsh (both ways) on Sunday.  R711, GM36, T320 and a
train of 12 E and S cars, crewed by WCR.

Really good day, top weather, close to on-time running, lots and lots of
passengers with stops at Footscray, Sunshine, Bacchus Marsh, Ballan,
Ballarat, Talbot (picked up half the town I think), Maryborough, Dunolly
and St Arnaud.  Climb up Ingliston Bank spectacular, ran stop-to-stop
section in 20 mins Bacchus Marsh to Ballan. Maryborough platform was
chockas with the ever-popular market, only place I could get a seat to
eat lunch was the firemans seat of 711 (well OK, there were 500 seats in
the cars, but that would be no fun!).

St Arnaud's turntable got a good work out during the week - our guys had
to learn the road and T369 was used and turned on Mon, Tues and
Thurs....they put it on the table on Monday and it sank acc. ring-rail
timbers rotted.  The local team did much work during the week and on
Sunday it turned very easily, 711 balanced OK (we only took water at
Maryborough both ways, none at St Arnaud or Ballarat) and with about 300
people watching we got it going well enough to not stop at 180 degress,
and had to push it back the other way!

G538 (sg) stabled at Dunolly, and we crossed 9121 there on the up, so
there were 8 loco's at Dunolly (9121 had G512, S310, X52, X34).  Also
crossed 9123 at Tourello (G+G).

A good day, makes the bad days at work more worthwhile!

Cheers,
Craig.
--
Craig Haber
albatross@harnessnet.com.au
Rail Operations Officer, West Coast Railway
Web Page Developer, Railway Enthusiast, Essendon Football Club Fanatic
http://www.harnessnet.com.au/ch/
I haven't really lost my mind - it's backed up on disk somewhere......