Re: Red Rattlers be damned!

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

> Keith Dunstan did a piece in the Melbourne "Sun" newspaper many years ago
> tracing the origin of the term. From memory he said it first appeared in the
> Sun in the 50's not long after the Harris trains arrived. Until then
> Melburnians thought that suburban trains were supposed to rattle, the Harris
> trains of course didn't rattle so the term was coined to descibe, in a
> derogitive way the Swing Doors and Taits, over the years railfans and the
> press (around the world) have used the term "rattlers" to describe any old
> train.

Well here is some more:

Until the advent of Harris trains, all the suburban cars were red so the
term can definitely be traced to the start of Harris running ( ie 'Blue'
trains, with the exception of the 1936/37 blue painted boat train, of
course, for all those smart arse picky people )

Until that time trains were simply designated as 'Sliding' or 'Swing'
door. 

Due to the age of the swing door carss ( built 1890-1905, lengthened
1908-1921 ) the bodies needed stiffening and were cross braced from the
late 1930's. The age of the cars showed as there were many stories told
of swing door cars that when stopping, the bodies always continued to
move, showing large gaps between floor and the underframe.

Perhaps its memory, but I never recall hearing the term "Red Rattler"
untilt he late 1970s when most of the Hitachi fleet had arrived and the
suburban service was deteriorating.

Funny thing was , the Hitachi/Martin&King trains rattled more.

-- 
Peter J. Vincent

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