Re: What happened to the 73 class locos.

[Bob <gioia@fastlink.com.au>]

tezza wrote:

> Good riddance to another rubbish loco. Totally useless for trip train
> work
> or shunting Manildra in Clyde Down Yard.
>
> Sorry, can't let this one slip through without comment.There is
> absolutley nothing wrong with a 73 class if it is sent out to do what
> it was designed to do. Unfortunatly in latter years they were used on
> trip trains and were not suitable for the big loads. The other problem
> with them was that they were poorly maintained by people that knew
> nothing about them. I recall some bright spark suggested a trial with
> 3 x 73s on the Belmont branch on a coal train. It wasn't long before
> they boiled and failed. At one stage I had a look at the maintanence
> records for the 73s at Broadmeadow and was shocked to find that the
> same locos were failing continually for the same problems. A classic
> was the loco that had the same head replaced three times in three
> weeks by people that couldn't care less about the reliability of a
> loco. Needless to say that those people no longer have a job and we
> dont run 73s on trippies any more. They were an ideal replacement for
> the 19 class way back in 1970 however.

                                           Bob