Re: What happened to the 73 class locos.

["tezza" <tezza@atinet.com.au>]

Bob wrote in message <34A7AF4F.76AEB5CF@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.

It was also because they had totally substandard working conditions for the
crews - like most of the current locos.


The other problem
>> with them was that they were poorly maintained by people that knew
>> nothing about them.

Yeah, railway fitters.

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.

The same thing still happens every day now.


They were an ideal replacement for
>> the 19 class way back in 1970 however.
>
>                                           Bob

But totally useless in the 90's.