> peter berrett (pberrett@tbsa.com.au) wrote:
> >The coninuing discussion about the Overland service and the alleged
> >conspiracy into its demise (ha ha) and a post about Westrail not having
> >first class prompted me to recall my trip on the Prospector. It also
> >reminded me of a recent artciel I saw whereby Westrail was looking to
> >get new rollingstock to replace the Prospector fleet.
> >
> >Thsi got me thinking - what will become of the existing fleet. I am sure
> >that Westrail have kept it reasonably well maintained and it does
> >provide a first class service at relatively high speeds by Australian
> >standards. Where could these carriages go?
> >
> >Well, why not run them as a day service Melbourne to Adelaide and vice
> >versa? If only as trial? They are standard gauge so they will run on the
> >standard gauge line and should be able to tack along at a reasonable
> >speed for at least part of the journey.
>
> That's not such a silly idea. The distance is similar, although it would
> take longer due to speed restrictions. The Prospector has run with only 1
> or 2 cars at times depending on the demand.
>
> >I realise the Victorian end of the line is in deplorable conditions but
> >it would be interesting to ponder what timings might be achievable using
> >high speed on those parts of the line that will take it.
>
> West of Horsham it would probably be allowed 130km/h.
>
> Cheers
> David
I note that somebody else posted that the line is not up to the standard
required to take the Prospector.
Can someone please advise on what changes to the line would be required
for the Prospector to run Melb to Adel?
Timings
Lets see then. According to my Explore Australia Horsham is about 430 km
from Adelaide by road so I shall assume a similar distance by rail.
430/130 km = about 3 hours 20 mins flat chat. I suspect with the
Adelaide hills and the odd speed restriction the Prospector would do
this in about 4 hours.
Next is the Horsham to Geelong section. This looks to be about 200 km on
my map (roughly). I don't know what the speed restriction is but I shall
assume conservatively an average speed of 70kph thus this section should
take about 3 hours. Finally I'll allow an hour for the Geelong to
Melbourne leg. That's a totaL of 8 hours.
Assuming somebody was prepared to shell out some money for some track
maintenance and upgrade the whole route to at least 130kph (excluding
the Adelaide Hills) The total journey of around 700km could be done in
around 6 hours. A 7.00 A.M. departure would just about get you to
Adelaide for the footy.
I might add that GSR don't neccessaily have to shell out a lot of
capital to get an Overland Prospector service up and running. It would
be a simple matter to lease the carriages from Westrail and they would
probably get them quite cheaply.
cheers Peter