Re: Vic Tangaras

[David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>]

Ron Bennell wrote:

> > Hey, the Hitachi was the pinnacle of Victorian Railways design for
> suburban
> > trains!
> >
> > They are the link to that era before the Met and V Line stuffed up the
> > railways in this state.
> >
>
> I guess that you had little to do with the first series English Electrics
> (Harris) before their performance was deliberately nobbled to keep the
> power bill down.
>
> Ron.

They were great suburbans in their day until they were run down because of
asbestos problems. There was apparently a substance that good be sprayed into
the asbestos to give is stability and stop it being a health risk. If we had
done that they would probably be still soldiering on. At least we might have
had a preserved set.

It is still not too late to do something in that regard. We have all the H
cars some of which I believe were M cars and even if they weren't then a BCH
car might be converted into one (or two). Given the preservation projects in
the world today, OK perhaps we haven' got a lot of money here but do not give
up hope. Also the four MTH trailers currently on the Peninsula are also
little unchanged. And not forgetting the two Harris motors they were until
recently on the greasing train - are they still stored somewhere.

Nope I don't all is lost yet. The trouble is we won't have any long distance
electrified routes to go for a fast run on. Roll on electrification of the
South Geelong line.

DEL.