> On Sun, 18 Jan 1998 12:15:53 +1100, Bob <gioia@fastlink.com.au> wrote:
>
> >I hear that 42203 and 42220 are soon to be transfered to Countrylink and
> >will be based at the XPT centre Sydenham. Also I believe that they will
> >be airconditioned and repainted into Countrylink blue. Can anyone
> >confirm this? Will this then mean that 422s will operate on the Broken
> >Hill pass?
> > Bob
> G'day.
>
> As I understand it, Countrylink is quiter happy to pay "by the hour"
> to hire locos for passenger services. This way, it is not
> responsible for the failures and does not have to retain workshops to
> maintain them for occasional use each week.
>
> Pete.
My info cam from an employee at XPT known to us both. The hiring
arrangements with Freightcorp at present are on a daily not hourly basis. As
such , if the need a loco for 3 hours to recover a failed set they still pay
for a full days hiring. Because of this we recently saw the ridiculous
situation where 7301 was sent to Gosford to recover a failed set.
Bob