Gunzelgram

[dbromage@metz.une.edu.au (David Bromage)]

I hope Craig doesn't have the word registered as a trademark. :)


Only a week back in Victoria and I'd managed to get in two days
gunzelling.  Here's a summary of sightings worth reporting. Most loco
hauled trains with N sets appear to have extra cars attached for holiday
traffic. 

Mon 29/12/97

The 12.20 up Warrnambool was
S300-292PCP-252ACZ-269BZ-221BRS-206BS-224BRS-207BS Y161 removed 207BS on
arrival. 

The 16.00 Geelong was N456-218BS-FN10. The 4th car in set FN10 was 276BZN. 
218BS is orange. 

The 16.42 South Geelong was N460-217BS-254BZ-N4. 217BS is orange. 

The 12.15 up Albury was N471-N9-272BZN-D358. 

The 16.55 Geelong was N455-263BCZ-N14. 263BCZ is orange. 

The 17.15 South Geelong was N474-FN17-N8. 

The consist for the 17.40 South Geelong was 262ACZ-261BCZ-N2. 261BCZ is
orange. I didn't see what loco was attached. 

The 17.28 Seymour was A70-A73-PH453-FSH22


Tue 30/12/97

On a whim I travelled to Albury on the 8.30 XPT, returning on the 12.15 up
pass. 

The 8.49 Warrnambool was one of the longest I've ever seen. 
S302-205BS-207BS-270BZ-201BS-223BRS-267BZ-255ACZ-294PCP. 201BS and 223BRS
were orange, the rest of the train was WCR blue. Based on the afternoon
sightings S302 and the leading two cars cut off at Warrnambool, and B61
worked the rest back on the 12.20 up. I'd be interested to know how well
the S kept to time hauling 8 cars. Craig? 

The Overland arrived at 8.04 with NR93-PCO4 (Explorer
livery)-Allambi-Dorai- 2AJ-1RBJ-7BJ-5BJ-9BJ-HM311-AMPZ264

The timings for the XPT were Spencer St 8.30, Longwood Loop 10.02-10.08,
Benalla 10.39-10.43, Wangaratta 10.04-10.06, Albury 11.47. 

T396 running light from Dynon towards MFT. "Foreign" locos at Dynon were
BL28, BL30, DL38, 8174, 8179, NR4, NR8, NR62, NR88, NR89, NR91, NR94,
NR108 and one other NR hiding in the fuel point. Y152 was shunting at
Tottenham Yard. 

The stop at Longwood Loop was when we were put into the loop to cross an
up freight (locos NR3-NR45-NR109) which was already stopped on the main
line.  Apparently its train was longer than the loop. 

H3 (sg) and H5 (bg) were at Wodonga. G535 (sg) was also at Wodonga
attaching to the up Bandiana superfreighter.

The 12.15 up Albury was N472-FN1-D335. The 4th car in the FN set was
271BZN, which I was booked in. This was my first time travelling in a BZN.
The wheelchair space and disabled toilet must be a welcome addition to the
car fleet, but I can't work out why the 76 ordinary seats are numbered 18
to 93. The only problem with the car was it hadn't been lifted since late
1993, so was riding a bit roughly.  The air conditioning was also
struggling a bit on such a hot day. D335 is in severe need of a lift.
Looking back through the end door window in the BZN, the D van was rocking
and hunting quite badly at high speed (worse than usual for a trailing D
van). 

Timings were Albury 12.15, Wodonga 12.22-12.24, Wangaratta 13.02-13.07,
Benalla 13.31-13.32, Euroa 14.03-14.04, Seymour 14.35-14.51, Broadmeadows
15.40-15.42, Spencer St 16.02. The train was half full ex-Wodonga and
completely full (including first class) ex-Benalla. The long stop at
Seymour was rather unfortunate.  A female passenger in my car suffered an
apparent burst appendix. An ambulance met the train at Seymour but it took
some time to ease her pain before she could be moved. Spirited running
between Seymour and Broadmeadows made up 5 minutes of lost time. 

The 12.00 Albury was worked by N458 hauling a red D van and an orange FN
set.  There are apparently three more or less captive FN sets working the
Albury service.  A recently overhauled red FN set works the Twin City
Limited, with two orange FN sets making a single run per day on the
lonchtime trains. Worlds best practice indeed!  Each set has a D van
attached to the down end. There is a lot of luggage to/from the Canberra,
Bright and Mt Beauty bus connections. 

The 17.28 Seymour was X33-A70-PH452-FSH25. X33 (V/Line Freight livery) ran
long end leading. 

The set for the 17.40 South Geelong was 217BS-264BZ-N4. The loco hadn't
attached by the time I disappeared into the City Loop. 

To cap the day off, the 16.10 Lilydale was delayed 14 minutes at Box Hill
by a defective door which would not close.

Cheers
David