Re: How many NR locos are now written of?

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) wrote in aus.rail:

>Given that NR knew that they would inherit a substantial number of existing 
>locos from the old AN, PTC and SRA as the shareholders agreement required 
>its difficult to see why so many new ones were needed to handle the current 
>freight task , even if one assumes that NR retained its monopoly on 
>Interstate freight , which was never guaranteed.
>
What was it that NR inherited? Better still what was the average age
of the locos they inherited? 20-30 years old wasn't it?

Have you forgotten the number of breakdowns that NR had to put up with
in the early days and the shocking reliability that caused NR's
clients to go elsewhere. Have you forgotten how nearly everytime NR
ran a train to Brisbane from Sydney behind an 80-class it invariably
broke down somewhere near the NSW/QLD border? They ran with extra
locos expecting at least one to fail en-route. I remember the
frustration of NR's staff in trying to get a reliable service up and
running using 442-class, 80-class, 700's and even the C-class caused a
bit of angst every now and again.

The NR-class is beautiful loco, it is far more economical than a lot
of lesser rated locos and saved NR a heap in fuel bills. What's more
and most important - it is reliable. If NR's chances of making a
profit with the NR-class are pretty slim, then it had buckley's chance
before them.

>As the Asian Economic downturn continues to bite freight transport , both road 
>and rail  freight will continue to decline, and even if the ratio stays the 
>same , its hard to see how any of the current rail players , will make any 
>profit, the exception currently being ASR who seem to be defying the trend.
>Maybe because they dont have a fleet of brand new locos and dont have a
>$850 million liability.

Ahh, competition, marvellous isn't it?

Economic downturns don't last forever, Asia will come back again. It
might take a few years whilst it gets itself sorted out, but things
always come and go in cycles

True NR lost a lot of freight, but there is an awful lot more out
there to get back that rail has lost over the last 30-40 years.

>The other complication for rail operators is of course the totally idiotic
>track access regime , which road operators dont have to contend with.
>I cant see any progress in fixing any of this .
>
No argument there, but that situation will change too, especially if
NRC is privatised. If getting maximum sale price means changing the
track access charges regime, it will happen.

Les Brown