Re: 4 R's one train any way possible

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

steam4me@enternet.com.au (Yuri J  Sos/Melbourne AUS) wrote in
aus.rail:

>On 24 Apr 1999 08:25:11 GMT, "David" <valley123@xtra.co.nz> wrote, and
>I selectively quote:
>
>>It could be one way four and then divide up and come back as two =
>separate
>>trains.
>
>Didn't we walk this road last year? =20
>I think one of the issues was 8-12 steam crew required for such a
>bash.
>
>>Twenty car train. Over 500 people. Magical sound of 4 hard working =
>engines
>>tackling the notorious bank. The sight of such a long train sweeping =
>around
>>the curve.=20
>
>Two R classes and 15/16 cars up Ingliston Bank last night was
>*awesome*.   Add R711 with its new tyres and you have three locos
>coming into and out of sync with the stack talk.  But you'd need 30
>cars to have them working hard.  How do you fill thirty cars???
>(Obvious answer: close the Ingliston Road).
>
The obvous question to me is; why would you want to?

No R-class in VR service ever ran as more than a double-header. There
could have been double headed R's with an R as a banker, but
quadruple? C'mon! The old VR never ran triple-headed steam locos,
except maybe in very unusual circumstances, let alone quads. I think
you are treating steam locos like M.U.'d diesels.

If the art of railway preservation is to restore and recreate the
railway past, then why bother with a quad-R? Perhaps we should stick
all working steam locos on the Maribyrnong Bridge and see if it still
stands up? or run them all up Ingliston Bank. Borrow a few NA's from
PB and stick them on flats for the extra smoke.

A word of warning. That railway preservation exists at all is due to
maintaining and encouraging goodwill between railway amateur and
railway professional. If it gets to the stage that all the amateurs
want to do is "play trains", rather than seriously re-create the past,
you have gone well down the track to loosing this goodwill. And if any
damage or, heaven forbid, a serious accident results from "playing
trains", the banning of all enthusiast specials would not be an
unreasonable outcome. At least if a serious accident were to occur
during a recreated run of some train that may have run 40-50 years
ago, one factor in defence of the enthusiast would be that it had been
done safely before in years gone by.

Call me a purist if you like, but railway preservation should be about
maintaining the past, not making the Guiness Book of Records.

Les Brown