Re: VN, VSH sets

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

"Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au> wrote in aus.rail:

>Michael Anonymous asked a few questions about V sets.
>The couplers in the VSH are exactly as the vehicles had them when in other
>consists, a legacy of the couplers which they had when Harris emu vehicles.
>
>I am surprised that this was possible.  When SH sets were created, the hep
>wiring was done on the cheap: former control circuits were used.  This
>limited the amount of current which could be transmitted.  It was found
>that four carriages could be powered, but six always required pull-push
>working or a central powervan.  Now the limit has been cribbed to five. 
>Have the carriages been rewired with conventional hep cabling?
>
>The V coding, of course, indicates five carriages; F had already been used
>to indicate four.  VLine has strayed so far from the fixed consist concept,
>that it may have been timely to abandon set coding too.
>
V=5 makes sense if you are a Roman.

Howabout the XPT? 10 car Passenger Train? Nope. Perhaps it should have
been called a VIPT or a VIIPT or, if we included the power cars, a
VIIIPT or a IXPT but NEVER a XPT.

IV would have been more difficult for a four-car set, but if so, would
you get Aids whilst riding a 4-car Harris set? (:-))

Sorry.

Les Brown