Railway Digest (again)

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

This is the reason I will not pay for it (although I encourage others to
gove me a subscription as a present).

Page 35 of the December 1999 RD - Broken Hill:

"On Thursday 28/10, a 1400 metre long 3PS6 Superfreighter passed through
Broken Hill yard at 5.00pm behind NRs 46/31. (snipped, details of a
SteelLink train) The SteelLink service was held in the yard until 11.00p.m.
when it departed east. In the interim WL33 Broken Hill Passenger arrived at
8.40p.m. with 8172 hauling the usual consist of two carriages and a power
van. At 9.05a.m. the following morning, Friday 29/10, WL1 Indian Pacific
arrived....."

So what is the problem? WL33 runs on Wednesdays, not Thursdays. WL33 is
scheduled to arrive at 2140 CTS, yet the one hour early arrival did not rate
a mention. It is not open to suggestion that the reporter merely got their
date wrong, as it says quite clearly, in regard to the Indian Pacific
report, "the following morning, Friday 29/10".

And here is the real rub. I was on WL33 on Wednesday 27/10. I mentioned it
in aus.rail just after I got back about delays at Parkes and other places en
route,and the lack of information provided to passengers (just so that you
know I am not making it up now).

WL33 arrived in broken Hill 60 minutes late, not the 60 minutes early, as
reported in RD.

But I grant you that people providing information can make mistakes, they
can even make things up (I do not know which happened here, although I have
my thoughts).

It is inexcusable that someone paid to produce a magazine could let
something like this through. Granted, the editor would have no reason to
doubt the arrival time, or the loco number, etc., but the wrong day of the
week, for a once weekly service, should have jumped right out at him. One
would expect the editor of a magazine such as Railway Digest to have at
least a basic knowledge of the rail system, and I would have thought that
such a knowledge would inlcude the day of the week that a once weekly
service operates.

Given this, how do we know what to believe in Digest?

Dave