Re: [VIC] R766 and R711 Ballarat tour.

[Craig Haber <albatross@harnessnet.com.au>]

Hi,

James Brook wrote:

> I went on the R766 and R711 Ballarat tour today. Great job WCR! In my
> opinion this was the best broad gauge tour of 1999.

The day went very smoothly, we were very pleased.  A lot of work and
planning went into the tour (as always) and I think everybody enjoyed
themeselves.

> The
> second shuttles was a parallel run to Warrenheip. R711 hauled the K and
> S cars to Bungaree Loop and R766 hauled two ZD vans, a BV and 13BL
> (Pioneer) to Warrenheip.

I was Conny on that trip.....was great to watch 711 in action....and the
passengers waving furiously, then ducking for cover from the shower of soot
from 766 as we accelerated past!

> The parallel run was good although the both
> lines are a little bit close for this sort of trip. The up special left
> Ballarat at 1727 (scheduled 1725) and was five minutes late at Ballan
> (scheduled 1755, actual 1800). It then arrived at Footscray at 1905
> (scheduled 1903) and arrived in Spencer Street one minute early at 1914.

Made a connection with 8237 (1855 Warrnambool ex-Spencer Street, S302+S300).

Just something to take note of with regards to your earlier posts James
(r.e. use of K cars).  It's getting harder and harder to get train paths.
If you're going to run at 80km/h it's very hard to get paths anywhere, and
you can't hold as many (if any) photostops.  We didn't have time for any on
the way home with the T's (which was a real shame - two T's on the Parwan
curves would have been great), we had to connect with 8237 at Footscray for
passengers who'd come from Geelong and beyond.

I hope everyone had a good day, we (train staff) certainly did!

Quote of the day from Reggie: "There's a lot of crazies on these tours"
(followed by roars of laughter up and and down the carriage!).

A big "hats off" to Steve Dalton who organised the tour - with a bit of
help, 'eh Steve? :)

Cheers,
Craig.
--
Craig Haber
albatross@harnessnet.com.au
http://www.harnessnet.com.au/ch/
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out