Re: high speed tours (was: [VIC] R766 and R711 Ballarat tour.)

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Stuart Thyer wrote:

> If you had got upset at being in that car, we could have shifted you. The
> reason the car was taken, and the reason 4 cars were left behind, was for a
> charter that ran from Benalla to Devenish for a bush dance on the friday
> night. The cars were only needed for capacity on the friday, so didn't run
> on saturday. The dreaded K car was taken for its ground loading ability,
> very handy for 400 people who have just had too much of a  good time at a
> bush dance!

I can see why you might want it on the Friday night :-), but on the Saturday wouldn't it
have been better to use one of the W cars instead of the K car? That is my opinion
anyway.

> As for Craigs post re pathing, unfortunately he is correct, pathing is
> becoming more of a problem as more and more facilities vanish, and
> passengers don't appreciate having to spend an hour in a crossing loop
> because the 50mph train falls short of the next station by often only a few
> minutes. Quite often, Sunbury to Bendigo is the section, with nothing open
> in between. If it was ATC territory, beautiful, but it ain't and it sucks.

I understand that it is becoming a problem for Steamrail and the SRHC, but the ARHS ran
a round tour to Echuca with the wooden cars in April and the facilities haven't changed
much since then. With some of the other tours, most of the day is spent travelling at
80kph or less. With the ARHS St Arnaud tour, the train could only go above 80kph between
Sunshine - Ballarat and North Geelong - Newport. It was really stupid using the K cars
on the F class trip because the loco itself couldn't go above 30kph! Its a pity the ARHS
didn't hire some Steamrail or SRHC cars for that tour. I just think Steamrail and the
ARHS should keep the usage of the K cars to a minimum. Just out of interest, does
Steamrail or the ARHS have any tours planned for the second half of 2000 with the wooden
cars? If there was one long distance tour next year with the wooden cars I would be
happy.

--
- James Brook -

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