Re: R711's last trip to WMB this year

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

Hi,

Brown Family wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, Craig, but how would you rate R711's
> performance?

Excellent.

> Did it live it up WCR's expectation, both performance-wise and
> traffic-wise? Was it reliable and did it bring in the expected
> passenger numbers? Was its performance that much different to an S or
> a B?

In order: Yes, Yes and Yes.
Performance wise it took a few weeks to run-in timekeeping reflected that, we
progressively improved and after a short time it settled into a regular 6-8 mins late
on the down, and on time or early on the up.  On the down the load was up to 7 cars
plus van which we ran regularly, on the up it's generally 4 plus van.  On it's last
run for the year we had 5+van, it made Melbourne 3 mins early.  That's on a 115km/h N
loco/N set schedule!  Off the mark its performance is close to the diesel's - at
higher speeds it performance is better, and it will achieve 2000hp without
difficulty.  The time I rode on it beyond Geelong with 6 cars plus van (around 320t)
it'll went around the 80km/h curve at Grovedale, and maintained and bettered 80km/h
all the way up to Waurn Ponds (a mile and a half of 1-in-50, then a slight dip, and
then more 1-in-50), steady on 200psi.  The diesel control stand has been successful
and used on many occasions.

Reliability wise it's been pretty good really, I can think of only once it was
disabled (and repaired on site and ran that afternoon's service), and twice it had
severe fuel problems (no fault of the locomotive itself).  It hasn't missed a
scheduled day of running.

Passenger wise, it's brought in a lot of business, and the loadings reflect that -
significant increase on Saturday's 8207, and filling a new service (the 1705 up on
Saturday arvo).  Saturday morning used to be nice quiet job for the Connies - with
the R on it's the busiest train of the week!

Additionally, it's been part of 3 excellent tours (St Arnuad, Bendigo and Ballarat),
and there will be plenty more next year.

> Certainly from gunzel's point of view, it's been great, but what about
> the future of this unique steam-hauled train?

It'll be back in April or therabouts of 2000.

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