Re: See R711's tyres being manufactured!- Why not standardise??

["Grahame Ferguson" <grahamef@users.mcmedia.com.au>]

Yuri J Sos/Melbourne AUS wrote in message
<36d7bc83.10001299@news.enternet.com.au>...
>As you know, R711 ran only one revenue trip last year before being
>sidelined with tyre troubles.
>
>Over the summer months, West Coast Railway have commissioned Ring
>Rollers in South Africa to manufacture a complete set of new tyres for
>
>R711.  These tyres were manufactured on 17 February 1999.
>
>Steam Media Productions sent expatriate Australian videographer Trevor
>Staats to the factory in Springs to cover the actual manufacture for
>inclusion in  "1999 - The Victorian Year in Steam" and we are able to
>present stills from the whole process here for your enjoyment.
>
>The latest word is that R711 will be back in action sometime around
>last third of April '99.
>
>Go to my home page below then follow the R711 links at the top of the
>page.
>
>Enjoy!
>
>Regards
>
>Yuri
>--
>==================================
>Yuri J Sos
>Melbourne VIC AUS
>
>Reply to: steam4me@enternet.com.au
>
>Personal Web site at http://people.enternet.com.au/~steam4me
>Steam Media Productions: http://people.connect.net.au/~steam
>==================================

    With all this expense on R711 wheels has any thought being given to
conversion to standard gauge?  Because in Victoria the writing is now on the
wall!!- the Standard Gauge will invade!!
    No broad gauge ex SAR steam locomotive and preserved diesel locomotive
can leave the confines of the Victor Harbour line.  None of these
locomotives or carriages will run around Adelaide again, let alone the rest
of the South Australian country side.
     I am sure that 20 years ago, the South Australian Rail Preservation
fraternity did not think that this would be so, or else the Dry Creek Steam
Ranger depot would not have been built.
    At present in Victoria, no Victorian Steam locomotive can  go any where
west or south west of Ballarat.  In 10 years in Victoria, probably only the
Sale, Seymour, Warnambool, Bendigo to Swan Hill and Echuca, and Ballarat
lines would be broad gauge.  In twenty years it may have contracted to Sale,
Warnambool, Bendigo and Ballarat.
    Here in Victoria no Preservation Society has even the trackwork to house
a small standard gauge fleet on its premises.  Will Steam Train travel in
Victoria in the 21st Century be confined only to no more than a two hour
jaunt on the same limited set of tracks, month in, month out, year in, year
out?
    When any consideration is ever given as to who shall power and
interstate steam special these days, the answer can only be a NSW loco.  In
10 years time if the question is put as to who can run a steam special from
Melbourne to Albury, Mildura, Portland, Horsham, Tocumwal, Yarrawonga, the
answer won't come from any Victorian organisation.  It will be lucky to
supply a diesel without carriages!!
    Has any organisation either public, private, or volunteer in Victoria
put any concrete plans to converting some of its historic stock to standard
gauge.
    The point is that an R class is the easiest(not easy) to convert to
standard gauge of any Victorian locomotive, they were designed to be
convertable.  When are we Victorians going to pull our heads out of the
sand, so that we don't end up with our own Dry Creek depots.

NB: These opinions are my own, not of any organisation that I might belong
to.-G.Ferguson.