Re: 520 or 621

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

Jo & Paul wrote in message <36d864e9@dnews.tpgi.com.au>...
>There seems to be a little bit of a debate as to which steamranger
>loco to put back in service first.
>Some people would like 520 as they feel the general public relate
>520 with steamranger and they like to travel behind big power ?
>It seems that the others would perfer 621 as she is a lot of peoples
>favorate and also is cheaper to run to victor and back ?
>What i would like to ask is if you had a choice of loco to travel to
>Victor and back which loco would you perfer ?
>
>                                                 Thank you for you comments
> P.S First time i have sent a thread please be gentle.
>
>
>         Paul Curry
>
>
    Have you ever thought of converting 520 to standard gauge.  I was told,
and you may check this , that 520 was built able to be gauge convertable.
    Since no SAR steam power can leave the confines of Victor Harbour, and
travel in its own state, why not consider this a long term goal.
    Was there ever any long term plan 10 or 20 years ago to convert some
broad gauge rolling stock to standard gauge, even the diesels and some
carriages maybe?  Who would have thought in 1979 that you could not take a
steam tour in 1999 to Tailem Bend, Pinnarro, Loxton, Bordertown, Port
Pirie,or Peterborough?  Here in Victoria we will go down the same path as
South Australia if we do not plan for the next 10 to 20 years.
    As far as coming to see 520 or 621, my preference is 520, however the
general public will travel on anything as long as its steam, so 621 may be
the best economical solution.  Its only us railfans who are discriminating.
    But if you want to get a larger public ridership, you have to be able to
get into Adelaide, and you can only do that with standard gauge rolling
stock. You could again use the old Dry creek Steam Ranger depot as a base(if
it is still there).  Can you run a standard gauge diesel hauled train to Mt
Barker for passengers to change to the steam train??
    My real preference is that I would rather travel to Adelaide, than
Mt Barker or Goolwa to catch a steam train, and I think that may be the
preference of tourists who might travel by Air(or train!) to Adelaide,
unless they otherwise may be holidaying in Victor Harbour.
    I do regularly visit the Port Dock Rail Museum as it is easy to get to
from the Adelaide CBD, (especially when you have a family of young children
who hate sitting in a hot car for more than 30 minutes), but I have only
been once to Victor Harbour.  The same goes for some of my fellow Victorian
railfans when they come to South Australia.
    I am afraid that my choice is that I would rather travel to Adelaide
than Victor Harbour to catch a steam train, no matter what the class of
loco.