R711 Sat 15/5/99

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

Just home from running 8246 pass with
R711-PCO2-ACZ252-BZ267-BRS221-BS205-BK700

R711 failed on 8207 somewhere down Winchelsea way, and passengers were
bussed down the line.  It was repaired on-site, and proceeded to Colac,
where it took water from the up end gantry, then set back and entered
no. 2 road, crossing 8232.  I joined it at Colac, we departed around
1436, Camperdown (non-stop) 1506, Terang (non-stop 1522), arrive WMB
1556.  Turn and take water.

8246 dep WMB 5 late (acc. late arrival), TEG 9 late, CDN 11 late, arr
XCO 16 late, dep 1839 19 late (ETW), BGU 22 late, WIA 24 late, GEX 19
late, WRB 15 late, arrive MSS 16 late.  Lost time in the section to TEG
is largely the 50km/h restriction over newly welded track (all trains
are losing time in this section), others due to 100km/h running
WMB-GEX.  We managed 54 mins GEX-MSS with a stop at WRB, that's good
going for *any* loco.

Keep in mind that's only it's second solo run on this train, so given
that it will normally depart WMB on time, and with some practice taking
water at XCO (that stop should come down to around 3mins), there is
improvement to come.  I think this week's run with 5+van had similar
timekeeping to last week with 3+van, so that's a indication of the
improvement.  It'll take some time, but there's much potential for this
loco.

I was driving to Colac from Geelong (as is the norm on this shift), and
motorcaded it from the Warncourt level crossing to Irrewarra.....the sun
had just come out and at 100km/h it looked and sounded fantastic.....

Cheers,
CH.
--
Craig Haber
albatross@harnessnet.com.au
http://www.harnessnet.com.au
The early bird catches the worm - but the second mouse gets the cheese!