Re: D3 through Seymour

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

"Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au> wrote in aus.rail:

>I don't think that this tour got onto Yuri's page.
>When I went there to get an S circular before the trip,
>the page had been updated last on 29.9, and showed the tour wrongly:
>Yuri believed that the weekender would be combined with the day trip to
>return via Toolamba, but this was not to be.  An R had been over the
>Toolamba - Echuca line (AFAIK 749 in 1967), but not now.
>The weekender returned with R766 via Bendigo; the day trip returned with
>the D3 via Seymour; the two trains were only minutes apart arriving at
>Spencer St.
>
ARE Deniliquin Tour, 03/02/68.
R-749 Flinders St - Echuca via Toolamba
D3-639 Echuca - Deniliquin - Echuca
R-749 Echuca - Flinders St via Bendigo

Load: Yarra, BE, BE, BE, BZ, Murray, BCE

Murray (Mutts) McEwan - Organiser, P. J. Barry - Booking Officer

The tour brochure originally planned the tour to be:

R-class Flinders St. - Bendigo, Echuca - Toolamba - Seymour - Flinders
St.
D3-class Bendigo - Echuca - Deniliquin - Echuca

The brochure also stated as a feature:
"Special authorisation to permit the operation of an R-class loco on
Echuca - Toolamba line.
NOTE: This will be the first and maybe the only time this working will
take place".

According to the S-circular for the trip (S. 273/68) Permission was
granted for the R-class between Toolamba and Echuca, maximum speed at
30mph (50kph), and D3 between Echuca and Deniliquin at 35mph (58kph).

Les Brown