Re: WCR leasing R766?

[Michael <mk@netstra.com.au>]

Hi,

Having mentioned that, how many A2's, N's, X's, are there that still exist 
in any form? Of these, how many can be restored to working condition?

Are there any other locomotives around Australia that resemble the steam S 
class in any way, that would make it easy to modify it to form a replica of 
our original S class steamers? A replica is better than nothing methinks..

Regards
Michael

James Brook said on 28-Oct-1999 in <3817E595.89B02DE4@ozemail.com.au>:

>    I really hope they don't convert R766. I like the locomotive the way
>    it is at 
>the moment. If WCR want another "super R" ("R2" is the name I give to
>it. <g>) then why don't they get R700 and convert it? R766 has already
>been restored and is currently close to its original condition. The
>livery of R766 and the tender are only minor alterations to its original
>VR condition and they are easy to convert back. Once R766 has been
>converted to R711's condition it will be wrecked. I like R711, but that
>loco was never restored to its original VR condition.
>
>    The number of R class locomotives being returned to service is
>    ridiculous. 
>Why does Steamrail need two (or more) R class locos anyway? R707 is
>sitting, ready for use in the west block right next door to Steamrail!
>There is also R711 in use with WCR at the moment. Personally I think
>that four R class locos in service is the absolute limit. In Victoria
>there are extremely limited resources in volunteer labour, materials and
>funding to restore and maintain steam locomotives. While it might be
>nice to restore every single R class in the state that wasn't scrapped,
>we are going to reach a point where we will have too many restored steam
>locomotives in the state and not enough resources to look after them
>all. Where do we actually draw a line? There are plenty of other steam
>locos around the state. Do we just keep restoring locos until we get to
>the stage where we can't look after them properly? Does Victoria really
>need five R class locomotives in service? Most R class tours only use
>two locomotives and there is the odd tour that uses three.
>
>This is a list of currently restored ex Victorian Railways steam
>locomotives: 
>
>- Steamrail
>
>    - K153
>    - K183
>    - K190
>    - D3 639
>    - R761
>    - R766 (766 inc.)
>
>- SRHC
>
>    - J515
>
>- VGR
>
>    - J549
>    - K160
>
>- Mornington
>
>    - K163
>
>- WCR
>
>    - R711
>    - Y112
>
>- Puffing Billy (2'6")
>
>    - 7A
>    - 8A
>    - 12A
>    - 14A
>
>    With this many restored locos in the state and more to come (I
>    haven't 
>included the interstate locomotives at the Bellarine Peninsula Railway
>and ex privately owned locos around the state in the above list), is it
>really sensible to restore more locomotives of the same class,
>especially a class with four examples already running?

-- 
Michael Kurkowski
Ph: 0416-044-124
Web: http://www.netstra.com.au/~mk

"The cheque's in the mail..."