Bendigo line, evening 2/2/99

[Hal Cain <hal.cain@ormond.unimelb.edu.au>]

All did not go smoothly for the 8.15 p.m. Bendigo train (8053) this
evening.

Normally a Sprinter, tonight a 5-car Harris set (SH22) was provided,
headed by N451; the set was docked about 8.05 by a Y loco which cut off
and departed, and the N coupled up.  However the door controls refused
to function.  Eventually the train left 17 late at 8.32; slowed from
Tottenham onwards (following spark due at St. Albans 8.52); dep. St.
Albans 8.55 (21 late), Sydenham 9.01 (22 late), Sunbury 9.11 (23 late),
Clarkefield (pass) 9.20, Riddell's Creek 9.24 (25 late), Gisborne 9.31
(25 late), Macedon 9.36 (25 late), Woodend 9.44 (26 late), Kyneton 9.54
(27 late) -- where I left the train.

It appears that the loco was almost capable of keeping time on the
steeper grades.

In the up platform at Kyneton was the regular up goods with G523,
chiefly grain hoppers; dep. 9.55.  This train usually waits east of the
Mollison St gates, probably for a crew change.

Hal Cain