Trains

Being a bit of a train buff, caught these 2 oldies
working south through Bethungera the other week...

Thanks Old Dog, I think you will find you are not the only person with that interest (as well as trucks) on this forum

Ya can count me in the Puffernut group.

Mainly Tasmanian ones,X,Y,Z,ZA,ZB,ZC classes, but will look at anything steam.

Are those oes you shot anything like the Victorian A and B class???

Ya can count me in the Puffernut group.

Mainly Tasmanian ones,X,Y,Z,ZA,ZB,ZC classes, but will look at anything steam.

Are those oes you shot anything like the Victorian A and B class???

yes Victorian S Class from about 1957
leased to Southern Shorthaul Railways

Like a lot of the private mobs fondly known as "rent a wreck" We were watching each other and he pulled it back a few notches, as he wasn't going to let me beat the lights. He was still powering up as he went past......

I was fascinated a while back, reading about why the various railways run on the side of the tracks that they do. It doesn't always correlate with the side of the road they drive on, in any particular country .. but rather, who supplied their first rail network.

As with railway guages, the running side is a proper headache, even in Europe.
What got me interested was a recent holiday to France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. We caught the train from Barcelona, around the Mediterranean, through Cannes, Nice & Monaco, before finishing up in Milan.

When we got to the Spanish/French border, North of Barcelona, the same Spanish train runs right through the border, about 30 kms, to Perpignan station (France).
However, the Spanish train has to swap sides, to travel on the French rail network! .. as the Spanish trains run on the right, whereas the French trains run on the left!
This involves train stoppage, waiting for signalling, and then slow train movements, to ensure that the cross-over is carried out, without any FU's.

Other adjoining countries where this is a headache are Holland and Belgium, and Norway and Sweden. From Malmo Central, SW towards the Oresund tunnel/bridge that links Denmark and Sweden, the trains swap from left (Swedish) to right, to match the Danish rail network, which runs on the right.

If that was one of the 'Talgo' trains they also adjust the gauge (equivalent tp track on a vehicle) by over 6 inches without you leaving your seat,

top photo ole dog, i reckon they were the best looking old locos, love to own one. jk

S for single end
B for both ends?



chocs

No, the letters were arbitrary. By the time VR had run out of alphabet, the older classes with the same letter had been scrapped.
IIRC there were two B classes: an 1860s mainline express steam loco. One hauled the first VR royal tour (Prince Alfred, a son of Queen Victoria, in Melbourne in command of HMS Galatea when the railway to Bendigo was the latest grand project to show off); the early 1950s mainline diesel.
There were three Ss: a c1890s mainline loco; the famous 1920s mainline Pacifics (4-6-2 wheel arrangement), subsequently streamlined for Spirit of Progress, and the image of of VR to the world for over a decade; the late 1950s single-ended mainline diesel.

Operating today (mainline companies and tourist railways):
A, B, C, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, X, Y.
Preserved statically: E, V, Z.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

thanks for that Roderick..
Would it be fair to say, from a laymans observation that:
Single ended diesels (S class)
Double ended diesels (B class)
Existed in the 70's / 80's on victorian tracks?

chocs