Trains

I think the B class were early 60s, Victorian Railways got incredible service out of them.

Loosing a few hours in Auran's Train Simulator is a great way to fill in time. A few K's of line and a dozen industries can can keep you either adding scenery or shifting gear for hours

Ah, the good old S and B class locos from Victoria.

Done a fair few hours and lots of miles in them old fella's, them particular ones had the dunny right down the front, under the big spotlight.

You should get on one and take a walk from the front 'office' down to the back end 'office', whilst the driver has got it at full noise, memory's a bit dim, but I think they had eight notches on the go lever. You got a walkway down each side of them bloody great big motors, $hit, they made a racket, your ribs would rattle as you went down that walkway.

Now the NSW equivalent locos, had no dunny fitted at all and after a couple of years operating, there appeared a big rust streak from the door down the side of the loco. It tooks the idiots at NSW Railways quite a while, to work out what was causing this rust to appear. Need a whiz, just hang it out the door and let 'er rip, washed the dirt of the sides nicely. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

The X class took over from them big fellas in Victoria, wow, what a machine they were, but that's another story.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Thanks for that Greenie!

chocs

Thanks for that Greenie!

chocs

Hummm, Maybe needs to change his name to Rusty greenie .

Yes, 26 Bs and 18 Ss were at full strength through the 1960s & 70s. Two Ss were lost in the Feb.69 head-on collision of Southern Aurora and a freight. The distinctive EMB 'bulldog' nose is very much a cult classic with railway enthusiasts: formerly common in Australia, USA and Canada, and with a related cousin in several European countries (where today many are preserved for railway-enthusiast special trains).

B-class locos ruled the roost from 1952, then were bumped from the top duties when the S-class locos arrived, ~1957. A lot were rebuilt in the early 1980s as A-class locos (different engines and improved electrics), and they are still in use for freight and passenger traffic today; others were sold to private operators, and can be seen on works trains in NSW and Victoria, and on grain trains in Victoria.

S-class locos ruled the roost from 1957, then shared the duties with the similarly-powered X class locos, then were bumped by more-powerful locos. Again, many have been sold to private operators, and one recently became the first of its class to reach Kalgoorlie (althought the very-similar Commonwealth Railways GM-class locos were there as their regular beat from the early 1950s). The opening photo in this thread shows a privatised GM and S together. There also some in use still on grain and container trains in Victoria.

The EMD567C engine also had applications in tugs (Great Lakes, USA) and trucks for use in open-cut mines (Pilbara, WA). I don't know if the 745 series had such varied applications.
A smaller EMD with widespread railway applications is the 6/71. A fleet of late-1920s railmotors was built with petrol engines, then reequipped with them in the early 1950s, and several survive with preservation groups. One has mainline authority, and is running a tour a month from Melbourne.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Another oldie stabled at Coota waiting fo the next job.....

There is a grave yard of lovely old carrigies mainly from vic near Molong NSW. Dave