(Aus) Victorian Rail heratige

[Pakenhamtrain]

G'day all.

Here's a small bit of what is preserved in Victoria rail wise. There are number of groups who have preseved locos and rollingstock,

 

Steamrail Victoria

 

Streamrail's base of operations is Newport Workshops in the west of Melbourne. Every few years they open up the yard for an open day or weekend. Thier last open day was in 2010

 

Former Harris Greaser 794M awaits its future. While originally built for passenger operations in 1989 is was converted to be part of the overhead greaser train. It sits down the back of the West block where it awaits to be restored.

L1162 is the only L class locomotive preserved to operate on the mainline. It hasn't been out in a number of years. The only other preserved one is L1150 which lives nearby.

Tait 470M. The Red rattlers as they were known were the first Electric trains in Victoria and were the main train of the Victorian Railways for close to 80 years. Originally they were locomotive hauled cars prior to being fitted out with electric equipment. Tait 470M originaly started out as 25BCP in 1915. This car is intresting because it's one of the few rebuilt with a cab at the other end. The double ended Taits were used on lines that didn't warrent a full train set.

Locomotive M231 is home at Newport. The 2 M locos built were shunters for Newport Workshops.

A mix of preserved and stored S classes. S307 is stored whilst S313 is preserved. You might of seen S313 on TV from the mini series The Pacific. In the series it was locomotive 758 for Louisville & Nashville. It has since been repainted into VR blue and gold.

Steam Loco K190 with one smoke deflector removed.

Steamrail also shares with R707 operations. The R class in general were built for passenger trains in the latter part of the steam era for the VR. R707 only had 14 years in service.

Shunter Y168 still wears the V/Line Orange and Grey of the late 80's and 90's In the background is R711 in blue and gold.

In one of the roads is DERM 58RM. DERMs first started out life as Petrol Electric Rail Motors before being converted to diesel. They were used on light branchlines for 63 years. The first one was based on a US design and the first one was built with parts St Louis Car Company.

K153 on show rolls up the yard.

D3 639 coupled up with K153. The D3 class started out life as the DD class before being split into the D1 D2 and D3 classes. D3 639 isn't the original. The original D3 639 was scrapped and D3 658 took D3 639s numberplates. Eather way it was built in 1903.

Y164 in it's original VR livery runs up the yard.

R761 is the 3rd of the R's preserved.

Swing doors 137 and 107M. These are also red rattlers and also started out life as loco hauled vehicles. However these are much older than the Taits. 107M started out life as 88AA in 1888 and 137M started out life as 22BDBD in 1907.

 

Puffing Billy Railway

Puffing Billy is an intresting 2 foot 6 guage railway in the Dandenongs(About 40KM east of Melbourne) It was one of a few 2ft 6 lines built in victoria.

 

6A at the head of the 10:30 Lakeside train at Belgrave.

7A shunts at the Belgrave Workshops.

D21 isn't native to the 2ft6 railways. PBR bought it so it can run on fire ban days. Originally this was a V class locomotive from Tasmania. Here it is shunting the 12:30 Lunchon train into the Belgrave platform.

At the time of the photo. PBR had purchased a former Shunter from the Queenland Railways. CC02. It had recently arrived from Menzies using the bogies of DH31. CC02 was originally DH05 for QR before being sold. DH31 was orignally DH59 for QR.

Fast foward a year here is CC02 in it's new home and livery. The livery is based off the VR livery.

Later on at Menzies Creek 14A arrives to peform a cross with the Belgrave bound train.