I had not seen this one here. I hope its new to the group. :Dont steal the Maitland ya bast@rds! Well you wouldnt put that State Mine sh!t in a real locomotive, would you! S 302, North Melbourne loco depot, 1-6-1937 This came in the form of an email from Tony Ward Annotation read: For those who aren’t aware this loco was once the pride of the Victorian Railways, it was made to haul the Sprit of Progress and was as far as I know the only loco to be stream lined by the Victorian Railways. It was painted Royal blue with gold leaf trim. It was in a class of it’s own. Sadly and criminally none were saved from being scrapped. The Sprit of Progress was the first train in Australia to be air conditioned and all the carriages were made of Corten steel and painted the same as the S class loco. Even though a lot of people thought they had a mechanical stoker they didn’t, they were hand fired – by shovel. (8Tonnes a trip) Maitland coal came from N.S.W. and was far better than Victoria’s State Mine coal. And lastly Wow!! What a photo!! All that spit and polish in the midst of the depression; all for four locos doing basically one job. Note the extra bits on the back of the tender, presumably to add to the streamlining effect; I don’t think I have seen a photo before of the rear of the locos, usually the “3/4” frontal shot, occasionally side on or head on. Looking at the tender makes you realize how puny the locos were (oooh, that’s controversial, sacrilegious). The tumbledown coal stage and fittings, grotty track work (complete with brave weeds) sinking into the mud. Small wonder they closed it all down just a few years later… well, in 1964 or 1965, which in railway terms seems just a few days later. I was actually looking at one of the S class tenders last night; it is located at Seymour in the Seymour Loco Preservation Group area. It is beside the sidings that we use to stable our trains on overnight / weekends, and clearly viewed from the main lines. I understand that two tenders were at a quarry down Traralgon way, then recovered during the West Coast Railway days of running steam on the Warrnambool. How they survived, never mind got to Seymour I know not. Somewhat butchered from its mid-life crisis, but still existing. What they will do with it I don’t know either. The legend has it that the locos were cut up by contractors, hiding their shame behind screens at Newport Workshops, allegedly because they feared that railway staff would refuse to do the job. Several old guys have said the same thing to me, so maybe some truth. One former ARU rep claimed that Joe Sibberas told him that the locos were totally fu##ed by 1950 or so, worn out during the war and boilers stuffed. At least one boiler had a copper firebox. DAVID CAMPBELL And hopefully all the culprits are named except for the Photo details which were S 302, North Melbourne loco depot, 1-6-1937. YVRCollection
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 22:47:17 +0000
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