This is a very melancholy moment at Sydney Terminal in April 1974. No 3820 (Eveleigh 1947) is about to embark on her final trip, although no one knew it at the time -- the boiler examiner said "No" in May.
She was one of the famous powerful class 38s that really took the public's imagination in the late 40s and early 50s. Then management got swayed by the diesel salesmen's lies and the 38s fell out of favour. They lost their green paint and red and gold lining, except for No 3813 that was always green, and worked the less important expresses and fast freights as diesel numbers increased.
Today, she is doing a return trip to Taree and back, a distance of about 780 km which, on the curvy North Coast line, will require some speedy times on the straight sections between Gosford and Broadmeadow.
The 38s held onto some shorter express runs for years because, with no water and coaling stops and no speed recorders, the speed-recorder diesels could not run the timetables.
The trains concerned were the Newcastle flyers, the Short South (to Goulburn, 225 km) especially 18 fast, and the Southern Highlands express on which, although all stations after Campbelltown (55 km) required rapid acceleration to keep the timetable, speeds of 130+ km/h were common and 155 km/h was not unknown. Considering the actual limit was 115 km/h at the time, you can see how diesel struggled.
To the right is a new breed. Class U13 is an 8-car double-deck intercity train, designed and built in 1969 for the growing central coast traffic. At this time due to "teething problems" it is a pretender to the throne. But after some modifications, from the "Blue Goose" emerged the "Golden Goose" (V-sets) from 1976, which were the best intercity sets in Australia in the late 1970s. I personally travelled with an Eveleigh-salaried driver who, for those in the know, was also on the delivery run of the "Spirit" to N.S.W. in 1962 and he was not known to go slow. On the occassion in question, I timed twice: 3 kilometres in one minuute which is of course well over the 115 km/h limit. But the Vs were natural successors to the 38s as their old stamping grounds were electrified.
Probably the best trains I have ever driven.
Australia: The retired champion and the new guard
- Steve Appleton
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Australia: The retired champion and the new guard
Posted for the photographer, Dennis Mitchell:
"To train or not to train, that is the question"