We lived in Pascoe Vale and we saw these S class streamliners heading north along the Glenroy bank hauling the Spirit of Progress a few times Probably 1953. Magic.
you did a good job here. my dad was a driver and fireman in the 40's and was a fireman on the s class sometimes. he said it was "bloody hard work". because they were bloody hard work they got only the very best of coal. i think he said lithgow or maitland in nsw. the locos were highly respected by those who worked on them. he told me that it was capable of the 'ton'(100mph). probably while going downhill to make up for running late. he also said that speed was not achieved when he was on it. the bosses wouldnt have been told about the high speeds. the crews would have got in trouble.
Just a minor point. 11:46 Wikipedia says "Walschaerts/Gresley", not meaning "either", but "both". The outside cylinder's valve gear was actuated using the Walschaerts system, while the inside cylinder was actuated using the "Gresley Conjugated Valve Gear" system.
There were a couple of minor errors. The big change in size and weight was with the addition of the large tenders for the non stop service to Albury from Melbourne and the addition of streamlining. Where you imply it was with the addition of oil firing. The larger 6 axle tenders added some 20 or more tonne to the engine and the streamlining added a few tonne of cladding steel. Obviously the larger tender added to the length as well as the mass at that time. You also mention the carriages being built of stainless steel. That was not readily available in those days. I believe it was high tensile "Corten steel" instead. Your film is well researched and brought up quite a few points that I hadn't known plus some of the less well known ones that I did know about.
They do seem similar. I suspect it was the simplest streamlining without compound curves, which would require moulds and presses. The single-dimension curves could just be rolled into the sheets.
@@VictorianTransportHistory I will say that both the VR S class streamlined is the same hight as the SAR 500B class but the 500B class was longer and heavy than the VR S class in size comparison
I heard a story behind the one that was ment be saved they started to cut her up once they found out the mistake it was to late was to heavy damage so they just finished the job I don’t know how true the story is but
Nice doco, also I'm not sure if this true or not but I read something about how some members of the S Class where paired with tenders built for the H Class
Forgive my criticism ... Please do yourself a favour and find out how to pronounce place names in your videos etc ; eg at 12:59 Euroa (pronounced YOU-row-A), Ballan (pronounced B-lan), Avoca (pronounced A- vo- KAR) and in this video at 9:45 siphon (pronounced SI-fon). Otherwise your research is good, but mangling the language distracts. As a kid in the early 1950s, growing up beside the North-eastern line, I remember seeing (on several occasions) the steam S class pulling freight towards Wodonga. Also my small dog, Bing and I were standing on the platform one morning when the Melbourne bound Spirit raced through and Bing disappeared between the first and second drivers...Dog-gone! How well I remember the S classes on 'the Spirit' and of course my favourite Heavy Harry.
Thanks for the very informative content. Let us not forget that this train, The Spirit of Progress, in its entirety, was at the forefront of rail travel, the air conditioned passenger cars were state of the art and world leading. Sadly, Australia doesn't do "world leading" anymore . our fraudband internet system a case in point. If people were a little more clued up on stuff they wouldn't vote for the donkeys that kill our can do attitude.
@@glenn_outof_ten Well the new build A1 (another paciffic) cost 3 million pounds to build from 1996-2008. Accounting inflation and conversion Tornado cost round 12,000,000 Australian dollars in 2024. which is what I expect new build S class to cost.
@VictorianTransportHistory that's an interesting estimate, considering the new 94 class PN are building only cost 6.6 mil per unit. I wonder what specifically makes it more expensive?
The S class was an iconic loco on the VR with a tractive effort greater than the NSW 38 class. Don't believe all you here in the above commentary as the loco served the North East line until diesel's arrived. His commentary about the X class and S class is a bit strange. The X class was designed to pull freight trains therefore had smaller driving wheels than the S class which was designed as a 3 cylinder express passenger loco.
As an oil burner, the S class hauled Fast Goods trains on the North East for their last eighteen months of service too
We lived in Pascoe Vale and we saw these S class streamliners heading north along the Glenroy bank hauling the Spirit of Progress a few times Probably 1953. Magic.
you did a good job here. my dad was a driver and fireman in the 40's and was a fireman on the s class sometimes. he said it was "bloody hard work". because they were bloody hard work they got only the very best of coal. i think he said lithgow or maitland in nsw. the locos were highly respected by those who worked on them. he told me that it was capable of the 'ton'(100mph). probably while going downhill to make up for running late. he also said that speed was not achieved when he was on it. the bosses wouldnt have been told about the high speeds. the crews would have got in trouble.
I miss took Maitland Coal to Mainland coal in the video, its awesome that your dad worked on these engines.
Just a minor point. 11:46 Wikipedia says "Walschaerts/Gresley", not meaning "either", but "both". The outside cylinder's valve gear was actuated using the Walschaerts system, while the inside cylinder was actuated using the "Gresley Conjugated Valve Gear" system.
There were a couple of minor errors. The big change in size and weight was with the addition of the large tenders for the non stop service to Albury from Melbourne and the addition of streamlining. Where you imply it was with the addition of oil firing. The larger 6 axle tenders added some 20 or more tonne to the engine and the streamlining added a few tonne of cladding steel. Obviously the larger tender added to the length as well as the mass at that time. You also mention the carriages being built of stainless steel. That was not readily available in those days. I believe it was high tensile "Corten steel" instead. Your film is well researched and brought up quite a few points that I hadn't known plus some of the less well known ones that I did know about.
Awesome! Didn’t know they ever had a semi streamline fitting!
Only S 301 did by the way
Is it me or the streamlined S-class has the same style as the streamlining of the New York Central Railroad's Commodore Vanderbilt?
They do seem similar. I suspect it was the simplest streamlining without compound curves, which would require moulds and presses. The single-dimension curves could just be rolled into the sheets.
Actually the SAR 500B was still the largest steam locomotive class in Australia at the time
Thank you for the correction
@@VictorianTransportHistory I will say that both the VR S class streamlined is the same hight as the SAR 500B class but the 500B class was longer and heavy than the VR S class in size comparison
I heard a story behind the one that was ment be saved they started to cut her up once they found out the mistake it was to late was to heavy damage so they just finished the job I don’t know how true the story is but
If it is true, then something saved is better then what is actually saved
Nice doco, also I'm not sure if this true or not but I read something about how some members of the S Class where paired with tenders built for the H Class
Forgive my criticism ... Please do yourself a favour and find out how to pronounce place names in your videos etc ; eg at 12:59 Euroa (pronounced YOU-row-A), Ballan (pronounced B-lan), Avoca (pronounced A- vo- KAR) and in this video at 9:45 siphon (pronounced SI-fon). Otherwise your research is good, but mangling the language distracts.
As a kid in the early 1950s, growing up beside the North-eastern line, I remember seeing (on several occasions) the steam S class pulling freight towards Wodonga. Also my small dog, Bing and I were standing on the platform one morning when the Melbourne bound Spirit raced through and Bing disappeared between the first and second drivers...Dog-gone!
How well I remember the S classes on 'the Spirit' and of course my favourite Heavy Harry.
In sorry for my Pronunciations, I am trying to get better at them. Your dog being swept away is so sad. :(
Thanks for the very informative content.
Let us not forget that this train, The Spirit of Progress, in its entirety, was at the forefront of rail travel, the air conditioned passenger cars were state of the art and world leading.
Sadly, Australia doesn't do "world leading" anymore . our fraudband internet system a case in point.
If people were a little more clued up on stuff they wouldn't vote for the donkeys that kill our can do attitude.
I wonder how much it would cost to build a new S class from scratch?
@@glenn_outof_ten Well the new build A1 (another paciffic) cost 3 million pounds to build from 1996-2008. Accounting inflation and conversion Tornado cost round 12,000,000 Australian dollars in 2024. which is what I expect new build S class to cost.
@VictorianTransportHistory that's an interesting estimate, considering the new 94 class PN are building only cost 6.6 mil per unit. I wonder what specifically makes it more expensive?
Compared with NSW 38 class. , the S class was small in number and probably not as successful, useful or long lived.
The S class was an iconic loco on the VR with a tractive effort greater than the NSW 38 class. Don't believe all you here in the above commentary as the loco served the North East line until diesel's arrived. His commentary about the
X class and S class is a bit strange. The X class was designed to pull freight trains therefore had smaller driving wheels than the S class which was designed as a 3 cylinder express passenger loco.