Just discovered this. A great story of Australian engineering (aside from the previous obvious comments that the tracks should be worked on as well). It's a shame the power cars were never stainless steel.
The train was a good design but the tracks it was expected to run on were hopeless and got worse and worse until the train was forced to travel at the same speeds as the locomotive hauled passenger trains it replaced. Apparently there's fatigue cracks in the power car chassis and in the bogie king pin mount's thanks to the rooted tracks. Such a shame !
I followed the daylight express back in 1980. My car was showing 140 km/hr & he was pulling away from me between Wagga & Albury. There is no way he could do that today.
Good train and all, it is just a pity that since 1980 money has not been spent to upgrade the rail lines to a standard which allow faster speeds. Which would allow harmonization between the rails and trains.
Money was still being spent on track in those days. I met Tim Fischer on the night train to Sydney from Melbourne. But the die had been set there were no votes in trains .
Just think, if the Australian government were to spend a few dollars, to sort out the shocking poor track quality, they might end up with a train service that was quicker, smoother, and that people would want to use...
The Australian government doesn't invest much in State Railway Tracks. That's the state government's job. We have invested a whole bloody lot actually, but less in lesser passenger used lines of course. Victorian Railways by contrast feels like rocks.
only if the goverment spent the dosh to fix the tracks, then they could think about running it at 200kp/h or evan better upgrade the whole dam lot and do a French TGV inspired train they hit about 500kp/h the XPT's what a shame a train is only as good as it's tracks
Adam The Aussie Spending the 'dosh' on lines that are only used once a day, as well as the steepest mainline intercity grades would be a waste, when they can just design a train that fits the current specs.
@Alexander Dunn No way the XPT could go that fast (250 km/h = 155 mph). The XPT has lower geared traction motors in order to get up the steep grades in Australia, hence the design speed of 160 km/h (99.4 mph) as compared to the UK IC125 (HST) design speed of 201 km/h (= 125 mph).
They have given over 40 years service in the UK and Australia a really awesome train
Just discovered this. A great story of Australian engineering (aside from the previous obvious comments that the tracks should be worked on as well). It's a shame the power cars were never stainless steel.
It's a localised British HST intercity 125 built under licensed
Indeed. COMENG took pride in extensively modifying the BR Class 43 for Australian conditions including claimed better weight distribution.
The train was a good design but the tracks it was expected to run on were hopeless and got worse and worse until the train was forced to travel at the same speeds as the locomotive hauled passenger trains it replaced. Apparently there's fatigue cracks in the power car chassis and in the bogie king pin mount's thanks to the rooted tracks. Such a shame !
The Xpts look really nice. A few more years and the xpt will be 40 years old :)
Runs on same line as goods trains unlike China's high speed trains
I followed the daylight express back in 1980. My car was showing 140 km/hr & he was pulling away from me between Wagga & Albury. There is no way he could do that today.
They still run at 160km/h today, although sets can be limited to 130km/h if the wheels are worn.
Good train and all, it is just a pity that since 1980 money has not been spent to upgrade the rail lines to a standard which allow faster speeds. Which would allow harmonization between the rails and trains.
Money was still being spent on track in those days. I met Tim Fischer on the night train to Sydney from Melbourne. But the die had been set there were no votes in trains .
Just think, if the Australian government were to spend a few dollars, to sort out the shocking poor track quality, they might end up with a train service that was quicker, smoother, and that people would want to use...
The Australian government doesn't invest much in State Railway Tracks. That's the state government's job. We have invested a whole bloody lot actually, but less in lesser passenger used lines of course. Victorian Railways by contrast feels like rocks.
Not bad for a modified UK HST
only if the goverment spent the dosh to fix the tracks, then they could think about running it at 200kp/h or evan better upgrade the whole dam lot and do a French TGV inspired train they hit about 500kp/h the XPT's what a shame a train is only as good as it's tracks
Adam The Aussie Spending the 'dosh' on lines that are only used once a day, as well as the steepest mainline intercity grades would be a waste, when they can just design a train that fits the current specs.
@Alexander Dunn No way the XPT could go that fast (250 km/h = 155 mph). The XPT has lower geared traction motors in order to get up the steep grades in Australia, hence the design speed of 160 km/h (99.4 mph) as compared to the UK IC125 (HST) design speed of 201 km/h (= 125 mph).
That's a load of BS. they cant even hit their top speed of 140Km because the track is just o windy
Design speed is 160 km/h (99.4 mph) not 140 km/h.