Firstly, thanks
dalts for making sense of what seemed an odd arrangement. I didn't know that BS cars were so old fashioned, but it stands to reason I guess. I never used to ride in BS cars as a youngster, but ahhh, the memories of flushing a toilet in an old red rattler car and seeing the track below! Not to mention the temptation of letting one go as you pass through a station, despite the affixed label warning passengers against such a heinous crime!
I think it is time for V/Line to bite the bullet and part with some $ and get some new passenger cars. If they plan on using loco hauled for the next 15 to 20 years, as I have been told, they need some new gear.
I don't see what is wrong with running loco services. I mean if they get people where they want to go in comfort why not let them stay.
I'm a big fan of V/Line loco hauled passenger services. It would be a real pitty to se them go though.
IMHO it's a gimme that in the medium term N Sets will provide all the long distance runs, with both types of railcar doing the rest. There are still services from the Geelong region, Traralgon, Bacchus Marsh and Sunbury catered for by N Sets. Those, and all the H Sets, should be replaced by new V/locities or existing Sprinters. The V/Locities could do the Traralgon/Geelong region/Seymour runs and Sprinters would do Stony Point/Bacchus Marsh/Sunbury. This would free up enough N Sets to cover the losses as they occur through retirement of the older cars (remembering that structurally, the BTN's and BZN's are not much younger than the BS cars), the re-retirement of the BS cars, and hopefully, to provide an N Set for the Echuca run. Again though, all in my humble opinion.
I will have to get some photos!! 
