I think you will find you are wrong. BG loco's are a dying breed and operators will want access using their significant SG fleets in the future. The newest BG loco's are now SG loco's in the form of the C classes and when all the murray basin lines are converted to SG do you really think that operators will want to take the longer route if a faster route can cost them less.

Newest BG locos are actually the VL and XR classes

The newest BG loco's are now SG loco's in the form of the C classes and when all the murray basin lines are converted to SG do you really think that operators will want to take the longer route if a faster route can cost them less.

I know you’re not going to agree with me, but let’s at least get the facts right.

The Cs are not even remotely the most recent locos built for BG. There’s the Gs, the XRs, and the VLs, as Dan rightly points out, and of course, the magical thing about locos is that they can be gauge converted if and when the need arises.

As for the Murray Basin, I don’t even really know what you’re getting at; if the route doesn’t exist the operators won’t be clamouring for access.

Read what I said again: the major obstacle to further standardisation is entanglements with the metropolitan and commuter passenger network.

The C Classes were the first turbo-charged loco's and were introduced during the Hamer (Liberal) government in the mid 1970's. Moreover at the time because they were so heavy they were limited to 80Km/h on the SG to Albury.

I remember one night behind the...'Southern Aurora' (so at least one of them was SG if I recall) the loco had no problems hauling the set up the Divide at Heathcote Jn and because of that, it was able to pick up some of the time lost between Spencer St and Wandong doing 80Km/h...however it lost time after Seymour and was a liability rather than a bonus on the run despite its turbo power, so it was only ever used on the 'Aurora when it was absolutely necessary.

Mike.

If a sleeper train were to be provided between Sydney & Melbourne, something along the lines of the Caledonian Sleeper would be the way to go. Full service, CBD to CBD utilising new, luxurious rollingstock running express at between 160 & 130km/h for most of the journey and running 6 days a week. It would need to leave Melbourne after 9:30pm and arrive in Sydney before 8am (and vice versa). Prices would need to be competitive with Airline Business Class fares.

This would not be possible with old Southern Aurora Rollingstock.

Of course, you could still call it Southern Aurora.

I disagree mainly because if the train between Sydney and Melbourne could do 130-160km/h average then you would only have a 5-6 hour journey instead of the current 11 hour service. In that case you wouldn't need a sleeper. The only reason the sleeper is an option on the XPT is because of the long travel time.

The Cs are not even remotely the most recent locos built for BG. There’s the Gs, the XRs, and the VLs, as Dan rightly points out, and of course, the magical thing about locos is that they can be gauge converted if and when the need arises.

As for the Murray Basin, I don’t even really know what you’re getting at; if the route doesn’t exist the operators won’t be clamouring for access.

Read what I said again: the major obstacle to further standardisation is entanglements with the metropolitan and commuter passenger network.

How many of these 3 loco types are BG still? SG is the future and will allow operator competition and so at some point these rail line past the metro area are going to need to become SG. You can cry all you want about it but it is going to happen in time.

As for the southern aurora that is a silly idea. The XPT is there and so is it's replacement. Volunteers are not legal to use in any case for such a business operation in NSW. It is one thing for historic tour trips but as a daily service you need to legally have employees and all the appropriate licensing. A government isn't going to fund it when they are already providing such a service.

The C Classes were the first turbo-charged loco's and were introduced during the Hamer (Liberal) government in the mid 1970's. Moreover at the time because they were so heavy they were limited to 80Km/h on the SG to Albury.

I remember one night behind the...'Southern Aurora' (so at least one of them was SG if I recall) the loco had no problems hauling the set up the Divide at Heathcote Jn and because of that, it was able to pick up some of the time lost between Spencer St and Wandong doing 80Km/h...however it lost time after Seymour and was a liability rather than a bonus on the run despite its turbo power, so it was only ever used on the 'Aurora when it was absolutely necessary.

Mike.

in the early 1980's there were 4 C's on 'the gauge' and 6 on the BG. The SG ones were consistently 501 to 504.
They were limited to 80kph no matter what gauge they were running on but the power provided by two of them on Melbourne-Adelaide 'Jets' (fast goods) via Bacchus Marsh was a vast improvement on two of anything else in the fleet at that time. Mind you, they were stinking hot in summer with the tiny cab windows and no air-con. The 8th of February 1983, the day the dust storm buried Melbourne, I brought a goods back to Melbourne with one from Ballarat via North Geelong and it was so hot the two of us in the cab pretty much stripped down to shorts to try and cool down, without much success!
The Aurora experiment, as Mike says, was just that and only repeated when no 'New' X were available.

Neil