Remove this Banner Ad

Discussion The Random Discussion Thread

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sun Ra said:
Used to take the reds and the blues to school in the 70's. They were great trains. Much more character than modern silver ones.
Click to expand...
A lot more designs in the past looked way better.

Give a nice Brutalist Building or Gothic one over some modern architecture wank.
 
Pakenhamsaint said:
May as well post the photos I took with the camera instead of a crappy phone one.



Click to expand...



Back when I was a little kid in the 80s and possibly early 90s they used to send you to Gippsland in those ****ers. You used to piss in a basin thing that you could see the tracks below from. Hygenic.
 
gringo2011 said:
Back when I was a little kid in the 80s and possibly early 90s they used to send you to Gippsland in those *ers. You used to piss in a basin thing that you could see the tracks below from. Hygenic.
Click to expand...

They were totally hygienic as long as you weren't into lying on railway tracks.
There were sometimes open carriages, but the good ones had a corridor on one side with little compartments opening off them, with overhead luggage racks.
If you caught the right train, there was a kiosk on it.
 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

SaintsSeptember said:
They were totally hygienic as long as you weren't into lying on railway tracks.
There were sometimes open carriages, but the good ones had a corridor on one side with little compartments opening off them, with overhead luggage racks.
If you caught the right train, there was a kiosk on it.
Click to expand...


Yeah or it would stop at Warragul to have a hot chocolate and a toasted sandwich from old ladies with purple hair. People had nowhere to go fast in those days.
 
gringo2011 said:
Back when I was a little kid in the 80s and possibly early 90s they used to send you to Gippsland in those *ers. You used to piss in a basin thing that you could see the tracks below from. Hygenic.
Click to expand...
Strictly they weren't red rattlers. More W and E type cars with the odd PL type car. Still built in the same style as the reds though. Just with a corridor down the side.
SaintsSeptember said:
When the government buys trains they tend to buy the cheapest crappiest things possible. ( Yet amazingly i don't see government employees in MG and Haval company cars with special base models that have no radio or floor carpet ).
Click to expand...
HCMTs being case in point.
On the flip side X'trapolis while being cheap are actually the most reliable train in the fleet.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

gringo2011 said:
Yeah or it would stop at Warragul to have a hot chocolate and a toasted sandwich from old ladies with purple hair. People had nowhere to go fast in those days.
Click to expand...

Last time i caught the train to Gippsland it was 1986 after i'd lost my drivers license for flipping the bird to an undercover police car when he flashed his lights at me. Made him angry lol and he found stuff.

I'd just been to a Santana concert in what is now the Holden Centre.
Met Jack Jones ( later the singer of Southern Sons ) on the train and chatted with him all the way there.
Pakenhamsaint said:
Strictly they weren't red rattlers. More W and E type cars with the odd PL type car. Still built in the same style as the reds though. Just with a corridor down the side.

HCMTs being case in point.
On the flip side X'trapolis while being cheap are actually the most reliable train in the fleet.
Click to expand...

The trains to Gippsland sometimes had the corridor, but they also had open carriages like the suburban trains, it depended which service was running.
The track to Traralgon used to have overhead electrical as well, so they pulled them along with an L Class.

My Daughter's Boyfriend got an apprenticeship in Newport assembling the new trains.
What can possibly be worse than buying the cheapest train from China? Buying the cheapest pieces of a train in China and using an olde worlde unionised workforce to put the pieces together.
As time went on it seemed they were doing more in China and the bare minimum locally.

He tossed the apprenticeship in , because he figured his experience in pulling wires through holes ( electrical fitters ) was only going to stuff up his shoulders and wouldn't help his long term employment prospects.
 
SaintsSeptember said:
The trains to Gippsland sometimes had the corridor, but they also had open carriages like the suburban trains, it depended which service was running.
The track to Traralgon used to have overhead electrical as well, so they pulled them along with an L Class.
Click to expand...
Pre N cars they were a mix of wooden W and E cars with steel Z cars mostly. Zs being the saloon cars.

114724: Yarragon 8468 Up Gippslander L 1170

Documenting railways and related infrastructure since 1960
www.westonlangford.com




My Daughter's Boyfriend got an apprenticeship in Newport assembling the new trains.
What can possibly be worse than buying the cheapest train from China? Buying the cheapest pieces of a train in China and using an olde worlde unionised workforce to put the pieces together.
As time went on it seemed they were doing more in China and the bare minimum locally.
Click to expand...
My mate does a lot of the testing and commissioning. Early days they weren't happy with the quality of what they were presenting.

He tossed the apprenticeship in , because he figured his experience in pulling wires through holes ( electrical fitters ) was only going to stuff up his shoulders and wouldn't help his long term employment prospects.
Click to expand...
The old man started out at Comeng as an apprentice electrician. Did the same stuff. He ended up in the railways and stayed there when he was retrenched from Comeng.

My understanding things between Metro and Downer down at Newport have always been frosty.
 
Pakenhamsaint said:
Pre N cars they were a mix of wooden W and E cars with steel Z cars mostly. Zs being the saloon cars.

114724: Yarragon 8468 Up Gippslander L 1170

Documenting railways and related infrastructure since 1960
www.westonlangford.com





My mate does a lot of the testing and commissioning. Early days they weren't happy with the quality of what they were presenting.


The old man started out at Comeng as an apprentice electrician. Did the same stuff. He ended up in the railways and stayed there when he was retrenched from Comeng.

My understanding things between Metro and Downer down at Newport have always been frosty.
Click to expand...

I got the impression that they only had apprenticeships there because the Government would have made it part of the deal, and the fact that he has indigenous heritage probably gave them the double wammy. The co-ordination was very poor, and after 4 years, he still had a year to go because they'd stuffed up in some way during Covid.
He was interested in trying to convert to Electrician, because electrical fitting like he was doing there wouldn't even need a ticket if it wasn't a union shop that practiced demarcation.
 
Pakenhamsaint said:
Pre N cars they were a mix of wooden W and E cars with steel Z cars mostly. Zs being the saloon cars.

114724: Yarragon 8468 Up Gippslander L 1170

Documenting railways and related infrastructure since 1960
www.westonlangford.com





My mate does a lot of the testing and commissioning. Early days they weren't happy with the quality of what they were presenting.


The old man started out at Comeng as an apprentice electrician. Did the same stuff. He ended up in the railways and stayed there when he was retrenched from Comeng.

My understanding things between Metro and Downer down at Newport have always been frosty.
Click to expand...

As a kid , we had "Show day " off School.
They ran a show train that went all the way through to the showgrounds.

Was pretty good fun, because there were always heaps of other kids on the train that you knew.
I was only a little tacker then though, so i couldn't go unaccompanied. Would have been way more fun without my Mum.
 
SaintsSeptember said:
I got the impression that they only had apprenticeships there because the Government would have made it part of the deal, and the fact that he has indigenous heritage probably gave them the double wammy. The co-ordination was very poor, and after 4 years, he still had a year to go because they'd stuffed up in some way during Covid.
He was interested in trying to convert to Electrician, because electrical fitting like he was doing there wouldn't even need a ticket if it wasn't a union shop that practiced demarcation.
Click to expand...
Absolutely it was the case. It was contracted for apprentices from memory.

My old man did similar work at Comeng on both the Z class trams and the Comeng Trains.

They had to make up the wiring looms, strip the end and plug it all in.
Back then they also did maintance work around the factory like a welder playing up.
Comeng stood by thier product so he did call out work at Flinders Street as well.
It was he was only un employed for 30 minutes.
He knew the managers and whatnot at the VR. They offered him a job when they knew.


Funny story from that is they still had to follow process and do an interview.
The person doing the interview knew dad. A question came up. The manager went "look I have to ask you this. Have you worked on railway rollingstock before?"

Legally speaking you don't need to be a licenced electrician to work on trains.
Trains are classified as an appliance.
Yes a train is no different to a toster.

The overhead power supply yes.
 
Last edited:

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Remove this Banner Ad

Similar threads

jumperfan
Discussion 2026 Ladder Predictions
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
rooboy19
R
Hubnester
  • Locked
List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part IV
399 400 401 402 403
Replies
10K
Views
452K
Saintos The ITK
Saintos The ITK
Hubnester
  • Locked
List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part 3
386 387 388 389 390
Replies
10K
Views
425K
Chief
Chief
Hubnester
List Mgmt. 2025 List Management Discussion - Part V
219 220 221 222 223
Replies
6K
Views
259K
Significant
Significant
Hubnester
Rumour Rumours & Confirmed - Trades, Free Agency & Draft [NO DISCUSSION]
2
Replies
37
Views
9K
StFly
StFly
Tommy Wigs
  • Locked
List Mgmt. 2025 List Management discussion - part 2
583 584 585 586 587
Replies
15K
Views
615K
Gavinmitchell11
G
sammm
Discussion 2025 General AFL Discussion
193 194 195 196 197
Replies
5K
Views
206K
gringo2011
gringo2011

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top