Tues loco N458 didn’t sound right as notice the spiking of frequency of moving parts inside despite the noise around me

1. I happened to be on board and noticed after a big electrical spike at Bendigo 1607hrs before departure which made the light in the carriage flicker momentary
   • as after the train seem to be sluggish powering up on that high speed stretch toward Kangaroo Flat not going as fast as it should.
   • I noticed after Castlemaine the train was back to mainline speed 108-115 km/ph in some sections
2. It felt the loco were was on full to maintain the required speed for those sections, as there are some grade for the train to tackle on route.
3. I am observing a emerging potential electrical fault of the locomotive taking place?
4. It seem my observations might been correct as we pulled in Platform 1 and normally we often go to 4-5 platforms at times after arriving.
   • When it goes to platform 1 it often means the set or Loco pulling it will be separated in the yard and part of it might be awaiting repairs in the workshop!

Wednesday Events:

I did a trip on N12 Weds pulled by loco N460

I was at Southern Cross Station amongst crowd on 3B waiting to board N12 and the train crew was completing the usual safety checks before departure. I was observing the morning train movement beforehand.

1. the 3×1 VLocity Standard Gauge to Albury was being prep at platform 1 which left 0708 hrs
2. VLoctiy came in from Wuarn Ponds before N12 was shunted at 3B by Y Class from the Melb Yard
3. Alstom tech was servicing the train cleaning out the retention tanks of the WC in the trains
4. N460 rolls in off the mainline from one the yard elsewhere possibly from Nth Dynon not Melb Yard in former Spencer St.
5. N460 sounded better not so jagged as for N458 that was hustled off for repairs as soon as the train arrived at Platform 1
   • they had problems with that locomotive electrical system whist prepping her and mid route on the return that day
   • N12 was on the service the day before.

Notification sounded from V/Line on their website unquote:

Major Delays:

Services are held due to track fault near Southern Cross

All train movements in and out had stopped noticed major lines in the west areas were out too.

• I had a strong feelings that it was major station was involved a major interchange area and by the nature of several lines out of action it looked like Footscray had issues
  • Bendigo Line Impacted
  • Geelong Line Impacted
  • Ballarat Line Impacted
• This was later backed up when I obtain info whist waiting to board N12 the Swan Hill service 0739 by unquote: There’s Point Failure at Footscray!
• Later boarded 0747 hrs and pulled out shortly after setting in the carriage BZN265.

On the city bound line whist I was going toward Gisborne there was a backlog of train services heading toward the city

We lost our path as result and was made to wait for city bound services from Bendigo etc!

We arrived nearly over half and hour late at 1255 hrs at Swan Hill

The upside was I was in very comfortable older classic fleet carriage which made things a bit more better in my case, as for the people who had fixed time to go to A-B I don’t think they were very happy as they were late arriving to their destination.

The coach transfers at Swan Hill were instructed to wait for the train so the people travelling from Swan Hill to Mildura etc. They got connection shortly after pulling in. They were a good amount people on board beyond Bendigo.

Noticed there few more V/line staff & people around more then normal I wondered who they were?

• I noticed the station staff & 2x Conductors staff very normal
• The drivers as usual
• Now I saw some Tech people from V/line in High Vis not sure if loco tech guys as he was climbing on board the loco
• Plus a few more guys with navy blue uniform standing around watching the loco wearing those purple lanyards which indictor of v/line staff and high vis vest
• two of those guys was going through the train as I noticed them being shown around with the conductor who was on duty that time as well as they got on Southern Cross

Very intriguing I wonder who they were as the last time I saw something like this was before the decision was made to get rid of the Loco Haul services to Warrnambool 20/4/2024!

Interesting scenes on Warrnambool run 13:08 on 20th November 2024

The return was uneventful the system was they were still clearing the backlog until about lunchtime with 60 Min delays on the services impacted earlier.

The Swan Hill service on the return left on time 1335 hrs and arrive 1827hrs a bit late…considering it was tough day for them!