Country Show Traffic

T331 rolls down grade into Ballarat with empty cars. These cars will be used to form an extra service for the Melbourne Show.

During September 1983 V/Line ran extra services from country locations to the Melbourne Show. With most carriages fully committed to ordinary traffic on weekdays there were few cars available to run extra trains. Extra cars were found to provide double sets on some trains, while empty cars were worked to Geelong to provide extra service to Melbourne.

The country show traffic included the following workings:

On each weekday of the show period an extra empty cars departed Spencer Street at 0810 for Geelong, forming a 0925 extra service to Melbourne. This train was formed by the 0747 arrival from Werribee. On Monday 19th September 1983 the empty cars departed as T413-70BPL-2BW-35AW-1BCE.

On both Saturdays of the show period the 0645 Up and 1755 Down Albury trains were a double consist using the N set which normally sat at all Wodonga all day.

On Monday 19th September the 0645 Up and 1800 Down Warrnambool pass was run with a double set (and the second was an N set).

On Saturday 17th September at 1707 an additional service ran to Traralgon, at 1830 down Bendigo was double consist, the usual Vinelander set plus 15BE-33BE-60BES-8AS-14CW.

On Monday 19th September both the 0645 Up Bendigo (N set + 15BE-33BE-60BES-8AS-14CW), and the 1705 Down Kyneton (N set + 38BW-31BW-13AE-15CE) were double consists. The 0922 arrival at Spencer Street from Traralgon had a double N set.

T331 arrives at Ballarat with empty cars. Passengers are already gathering on the platform keen to get the best seats for their journey to Melbourne.

As far as I'm aware no additional services were scheduled on the western line, but I started thinking how V/Line might have run a service to meet demand from the Ballarat area. Using the above Geelong extra's for inspiration I looked for a set that might be idle at Spencer Street after the morning peak to form an empty car working to Ballarat.

Carriage Roster N18 had commenced the previous month with the delivery of the last of the original order of N sets and the reintroduction of services to Cobram. Looking at the roster, Run 34 from Bacchus Marsh arrived at Spencer Street at 0808 and was then idle until the late afternoon when it formed the 1700 service back to Bacchus Marsh. With a quick turnaround at Spencer Street this could run as empty cars to Ballarat to form an extra service to Melbourne for the show. Run 34 was listed in Roster N18 as having a consist of BCPL-BPL-BPL-BPL-BPL, but was running with AW and BW replacing 2 of the BPL's and a CW as van when photographed at Sunshine in October 1983. The consist that was therefore used for this extra working was BCPL-BW-BPL-AW-CW, a rare working of PL's cars away from their captive short distance commuter runs to Werribee and Bacchus Marsh.

B61 replaces T331 for a faster run to the city.

B61 departs Ballarat for Melbourne with the Show special.