Passenger train consists - 2nd April 1983

Back in 1983 mornings on the western line near Bacchus Marsh produced a procession of passenger trains to Melbourne. These series of photographs taken on the 2nd April provide a snapshot of the rapidly changing consists of passenger trains on the Victorian Railways at the time.

At 7:33am B66 leads 8116 Up Bacchus Marsh pass around the curves. Consist is 4CW-3AW-89BPL-44BW-73BPL. The PL cars were restricted to short commuter runs to Bacchus Marsh, Werribee and Sunbury. This set was only used to Bacchus Marsh and spent the day sitting in the Dudley St sidings at Spencer St before returning in the evening peak.

At 8:09am C509 rounds the curve on an Up Jet. Interestingly a 8300 guards van is marshalled part way through the train. The train mostly consists of lourve and box vans with container flats towards the rear (loaded with 20ft containers). Single C class were common on Jets until CTC and longer crossing loops were completed west of Ararat. This train is most likely a late running 9130.

At 8:21am S315 and S313 lead the 835 Up Overland towards Melbourne.  S315 is clean having recently been repainted for the Royal Train to Ballarat (which it led together with S300). The Overland is relatively short with only 12 cars and no motorail or parcels vans.

The final train captured At 8:49am was the 8122 Up Ballarat pass with B62 in charge. Consist is set N1 (3ACN-2BN-1BN). There were still many N sets operating with a consist of BN-BN-ACN. These were generally used on  routes where catering wasn't provided or held as a spare set. Ballarat trains rarely had a parcels van attached. Later in the year this set will be broken up and combined with the cars from set N18 to form 2 sets of ACN-BRN-BN. Roster N12 which commenced on the 20th December 1982 introduced N sets on all trains west of Ballarat. Most Ballarat trains were also formed by N sets except for the midday 8115 (Down) / 8142 (Up) pass and the Friday evening 8145 (Down) pass. Occasionally a spare set of wooden cars would be substituted if the rostered N set was unavailable.