#Victorian Railways R-Class R761

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

"Heavy Harry looks like its about to go postal"

So goes one of the comments under this cartoon by John Draper for the SAR 520 Restoration SteamRanger group.

Going postal would not be too out of character for Heavy Harry, he is very easily angered; '01 for her part looks incredibly outraged, like actually personally offended.

For her part, R761 just looks confused as hell.

As a Victorian gunzel I had a good laugh, just cause seeing my bitter boy in a cartoon, even in a sardonic one is always a hoot. I appreciate the backhanded acknowledgement of both Harry and the Rs being representative of our state's flagship locos alongside '01. It hits just right.

I gotta say, this is one of the strangest comments I have ever seen:

Except that the SAR 520 class has a very strong resemblance to the Pennsylvania Railroad T-1 Class, reflecting SAR Commissioner's William Webb's and CME Fred Hugh Harrison's penchant for American locomotive design and...

...and...

...and...

*reads that last line again*

*blinks*

*Gets visions of a Dalby-esque scene of Heavy Harry derailing*

I MUST DRAW THIS I MUST

Edit: to add link to the SAR Restoration 520 site https://www.steamrangerheritagerailway.org/volunteering-with-steamranger/520-restoration-appeal/

[davidarkwright2trains]

Victorian Railways R class locomotive R761 on the turntable at Newport workshops, Victoria, Australia.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Traintober '23: Twins (sort of)

Victorian Railways R- class Hudsons R 707 "City Of Melbourne" and R761 on the 60th anniversary of the Rs introduction to the VR.

The VR's own Scottish Twins, built at at the North British Loco works at Queen's Park, Glasgow.

They were paired up quite frequently in the dying days of steam for enthusiast tours as they were the only two Rs in operational condition.

Their most famous joint appearance was when they had that parallel run with Flying Scotsman at Aus Steam '88.

To this day, these two are never that far apart from one another. They are both shedded at Newport. As a matter of fact, though they both belong to different enthusiast groups (R707 by 707 Operations, R761 by Steamrail), R761 pulled one of R707's Grainlander trains when he was unwell from a steam leak.

Their Gunzel-verse gijinka versions are very, very close indeed but its for another post.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Happy Service Day R761!

One of my favourite engines, Victorian Railways VR R-Class Hudson R761 celebrated their 72nd birthday, entering service on the 9th of April 1952; after being brought from North British Locomotive Works (Build no 27051), Glasgow to Australia on the Merchant Vessel Helenus, arriving on the 28th of Feb, 1952.

She was one of the fortunate seven Rs that made it to preservation and has not stopped running.

(She is also the IRL basis of my Victorian Railways AU OC, Andri, her character profile along with that of her twin brother, R707 "City Of Melbourne' aka Cerberus is here).

Her caretakers, SteamRail, celebrated the occasion by showing this beautifully eerie, Christine-vibed photo:

’Good evening, sir! You shouldn’t be walking around the sheds this time of the night…’ *soft wheesh*

She was repainted ahead of this year’s open day, where she strutted her stuff.

Here’s to you R761, a survivor who thrives in preservation long after the regime that tried to put you away has gone to dust!

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

VR Chime Whistles

A nice collection of VR 5-chime whistles being displayed by the locos of SteamRail. This is likely as close what you will get to knowing what VR H220 sounded like, since there are no extant recordings of his whistle.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

(WAY PAST) Traintober 2023: Twins prt 2 + Bird

The VR's Scottish Twins R707 City of Melbourne "Cerberus" and R761 "Andri", with friend.

(Usual disclaimer, this is not a reflection on any person living or dead or the real life locomotives they are based on)

OK, its now November but so... I'm putting these up anyway. The VR's answer to Donald and Douglas, Victorian Railways R-Class Hudson R707 City of Melbourne/Cerberus and VR R-Class Hudson 761 Andri.

Both built at North British Works at Queens Park, Glasgow and brought to Victoria in the early 50's as part of a 70 strong fleet of R-Class Hudsons to replace the aging A2 4-6-0 express passenger fleet. The Rs were quickly superseded by the B-class diesels built at Clyde, Granville, NSW; and all of the class was withdrawn by 1964, with only R707 and R761 remaining in operational condition after their fellow Rs were brutalised by the VR.

Seven members of the class including these two made it into preservation. As these two were paired up frequently during the late and post-steam era on special trains, it was natural that they were close. And they cannot be any more different.

R707/Cerberus (originally "Choin Dubh", but renamed himself to something the Aussie humans could understand) is quite an intense individual, highly intelligent and obsessed with balancing the scales as well as preserving the rest of his family. He's mad as a cut snake that he was not particularly dealt a good hand initially (rust in the bearings kept him in the shop till 1954, STUG equipment fitted to him reinforced his idea of himself as hard done by) or was given the working life he was promised; he was fucked around by the VR in the final years of steam, moved from shed to shed and then left to rot for 6 years from 1974 to 1980; he hasn't forgiven them, even after they are long gone.

He's by turns manipulative, charming, calculating and scary. When he is not pulling his highly lucrative Grainlander and Riverlander trains, he's working out schemes with his underlings, his right hand engine being the Lancastrian English Electric built F-class shunting diesel, Dynon Donk.

R761/Andri (originally "Kelpie" but taunting by the local yobbo locomotives hurt her enough to change it; a particularly humiliating incident of taunting lead to one of them having a rude word scratched on their tender in meter high letters...) couldn't care less about balancing the scales. As a matter of fact, she doesn't care at all. All she want to do is continue to run like the Devil in engine form if she's allowed by the vollies at SteamRail, look at birds (her special interest is birds of all kinds) and sigh over Gordon the Big Engine, her favorite engine in the RWS series. Her particular special train is the Melbourne Snow train but she's taken plenty of other special trains. She's is pretty blunt and forthright when talking with others, but she means no offense.

Her working life was punctuated by long bouts being shedded, for reasons that are not entirely clear or explainable; which would explain why she was in such good condition compared to the other Rs at the time of her preservation.

Both these engines have a monster form, and a demon form like their Newport compadre, VR H220 Heavy Harry.

As a matter of fact, when they both attained a human form sometime around 1964, they ran in the same larrikin gangs as Harry did. And participated in his infamous scrapbreaking activities. To this day, they still live at Newport, at the old sheds in the West Block where the volunteer groups operate their trains out of.

The lil blue bird on Andri's shoulder is a Splendid Blue Wren.

Here's a video of the IRL R761 ripping up the track:

The VR were never that interested in breaking records for speed, but it is estimated the Rs could go as fast as 90/mph if allowed; VR regulations dictated that express passenger engines like the R, the S and the A2 were restricted to 70/mph and H220 60/mph.