N Class Bingo

N465 City of Ballaarat at Southern Cross Station

A bit of a gunzelly/trainspotty post for you today.

The N Class locomotives are part of V/Line's "classic" fleet, and pull carriages along some of the long-distance lines throughout the state. They're all named after municipalities in regional Victoria, and on the rare occasions I travel on those long-distance services, I usually check which one is pulling the train.

There would be something oddly pleasing about matching the loco with the destination - for example, N466 City of Warrnambool taking me to Warrnambool - but thus far it hasn't happened.

N453 City of Albury coming into Warrnambool

While sitting at Southern Cross waiting for a train home a while ago, it occurred to me that a lot has changed since these trains were built in the 80s - some destinations don't have passenger trains any more, some lines have been converted from Broad Gauge to Standard Gauge, and some of the locos have been gauge-converted as well. Not to mention that some of the cities that do have passenger services never see an N Class any more - they're completely served by the newer VLocity trains. So some of these combinations won't actually be possible any more - and I got to wondering which ones still are.

So I did a bit of research, and came up with the below.

Locomotive	Loco gauge	Line gauge	Line status	Possible?
N451 City of Portland	Broad	Standard	Freight-only	No
N452 Rural City of Wodonga	Broad	Standard	N Class passenger services	No
N453 City of Albury	Broad	Standard	N Class passenger services	No
N454 City of Horsham	Broad	Standard	Overland only	No
N455 City of Swan Hill	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N456 City of Colac	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N457 City of Mildura	Standard	Standard	Freight-only	No (1)
N458 City of Maryborough	Standard	Both	VLocity passenger services	No (2)
N459 City of Echuca	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N460 City of Castlemaine	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N461 City of Ararat	Broad	Both	VLocity passenger services	No (3)
N462 City of Shepparton	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N463 City of Bendigo	Standard	Broad	N Class passenger services	No
N464 City of Geelong	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N465 City of Ballaarat	Broad	Broad	VLocity Passenger services	No (4)
N466 City of Warrnambool	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N467 City of Stawell	Broad	Standard	Overland only	No
N468 City of Bairnsdale	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N469 City of Morwell	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N470 City of Wangaratta	Broad	Standard	N Class passenger services	No
N471 City of Benalla	Broad	Standard	N Class passenger services	No
N472 City of Sale	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N473 City of Warragul	Standard	Broad	N Class passenger services	No
N474 City of Traralgon	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes
N475 City of Moe	Broad	Broad	N Class passenger services	Yes

So a few possibilities there, but plenty of trips that aren't currently possible. But Victoria's rail network is constantly changing, so what might be possible in the future?

In the long run, the loco-hauled fleet will be replaced by VLocity DMUs

There is a big push for passenger trains to return to western Victorian cities - so we might see trains run to Horsham or Mildura again quite soon, for example. There is also a slow, steady process of converting regional lines that carry freight to Standard Gauge - the line to Mildura has only recently been changed - but there seems to be a lot of resistance to Standardising any more regional passenger lines.

On the other hand, there is also a bit of a push to phase out the loco-hauled services (especially the A and P Classes, but the Ns will be next) and replace them with VLocity DMUs - so I think it's probably unlikely that many more N Class locos will be gauge-converted for running passenger services. To be honest, even their days of running on their existing gauges are probably numbered.

So the next time you take a train on one of these long-distance lines, wander up to the front and check out which locomotive is hauling it - you might be lucky enough to get Bingo before your chance disappears for good.

1. The loco could do it if V/Line ran passenger services there. There's currently a big campaign to return passenger trains to Mildura, so this might be possible soon.
2. The Ararat-Maryborough line is already Standard Gauge, and the Ballarat-Maryborough line might be converted to Dual Gauge or Standard Gauge as part of the Murray Basin Rail Project for freight. Currently the only passenger services are Ballarat-Maryborough VLocity trains, but it's on the way to Mildura so it's the same deal as above.
3. The Ballarat-Ararat line has VLocity passenger services, and is Broad Gauge. The Geelong-Ararat line is SG and carries freight and the Overland. It would be theoretically possible to drive N461 to the BG dock platform at Ararat, but it couldn't run around any carriages to return, so it's pretty impractical. 
4. As part of normal operations, N Classes don't go Ballarat - it's all VLocitys beyond Bacchus Marsh. However I don't think there's any technical reason this loco couldn't come to Ballarat for some kind of special occasion - the infrastructure's all there.