By JESSE GRAHAM
THE Yarra Valley Railway received two new editions to its fleet last week, with two engines being craned into the yard in a huge operation on Wednesday.
Members of the Yarra Valley Railway (YVR) gathered at the Healesville railway station on Wednesday 14 May for the delivery of the two new engines.
A Y Class and a T Class Victorian Railways Diesel-Electric broad gauge Locomotive were both trucked down to the station with their bogies, and lifted onto the tracks by two cranes.
Setting up the cranes on the day was a laborious task, with both carefully weighted to handle the weight of the massive engines – the Y Class weighs 65 tonnes, while the T Class weighs 70 tonnes.
Though the cranes began to set up at 10am, the first engine was laid carefully onto its bogies just after noon, while the other was driven down.
YVR president Brett Morton said the railway had acquired the Y Class engine at a liquidation sale, while the T Class engine had been owned by the railway, but leased out for use.
He said the Y Class engine was perfect for the railway, which will also be using a steam engine when it opens around 2016-2017.
“It’s the lightest, smallest, fuel-efficient engine and it’s perfect for a branch line – it was made for a branch line railway like outs,” Mr Morton said.
“Things like this don’t come up very often, so we had a shot at it and we’ve won it.”
Mr Morton said he was excited about the engines coming to the railway, and that the excitement had spread online, with numerous people on railway forums and Facebook commenting on the arrivals.
Local residents and passers-by also stopped by the station to watch the cranes lower the engines, while friends and members of the railway snapped away on cameras during the lowering.
Falling in line with the railway’s heritage status in town, both of the engines craned in on the Wednesday were over 50 years old, with the T Class train built in 1955 and the Y Class built in 1963.
