THE Border has not seen the last of the 1980s V/Line passenger train carriages, with nine sitting in the yard of Albury railway station awaiting a locomotive to take them to Ettamogah for storage.
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The carriages were hauled from Victoria on Tuesday but V/Line was not able to take them beyond Albury because it's accreditation with the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator does not extend further into NSW.
Seymour Railway Heritage Centre president John Crofts is co-ordinating the transport of the carriages to the Ettamogah Rail Hub where they will be stored for their new owners, Steamrail Victoria and 707 Operations, who run heritage rolling stock.
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Originally it was expected a locomotive travelling from Bathurst to Melbourne would take the carriages from Albury to Ettamogah on Tuesday night but mechanical issues saw it miss its slot.
It is now anticipated an engine from Junee will undertake the task on Thursday.
Steamrail and 707 are both based at Newport in Melbourne and don't have standard gauge access to their bases.
Steamrail and Seymour have four carriages each and 707 has five out of the original four N Class sets which ran on the North East line until last month.
Mr Crofts said four disability access carriages would be converted to broad gauge and remain in V/Line's hands, with all the N Class standard gauge locomotives also being switched over.
Seymour's set was the final to serve passengers on Saturday and after a stint in Melbourne, it should reach its new home in four weeks.
Mr Crofts said it's first run as a heritage train would be a few weeks later.
"We plan to take them up to Goulburn on the first weekend in October, it's the Labor Day weekend in NSW, and there's a railway enthusiasts' event at Goulburn called Streamliners, a celebration of the curved nose class," he said.
"We plan to combine them with some Spirit of Progress carriages so we have to nine or 10 cars."
Mr Crofts that would allow for up to 350 passengers to enjoy the weekend trip.
He said a blue and yellow livery would eventually be applied to his organisation's N Class carriages in homage to the traditional Victorian Railways colours.
They have been hued orange, red or purple at different times under the administration of V/Line.
Ettamogah Rail Hub owner Col Rees said he was happy to provide storage for the other rail groups.
"It's good to help the heritage people out because a lot of this stuff, if you don't watch them, the authorities, they go to scrap them," Mr Rees said.
"It's good they'll have another life."
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