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Two hundred passengers travelled on a special train arranged by the Australian Railway Exploration Association (A.R.E.A.) from Melbourne to Mildura, Yelta and Meringur.
The special train departed Spencer Street at 6.45 p.m. on Friday 31-7-1964 and travelled via Castlemaine to Maryborough.
The train consisted of B60, and 14 carriages. Both "Goulburn" shower/lounge car and "Murray" dining car were detached at St. Arnaud. Eight sleeping cars, two sitting cars, a shower car and power car "Melville" went on to Mildura.
At Maryborough B60 was replaced by two steam engines, R756 and N410. The N class was used as a banker as far as Donald where it was detached, leaving the R Class to make the journey to Mildura.
R756 at the head of the A.R.E.A. special arrives at Mildura on 1-8-1964. Photo: John Woollett, A.R.H.S. Archives
On arrival in Mildura, another train of sitting cars from the Thursday "Mildura Sunlight" and Saturday morning Mildura arrival with locomotive N462 (tender first) was made up and took some of the passengers to Yelta and return whilst other passengers went on a sight seeing trip or paddle boat trip. The train then went to Redcliffs and branched off to travel as far as Meringur. During the branch line trips the train stopped at pre-arranged places to allow the passengers to take photographs and movies or make tape recording of the train sounds.
On the down journey to Meringur, the special train crossed the weed spray train with N487, at Merrinee. Due to the poor state of the track between Meringur and Morkalla, permission to run to the terminus could no be obtained, so buses were used to convey the passengers to Morkalla to inspect the most distant terminus from Melbourne at 403 miles.
N462 was reversed at Meringur using the triangle.
On return to the main line, the special was attached to the other special carriages at Irymple, with N487 in charge, replacing R756 due to regulator trouble. (Earlier in the day N487 took the weed poison train to Meringur and crossed the special at Merrinee), before departing at 10.30 p.m. for Melbourne by way of Dunolly, Inglewood, and Bendigo. It was scheduled to arrive in Melbourne at 7.45 p.m. on Sunday 2-8-1964.
The Mildura crew who ran the special train to Yelta was Driver G. Cullen, Fireman K. Bland and Guard B. McCumber. The crew on the Meringur special was Driver L. Zarth, Fireman I. Gregory and Guard W. Smith.
N400 has attached to the AREA special train at Mildura for shunting, shortly after arrival on 1-8-1964. Photo: M. Schrader, courtesy Train Hobby Publications
On 1-8-1964, the Australian Railway Exploration Association ran a special tour on the Meringur line. At Merrinee, N462 with the special to Meringur is seen crossing N487 on the Weedex weed poison train standing in the loop siding. Photo: M. Schrader, courtesy Train Hobby Publications
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