Spirit of Progress — “Victoria’s Art Deco, Legendary and Innovation Train”
The Spirit of Progress is quite arguably one of the most iconic ‘Art Deco’ trains seen in Australia. The advancements seen on this train were revolutionary at the time which allowed the Victorian Railways to be at the leading age of transportation, which its legacy is now carried on with heritage rail operations in Victoria.
Such was the commitment of VR Chief Commissioner Harold Clapp to introducing a world-class train service to Victorian Railways, virtually no detail was overlooked. VR engineers famously road-tested the new train’s smoothness on curves by studying a full bowl of soup in the dining car as the train took curves at full speed; if the soup splashed over the side of the bowl a decision would be taken whether to modify the curve for higher speeds or reduce the speed limit for the curve.
Soon, this train trip will be recreated in full, shortly with a tour operator.
Part 1: Advancement of Steam, the End of the Sydney Limited.
The ‘S’ class Pacific Locomotives that the Victorian Railways had ordered in 1927 was considered cutting edge technology featuring a three-cylinder setup, advanced for its time before the Spirit of Progress.
When the S classes first entered service on 19 March 1928, S300 hauled it’s the first service to the railway town of Seymour and back to Melbourne.
On an average revenue service, the ‘S’ classes would be allocated to the North-East Mainline to Albury, hauling up to 10 ‘E’ (AE/BE) Intercity Wooden Carriages alongside a luggage carriage (BCE or CE). Within its ten years of operation along the North East Mainline to Albury, the S classes had reduced travel times by 1hour and 50min which had been previously set for the Victorian Railway’s A2 class steam locomotives. During 1935, S class-hauled Sydney Limited was reported as the fastest train in the Southern Hemisphere with the southbound service running at an overall average speed of 77.25 km/h (48 miles per hour) including the 5 minute stop at Seymour to take on water.
Its role in assisting and hauling trains up the Great Dividing Range would leave a mark in the history books, as it shattered expectations. Running at a rated speed of 70mph (for us metrics 130kph), however, the S class steamers were rated for 90mph (145kph). This effectively eliminating double-heading steam locomotives that operated on the “Sydney Limited”, making it one of the most powerful steam passenger locomotives in the Victorian Railway fleet at the time.
Part 2: Spirit Of Progress.
In 1930, a growing trend was occurring at the time which was during the art movement known as ‘Art Deco’. The movement saw bold and vivid designs that illustrate futurism and modernism and one of those trending within the automotive / transport industry was streamlining. Some other examples which included this trend include the New South Wales Government Railways 38 Class and Tasmanian Government Railways R class.
The response to this, the Victorian Railways decided to streamline the ‘S’ class Pacifics, making them the flagship of the Victorian Railways on the newly established and minted ‘Spirit of Progress’ that would launch in 1937.
The names of each S Class steam locomotives have been:
- S300: MATTHEW FLINDERS
- S301: Sir THOMAS MITCHELL
- S302: EDWARD HENTY
- S303: CJ LA TROBE
The trainset consisted of 12 carriages,
- 5 of them being first-class passenger compartment carriages. (AS)
- 4 of them being second class passenger compartment carriages. (BS)
- 1 Guard van. (CS)
- 1 Dining Carriage. (Dining)
- 1 Parlor Observation car. (Parlor)
Each passenger compartment car had 8 separated passenger compartments, that can fit 6 (in first class) and 8 (in second) respectively.
Spirit of Progress train-set sees massive design and innovations not yet seen in Victoria. The passenger carriages feature an all-steel body carriage construction, air conditioning and streamlining to make an eye-catching, yet elegant forward leading train.
Both the carriages and the locomotive were streamlined in a way to make matching. The VR selected full frame diaphragms on the tender and every passenger carriage to create a consistent look. The doors on both the guards and passenger carriages were inset to run flush against the carriage body. These design decisions were due to the VR wanting to reduce air resistance at the train’s maximum official speed of 115 km/h (71 mph) and to give the impression of one long train.
The carriages were built at the iconic Victorian Railway’s Newport Workshops as the trainsets were built at a massive scale. The carriages used Cor-ten steel which was considered by the VR due to its ability to form a strong, durable steel alloy. The carriages featured a uniformed royal blue and gold livery with ‘gold’ leaf being applied on the trainsets, forming the two parallel stripes creating a full-length wrap around the streamlined train.
The same gold leaf was also used for the class lettering visible to passengers, such as “First”, “Second”, “Dining Car” and “Parlor Car”. The interior featured ‘specially selected Queensland brown beech wood’ or ‘locally sourced wood’ with each carriage featuring pastel green leather in each compartment car, complemented with stainless steel.
In total, 12 carriages were built for the 1937 Spirit of Progress, with further orders supplementing the fleet for other services.
The iconic train featured two special carriages,
First is the ‘Dining’ carriage which shown off modern galley kitchens that was only seen at hospitals at the time. The second being the ‘Norman’ or more commonly known as the ‘Parlor’ observation car, which was normally on the rear of each service, offering panoramic views of the Victorian countryside as it disappeared into the distance.
Due to the Parlor observation car, the train had to use a triangle to be turned around and facing in the right direction, with Parlor always facing the rear.
It is worth noting that in both specials (Dining and Parlor) carriages, handcrafted seats were used to maximise customer ‘comfort and durability.
Launching the Spirit of Progress,
The Spirit of Progress being called the ‘Pride and Joy’ of the Victorian Railway was put on tour to traverse across Victoria as the train was being shown off to the public. This included a full day at Spencer Street Station where S302 and the Spirit consist displayed to the general public for the first time on the 20th of November 1937. It coincided with the train ran several demonstrations runs to Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo on the 18th, 19th and 22nd November 1937 on the respective dates.
17th of November 1937, would mark the start of the new service as the train operated a launch run, heading to the town of Geelong. This would be lead with S302 (below left) which the train new official Australian rail speed record of 79.5 mph (127.9 km/h) on the way back to Melbourne.
The Spirit of Progress, in a bid for publicity. S302 raced alongside Airco DH.4 aeroplane VH-UBZ Spirit of Melbourne on its demonstration run to Geelong which was recorded on film, showing that the Spirit of Progress was leading technology that hasn’t been seen here in Victoria before.
During the launch ceremony at Spencer Street station, Premier Albert Dunstan opened the Parlor Car with a gold key.
Three hundred guests joined the train for the inaugural run, including Attorney-General of Australia former Railways Minister Robert Menzies.
After its launch, the Spirit of Progress would go into a normal routine of departing Melbourne Spencer Street Station, 6.30 pm each evening with the anticipating arrival time of 10.20 pm, where passengers would adjoin onto another train onwards to Sydney operated by New South Wales Government Railways service. The ‘Spirit’ would return to Wodonga where the train would be serviced and turned around, in preparation to head back to Melbourne on the following day, departing at 07.55 am next day and gets into Melbourne at 11.35 am, once again, the train is turned around in preparation for the next service. In both instances, the loco will always lead and parlor car is always facing the rear.
The typical consist as recorded in 1937 would be:
- Victorian Railways S class steam locomotive
- Guard’s van (later classed CS)
- Four Second class cars (later classed BS)
- Dining Car (later named Murray)
- Four First-Class cars (later classed AS)
- Parlor car (later named Norman)
The Spirit would always fight the Great Dividing Range, every day to prove its worth as the Victorian Railway’s flagship service.
It was reported in a normal year running, the Spirit of Progress covered 140,000 miles and carried over 200,000 passengers, while approximately 126,000 meals and served over 45,000 light refreshment in the Dining Carriage.
The average load would be 515 tons which accommodates 240 first class, 192 second class passengers though this can vary due to increasing travel demand during the peak periods as this would increase to 615 tons, up to 288 first class and 256 second class passengers.
- Victorian Railways ‘Spirit of Progress’ public relations flyer.
The Spirit of Progress became the benchmark for Southern Hemisphere luxury trains as quoted as ‘Australia’s №1 luxury express train’ throughout its steam era. Traversing over 306km in style.
Part 3: End of Steam, Introduction of Diesels.
In 1952, the introduction of the ‘B’ class diesel-electric locomotives saw the start of the end of the steam locomotives in general, with the B classes looking forward with reduced operating cost in mind and outperformed the ‘S’ class steam locomotive.
The B classes marked themselves as an ideal candidate to fully operate the Spirit of Progress (1954) which lead to the demise of the ‘S’ class steam which despite all efforts, none were preserved.
It wasn’t soon after until the introduction of the ‘S’ class diesel in 1957, which had a single-ended cab to allow the Spirit to have a full consist that looked nearly identical to the original Spirit of Progress. S300-S303 carries on the names from the S class steam locomotives that were scrapped.
The B and S class still gave it all with modern motive power during the 1950s with root blown EMD 16–567B and C engines, generating 1,500hp/1,800hp respectively.
Part 4: Standardisation, Cross Running and Demise.
After 1962 which the Victorian Railways shifted the Spirit of Progress onto the standard gauge, the Spirit of Progress would be working alongside the NSWGR Southern Aurora, which offered full stainless steel, all sleeping car express between the two cities which was considered a premier service. This resulted in the Spirit of Progress being put into a secondary service as both Southern Aurora and the Spirit of Progress are now running to both capitals, reducing and eliminating the need for switching trains at Albury.
The Spirit consist changed from compartment car into passenger saloons with the introduction of the ‘Z’ steel car carriages and as a result, the Spirit did see a decrease in amenities with the lack of a dining car and observation car as these carriages were used for other services within the broad gauge services.
The Spirit of Progress would also have an adjoining through the carriage to Canberra which operated tri-weekly, this carriage would travel towards Goulburn and be attached to a mixed goods train to Canberra, ACT.
In 1966, the Spirit started to see various changes as it couldn’t be “considered to be a high-speed service” as the average service time of 13 hours and 45 min journey. The S class diesel would be reallocated to do other duties within the Victorian Railways as the X class hood locomotives took over the duties which rotated to Commonwealth Railways GM classes on occasional times.
During the early 1980s, the demise of the Victorian Railways saw the formation of the Government-owned authority, V/Line alongside other State-owned rail authorities, introduced through running locomotives on all freight and passengers services to gain better ‘utilisation and economical advantages of their resources’. This ultimately resulted in the rainbow of colour which is illustrated above which mostly included rollingstock from State Rail Authority in NSW and Australian National Railways.
In 1986, the Spirit of Progress joined alongside the Southern Aurora to merge into the Melbourne and Sydney Express and soon later into the State Rail Authority / V/Line XPT service. It also noted that the advance in cheaper aviation travel and road travel also contributed to the end of the Spirit of Progress.
The merge of the two carriages hauled services forming the Melbourne and Sydney Express would bring to an end of 49 years of service.
Part 5: Legacy
Poster-Child of the Victorian Railways and Heritage.
Being the poster-child of the Victorian Railways, the Spirit of Progress was named the “Australia’s №1 luxury express train”, it was heavily advertised as the benchmark that luxury trains during its steam-age.
It left a legacy that lasts until today which heritage railway groups like the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre which the organisation currently recreates the nearly identical consist that occurred in 1937 (including Dining, Parlor Observation Car) with modern motive diesel power (S303) to cover for the loss of ‘S’ class Pacific Steam Locomotives. Other heritage groups also follow suit with recreating the Spirit of Progress.
The scrapping of the ‘S’ class Pacific Steam locomotives saw the preservation movement move ahead to preserve other historically significant assets like ‘H220 — Heavy Harry’, ‘Yarra Parlor Car’ and most of the original 1937 Spirit of Progress rollingstock.
The legacy left the Spirit of Progress illustrates how Victoria was able to grab and illustrate the world-class service.
It brings me to this part of the article to conclude it, but first. Currently, there are plans to bring back the S301 tender to be used on mainline services across Victoria as a water-gin.
Click here to find out more information.
https://www.facebook.com/S-Class-Tender-Restoration-Fund-342913342935645/
To find out more information on the future heritage tours with the former Spirit of Progress carriages and locomotives. Carrying passengers to support local communities and reliving the moment of the luxury of the Spirit of Progress.
