Driving an 81 class.mpg 

G'day Steve, Yeh, well having been stuck on them things for many hours, I would disagree with you. Though, I would rate the 82 class as worse. Steve.

That's interesting, what do you prefer? Incidentally, I didn't think the 82s were much cop

G'day Steve, My monkier should give a clue as to my motive power preference. The 48 class is my most fav NSWR beastie. Though, I did hafta agree with cohorts when we began running mileage jobs with them. We finally banned them as lead units on mileage jobs. The 80 class was the best all rounder motive power. But, many get caught when whipping them from power into dynamic and vice versa. Cause a surge in the sump oil and the low lube trips shutting you down. Beep beep beep. You had to be gentle. And the 86rs were the most bonzer beasties to drive. I even got used to the English Electrics when I was exiled to Tassie. I have NEVER enjoyed EMD things. Steve.

The 82's have awful crank harmonics from the main engine, or at least many do. Some are a a lot worse than others. Whatever improvements there are in the way of insulation from the outside elements and isolation of the cabs from the machinery noise are pretty much nullfied by the vibrations rattling your teeth out and causing every single thing IN the cab to rattle deafeningly. They also feel like they wallow a lot more from side to side on crappy tracks than 81's do, and theyre always throwing wierd faults and alarms at the drop of a hat, losing speedo signal and dropping dyno etc. Oh, and then there is that god-awful alternator transition around 35-40k's... 81's are a bit rough and ready, but if you get a good one theyre nice... The problem is that good ones are getting few and far between, with PN just running them into the ground. We actually had 8163 trailing out of Bomaderry last week now i think about it.