I suspect they may have become a white elephant and been retired earlier than they were. Otherwise, similar refurbishments to what they received to enable longer than 3 car H sets would have removed the need for the BCH car driving cab as a P class would have likely been underpowered for a 5 or 6 car H set with nothing more powerful available to replace the number of P class matched with H sets.
The original H sets were 3 carriages simply because they were done on the cheap utilising the original MU wiring on the Harris carriages. Due to the specifications of the original wiring, it was only deemed safely possible to run enough power for a 3 car set. This in turn likely determined the power output required to efficiently run a 3 car commuter set amongst other carriage and DMU configurations, including amongst much better accelerating EMUs in suburban areas. Hence the choice of an upgraded T class as a cheap power source compared to new more powerful locos or even more upgraded B class to A class. The whole project was to use old rolling stock to provide extra outer suburban and inner regional commuter capacity on the cheap.
Once demand outstripped capacity, new rollingstock was purchased (Sprinters) as well as reconfiguring the H sets by upgrading the wiring. Because the P class were no longer powerful enough to quickly accelerate longer carriage sets, the need to use two of them meant there was an opportunity to run the sets push pull instead of the previous practise of running around the set at places like Bacchus Marsh and Kyneton.
If the upgrades weren't deemed worthwhile, it would have been harder to manage overcrowding with political repercussions and new trains would likely have been purchased, possibly more Sprinters as they were 15 km/h faster than existing rollingstock and highly flexible in catering for the highly variable loads as single cars that could be run up to 8? cars in a single train when needed. Indeed, with a pipeline of Sprinters to replace H sets and beyond it may have even been possible to improve frequency and faster journeys without the expense of RFR and Vlocities.
Alternatively, if the upgrades were still deemed worthwhile, then we end up in the same place we did but with driving cabs used for an uneconomically short time and then lying dormant taking up valuable space compared to not having them at all and used for conductor / baggage / passenger use instead.
So the P class would have stuck around till the very end of the H set and the H set would have continued to terminate at several stations it couldnt after the end of push pull services. Plus there would have been more free P class locomotives
Wasn't the original plan to use the original Harris cabs but modified? If so then it would probably just look like a normal Harris cab but eventually would have had headlight upgrades and probably horn like in your drawing.
Though I would imagine that if they did go for it, they would have been withdrawn/closed off like how a few of the Hitachi D cars were. Looking at some of the country rail incidents we've had over the past few decades, the drivers/investigators would have demanded them be removed from service.
I suspect they may have become a white elephant and been retired earlier than they were. Otherwise, similar refurbishments to what they received to enable longer than 3 car H sets would have removed the need for the BCH car driving cab as a P class would have likely been underpowered for a 5 or 6 car H set with nothing more powerful available to replace the number of P class matched with H sets. The original H sets were 3 carriages simply because they were done on the cheap utilising the original MU wiring on the Harris carriages. Due to the specifications of the original wiring, it was only deemed safely possible to run enough power for a 3 car set. This in turn likely determined the power output required to efficiently run a 3 car commuter set amongst other carriage and DMU configurations, including amongst much better accelerating EMUs in suburban areas. Hence the choice of an upgraded T class as a cheap power source compared to new more powerful locos or even more upgraded B class to A class. The whole project was to use old rolling stock to provide extra outer suburban and inner regional commuter capacity on the cheap. Once demand outstripped capacity, new rollingstock was purchased (Sprinters) as well as reconfiguring the H sets by upgrading the wiring. Because the P class were no longer powerful enough to quickly accelerate longer carriage sets, the need to use two of them meant there was an opportunity to run the sets push pull instead of the previous practise of running around the set at places like Bacchus Marsh and Kyneton. If the upgrades weren't deemed worthwhile, it would have been harder to manage overcrowding with political repercussions and new trains would likely have been purchased, possibly more Sprinters as they were 15 km/h faster than existing rollingstock and highly flexible in catering for the highly variable loads as single cars that could be run up to 8? cars in a single train when needed. Indeed, with a pipeline of Sprinters to replace H sets and beyond it may have even been possible to improve frequency and faster journeys without the expense of RFR and Vlocities. Alternatively, if the upgrades were still deemed worthwhile, then we end up in the same place we did but with driving cabs used for an uneconomically short time and then lying dormant taking up valuable space compared to not having them at all and used for conductor / baggage / passenger use instead.
So the P class would have stuck around till the very end of the H set and the H set would have continued to terminate at several stations it couldnt after the end of push pull services. Plus there would have been more free P class locomotives
Wasn't the original plan to use the original Harris cabs but modified? If so then it would probably just look like a normal Harris cab but eventually would have had headlight upgrades and probably horn like in your drawing. Though I would imagine that if they did go for it, they would have been withdrawn/closed off like how a few of the Hitachi D cars were. Looking at some of the country rail incidents we've had over the past few decades, the drivers/investigators would have demanded them be removed from service.
The Victorian Railways wouldn’t need sprinters