I'm not having a crack at the crew for their decision to whack the 600 on the front - hell, I've put an 80 Class on the front of a wheat train before over a pair of 81's to make the Werris Creek crew's job easier when they got home. No shunting multiple locos's or anything, just close the taps, cut the 81 in, lift the pin and go.I don't think there's an issue if the roster for a train has shytehouse loco allocation, but it sounds like someone put the 600 on point where there was a better-equipped loco in the consist. This goes against the accepted convention, whereby the most comfortable serviceable loco from a crew perspective is marshalled up the front unless there's a damn good reason for not doing so.The decision was okayed by several people before it happened too.
I was just trying to point out that just because there is a loco on point that is older than the crew isn't an issue if that's all that was allocated to that service, but if you have, say, an 81/82/G/NR combination convention says the NR will go on the front unless you have a good - and justifiable - reason for something else.