As the first officially named flagship service of the Victorian Railways, the train took pride of place on the timetable, and operated with some of the best available locomotives and rolling stock.
It was hauled by locomotive A2906, fitted with Stephenson-link motion and superheating equipment, and consisted of an assortment of short (58 ft (18 m)) W-class passenger cars.
The title of the train was simplified to The Flier, and it cut 90 minutes from the previous Melbourne-Port Fairy journey time.
The train was altered to depart from Spencer Street at 8:20 am, arriving at Geelong at 9:23 am, waiting ten minutes to swap the engine for a lighter unit, which also allowed passengers to buy refreshments at the station.
World War II reduced the priority given to passenger trains, and any engine might be used on The Flier, with resulting schedule penalties.
[citation needed] By the end of the war, the portion of the A2 fleet fitted with Walschaerts valve gear had been converted to oil firing, which meant the performance of the locomotives was not restricted by the fireman's capacity to shovel coal, but that benefit did not outweigh problems caused by the deteriorated state of the rolling stock and track.
Warncoort, Larpent, Stoneyford, Garvoc and Cudgee were only served on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and Irrewarra, Pirron Yallock, Weerite, Boorcan and Panmure only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
[5] South Geelong, Moriac, Winchelsea, Birregurra, Colac, Camperdown, Terang, Warrnambool, Koroit and Port Fairy were all served from Monday to Saturday.
The ferry initially operated a twice-daily service to and from Melbourne Docklands, using a mooring at the bottom of Moorabool Street.