Orange, 27-28/4

[Peter Donaghy <PeterDo@als.com.au>]

Aus loco discussion mailing list

Good morning on this fine day to everyone!

Further to yesterday's XPT derailment item, XP2012 was the victim.  The
front end doesn't look too bad - half of the fibreglass wedge was
smashed off, and the bogie had dug itself into the trackbed a bit, so
may have some damage.  Otherwise, just a few support struts bent.
According to the news, three carriages derailed, but they hadn't veered
too far from the tracks from the pictures on the TV.  The front of the
XP was to the left of the line, with the rear bogie derailed to the
right of the line; the car finished upright, but slewed at about 30
degrees to the track, about 300 metres past the crossing.  A relay hut
was badly damaged, and the flashing lights at the crossing flattened
(one side).  The track had a few nice twists and bends added to it!

Around 1920, I heard a train arrive from the Parkes line, and it sounded
like it turned towards Dubbo; there was still tooting of horns, etc,
about half an hour later, around the station area.

I was expecting the Indian Pacific to be diverted via Coota, so turned
the scanner on just after 2100, in time to hear exchanges between East
Fork, Orange Box and a couple of trains.  Trackside, I found 8213 / 8157
on about 16 Manildra hoppers (train 9071), just arrived from the East,
and in the station platform, 8172 / 8125 / 8183 (dead attached?) on 11?
Manildra hoppers / 2 container flats and a few oil tanks (train 8136).
All five locos were "B" (radiator) end leading.  Crews were swapped
between the two trains, and 9071 departed at 2202.  Control spoke to
train 8136 just after this, and told them that they'd been requested to
keep the Up Main clear for a while longer (track repairs?), so there
would be a further, indefinite delay.  I suspect 8136 was a combination
of an Up Manildra and the Up Dubbo oil, explaining the activity heard
earlier in the evening: two short trains joined to reduce track
occupation and crew delays.  No IP passed through, as expected.

This morning, as I drove in to work, I saw 8157 returning from Manildra
with about 11 hoppers, through Orange at 0624.

Regards,

Peter Donaghy
Manager, Orange laboratory
ALS CHEMEX
ph. (02) 6363 1722
fax (02) 6363 1189
e-mail: peterdo@als.com.au


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