Re: Speedrail derailed?

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote:

> Further on this issue a bit , did NSW ever have the facility to switch
> out electric staff stations and use a thru staff between distant
> stations as Victoria did.
> Was quite common on the Western line on Sundays ?

Yes, but it was not normally used on a short-term basis - rather, a
staff station might be cut out all year except when traffic density was
very high. The last such case was Monkerai - Nooroo - Stroud Road, where
Nooroo was normally cut out (indeed I don't remember it ever actually
being cut in).

However there was a variant applied on both the Richmond and Belmont
lines, where a whole line (or almost a whole line) normally worked by
electric staff over multiple sections could instead be worked as a
single section by a single ordinary train staff at times of low traffic.

Eddie