Re: [NSW]-Question about signal phones

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

Tezza wrote:
 
> Possibly, so where in Sydney can I see other than what I've seen in more than
> 20 years.

You could start at Central and Sydney Terminal.

> Ring Petersham and ask to speak to someone in Safeworking training.

OK.  That will be an interesting exercise. Indeed I'll talk to several
people in Safeworking training.

>BTW, have
> you checked the General Appendices?

Not before you mentioned it, but at a quick glance, I still don't see
anything. They did, of course, expire in 1993 or thereabouts.
 
> "This signal has a phone on it, it must be an automatic signal, I will pass it
> at stop" Get real.

Good. I'm glad. So if people aren't going to apply the "rule", what use
is it? Indeed, what use is any "rule" which isn't written down and has
so many "exceptions"? Could you enlighten us more generally as to what
other unwritten rules there are?

> As much as your statement that it's all wrong and has never been a rule.

Oh. I don't recall making any statement one way or another about whether
it had EVER been a rule; I simply said it IS not a rule, and I certainly
implied (but did not say explicitly) that it had not been a rule in
recent times - certainly not in the experience of any of the senior
people I have consulted. If you are now suggesting that it may once have
been a rule some time in the distant past and somehow expired, then that
might require further research (although I still think we would find
nothing more substantial than 1950's-vintage design guidelines about
yard telephone circuits).

> That every rule has an exception? It's a rule on the railways. (which means
> there must be an exception).

I guess you're being serious about that. Can you expand please? Are you
saying that every rule has UNDOCUMENTED exceptions? If so, could you
give some other examples so that something can be done to attack the
problem?