Re: [NSW]-Question about signal phones

["Tezza" <tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au>]

"Eddie Oliver" <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au> wrote in message
3A4483BC.7D57C586@efs.mq.edu.au">news:3A4483BC.7D57C586@efs.mq.edu.au...
> Tezza wrote:
>
> > Got some signal numbers? I was in both places tonight and didn't notice
any.
>
> Obviously this is not the sort of thing I carry conclusively in mind,
> but try the signal on the city outer protecting the points into 22/23
> platforms, and the signal at the end of platform 14.

I shall check them out next week.


> And for some examples of accepts and outer homes that defy the "rule",
> try the down accept local and the outer home north suburban into no. 5
> platform at Strathfield.

I know there are plenty of Outer Homes without phones, but I've never seen an
Accept without one, so I shall check that one out too. Remember, I did say
there were exceptions, just like everything else on thr railways.


> > What use are most of the rules that are ignored daily? But I think your
mixing
> > up what I said with what Ian(?) said. I never said the placement of the
phone
> > had anything to do with whether or not or how it could be passed, I said
it
> > was used to help determine what kind of signal was what.
>
> Fair enough, although that then raises the next question of what reasons
> there are for needing to determine what kind of signal is what, except
> in the context of passing them at stop. When they are not at stop, I
> can't think of too many contexts where one would behave differently
> depending on whether they are an auto, home or whatever??? Or are we
> somehow talking in different lines of thought again?

You're probably correct, though I hadn't meant it in that context.


>
> > The first thing a newbie learns on the railways is that every rule has an
> > exception. Please note that "every" is not strictly true.
> >
> > "You can't pass a signal at stop". "Here is the list of 27 ways of passing
> > signals at stop."
> > "All automatic signals are offset." "Plated automatic signals are not
offset."
> > "All switches on locos are American style up is on". "46 class use Pommie
> > style down is on switches".
> > "XX locos have generators, except XXY which has an alternator."
>
> I understand what you are saying, but I suspect it shows that we may be
> using the word "rule" in rather different senses. For instance the
> "rules" in my sense for identifying automatic signals do cover all the
> possibilities; i.e. it is certainly laid down in writing in SSUs and/or
> SWUs that auto signals may have staggered lights or "A" plates. But you
> might say that "as a rule, auto signals have staggered lights" where one
> is using "as a rule" in the colloquial sense to mean "most commonly" or
> even "almost always".
>
> Like you might say "as a rule, train drivers are male", whereas I would
> say there is no "rule" to require them to be male. You could reasonably
> say that the female drivers are an exception to the rule, whereas I
> would say there is no rule to which they can be exceptions. In our
> respective terminology systems, we would both be right.


Have you seen our female Drivers?  :-)