Re: Automatic signal in double line block section

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

> >
> >Come on Eddie.

At one stage the up line section Tallong - Wingello was double line
automatic, while the down line section Wingello - Tallong was still
standard block. This required Tallong to be attended,  as it was the end
of the standard block section Medway Junction (or marulan if Medway was
switched out) - Tallong. This was inefficient, so in a typical NSW
stroke of brilliance, the automatic signalling was taken out and the
section reverted to standard block.

The upper quadrant signal and its associated distant were part of the
automatic signalling era, and were left there (as the Wingello outer
home and associated distant) when the section reverted to standard
block. They continued to serve a useful purpose because a train could be
allowed to depart Tallong while a preceding train was setting back into
the up refuge at Wingello; without the intermediate signal, this move
would have been foul of the clearing point and the following train would
not have been permitted to depart Tallong.

The signal is commonly called Wingello's up accept, except that it is
not really correct to talk about an accept from a block section - it is
an outer home. (It would indeed have been the accept when it was in an
automatic signalling section.) Another example of this conflict in
terminology was the outer home at Picton from the loop line, which was
referred to as the up accept branch but could not correctly be so
described in a staff-and-ticket section.

Eddie