Re: 3900's west of Ipswich

["MattyQ" <mattyq1009@dingoblue.net.au>]

John McCandless <johnmc@topend.com.au> wrote in message
393ced97.0@news.topend.com.au">news:393ced97.0@news.topend.com.au...
>
> James C <jamesccj@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
> 393cdf9d$0$8420$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:393cdf9d$0$8420$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> > WHY?????? the weight ? the heights?? or length?
> >
> > Cheers
> > James
>
> None of the above.  Quite simply, there ain't enough juice in the overhead
> to power a 3900 west of Ipswich. AFAIK, the Rosewood line was electrified
> using excess electrical capacity from the Ipswich branch.  They were able
to
> extend the electrification relatively cheaply, (no transformers, AFAIK),
and
> by the convenient fact that the majority of passengers in the
> Helidon-Ipswich corridor were in the Rosewood-Ipswich section, they were
> able to retire the 2000 class RM's.  (This was their 'first' retirement,
> before they were resurrected for the Corinda-Yerongpilly).
>
> The downside was that there was(is?) restrictions on the number of EMU's
> allowed on the section, and 3900's were banned outright.  I don't know
about
> SMU's or IMU's.  I will defer to MattyQ if i've got this wrong, but i
think
> this is the general gist.

This is pretty much correct. The feeder station at Corinda feeds right the
way up to Rosewood. As a result, there are heavy restrictions on electric
rollingstock west of Corinda. EMU's are clear to travel but only 4 x 3 car
SMU's can be west of Corinda at any one time due to harmonics problems. The
system will tolerate 1 or 2 3900's but traffic trends don't make this a
troublesome restriction.

Before Dinmore cattle siding was electrified, the only 3900 hauled trains on
the line were SX sets. Now they are gone but 3900's can continue thru to
Dinmore now to unload livestock. It is rare that 2 electric livestock trains
would ever be in the vicinity of Dinmore at the same time.

There is word spreading that a new feeder station may be built at Rosewood
to feed the possible OHTWE extension to Grandchester. This will also
possibly backfeed to Ipswich.


--
Matt Smith
Brisbane Australia.

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