Re: [NSW] Numbers on Signals

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

"C. Dewick" wrote:


> 
> The line from Erskineville to Bondi Junction is actually called the
> Illararra Relief to Central (and signals are pre- or postfixed with 'IR'), and the
> Eastern Suburbs Line between Central and Bondi Junction (and signals are
> pre- or postfixed with 'ES'). I don't quite know the reason behind the two
> sections of this line having different names - must be something to do with
> historical design decisions.

Historical design decisions with some logic: it was thought that it
would be confusing for the up/down directions to change at Central on a
continuous Eastern Suburbs line, i.e. it is clearer for an up Illawarra
Relief to become a down Eastern Suburbs than for an up Eastern Suburbs
suddenly to change into a down Eastern Suburbs.

Note that all other lines similarly change designation at Central, e.g.
up suburban becomes down shore.

Someone else was asking (in effect) why the West Ryde - Epping lines are
named as they are, with the "up main" being the less important of the
two up lines. That is purely historical as well: there were originally
two main lines, and relief lines were then placed on the outside of them
between Eastwood and Epping - thus the sequence (from west to east) was
down relief, down main, up main, up relief. When these relief lines were
extended to West Ryde, the term  "relief" was replaced by "suburban",
but the designation of the "main" lines was unaltered.

I have often wondered why NSW never adopted the apparently logical
British practice of labelling lines as "fast" or "slow", e.g. up slow.
That would have been more logical than the peculiar "west main"/"west
suburban" set-up through Parramatta, except that "S" would have been
confusing for "slow" as well as "suburban". Surely they could have found
some other word; almost anything would have been better than the
hotchpotch that was chosen.

Eddie