Re: [General] Information about block working

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

MattyQ wrote:

> Someone from the NSW safeworking fraternity may wish to comment - Eddy?

I think the original poster's statements were based entirely on normal
working, not conditions where special working was introduced. However in
NSW, the statement was still pretty well correct, in that that if you
are in charge of an attended location where special working is
introduced, you certainly have to be told about it - so a train couldn't
come at you without you knowing on an OTS&T section with the staff at
your end.

However on the broader point: NSW used to have Line Clear Reports to
enable a train to rproceed across a staff and ticket section with the
staff at the wrong end. However this required the staff to be locked
away, which meant someone had to be at the end where the staff was. This
was not too good on the Broken Hill line, for instance, where the
nearest qualified person might be 100 miles away. Thus in those days,
Rule 307 was typically invoked which authorised (in effect) the rules to
be dispensed with altogether on sufficiently high authority.

Nowadays, Special Authority Orders are issued in such circumstances.
Train controllers can issue such orders to authorise movements in single
line sections (of almost any kind) provided that appropriate safeguards
have been verified. Thus it is not necessary to have the staff locked
away, but the train controller has to take various safeguards to prevent
its misuse. For instance a restraint order may be issued to the next
train which could arrive at the location where the staff is situated.

Eddie