> Interesting to note BTW, that this was a 7 car train... 4 cars S8 leading,
> 3 cars S23 behind. Does this happen often?
>
When a trailer car becomes defective and there is no replacement at a maintenance centre,
they will take it out to keep the trains running.
> We overshot Rockdale by about 4 cars, and backed up at about 30 km/h to
> get back in again. It didn't even seem like we were going to do it for
> awhile, but the guard was just whistling away until we backed up.
>
I find this speed a little hard to comprehend. An S set (even with one less trailer car)
does not have this sort of acceleration/deceleration. The regulations state that setting
back is to be performed at a speed not exceeding 15 km/h.
> Then after the train left Hurstville, the indicator boards weren't updated
> and as the Dapto train approached we get "The next train to arrive on
> Platform 4 goes to Cronulla". Dapto train arrives. "The train on
> Platform 4 goes to Cronulla". Had the guard madly battling the station PA
> and we are sitting there for a few minutes "This train is going to
> *Dapto*. It is *not* going to Cronulla".
>
That is one of the negative by-products of having the announcements and indicator boards
being remote controlled. The computer running them is supposed to automatically change
trains when the first train has cleared the departure signal. Sometimes they don't.
Sometimes the computer is run in manual mode, and the SPI operator forgets to change it.
-- David Johnson CityRail Guard trainman@ozemail.com.au http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman