These lights are warning lights to workers who need to walk through the
tunnels. While ever a light is on, it is safe to be in its vicinity. As
soon as a light extinguishes, it means a train is approaching and get into
a safe area (man hole or where ever) as quick as possible. So if a lamp
fails, it fails in a "safe" way, showing danger.
The boxes with arms that go "clunk" are called train-stops and are
associated with the signalling. Basically, when it is unsafe for a train to
pass a particular train-stop (most likely because another train is ahead
of it) it is raised, and when safe it lowers. An arm hanging down on the
driver's side of the leading and rear car is a safety device that is
activated by the train-stop. Should a train pass a signal showing "stop" or
a train-stop that is raised, it will hit the arm on the passing train,
applying the emergency brakes in the process.
> 2. At the northern end of platform 5, Wynyard, there appears to be a room
> opposite the platform. There are about three horizontally slatted
> grills and a pair of doors that open above the track bed to indicate
> its presence. Air ducts seem to enter the room, as do signalling
cables
> What is this room?
>
> 3. At the northern end of Redfern Station, on the western side, a tunnel
> heads south and dives underneath the road bridge, disappearing under
> platform 1. Where on earth does this tunnel go? I've never seen
trains
> enter or leave it. It's not marked on the maps and yet it is
electrified.
This tunnel runs to the diagonally opposite end of Redfern Station, and is
used to run the Xplorers into Sydney Yard from their depot. The brick
exhaust stacks around Redfern station marks the route taken by this line.
>
> 4. On every staunchion in the Cityrail network is a yellow marker with a
> code on it like "SW2+253". The 2+253 I've worked out is the distance
> (2.253 km) from the NSW rail network zero point - the northern end of
> the country platforms at Central. But what do the letters mean?
Every
> track seems to have different letters (e.g. CE, CI, CO, ES, SW,
NS...).
> Is there a list of all these?
THe letter codes have something to do with the line - CO = city outer, CI =
city inner etc, and the numbers show the distance from Central. The "0km"
post is located at the Town Hall end of Central Platform #16.
> Anyone know the answers?
>
> PS. The closest-to-zero marker I've seen is on the Central Electric
lines,
> SW0+004. What's the furthest-from-zero??
>
Broken Hill would be the furthest from zero at about 1125km
-- Robert Parnell SRA-Railcom Technician, Electronics Enthusiast, Lachlan Valley Railway member, NSW HO scale modeller E-mail:<rparnell@netspace.net.au>