Re: Surrey Hills level crossing

[pblair@email.dot.gov.au (Paul Blair)]

Umpteen years ago, when I worked for the old VR, I had the job of
preparing a regrading for Glenhuntly - this tickled me, because I
lived close by.

The plot was to start soon after crossing off the Dandenong line, and
gently ramp down, passing under Neerim Rd, Glenhuntly Rd, and North
Road, catching grade just before McKinnon.

We did some geotech, and found that the big problem was going to be
water. There is a perched water table in the vicinity of Glenhuntly
Road (which is why the ballast in the crossing gradually grinds to
shreds) and we were looking at 24hour pumping to keep the cutting and
trackbed reasonably dry.

At the time, there was great indecision about the Glenhuntly yard -
briquettes were still a big item then, and relocation of the store was
going to prove difficult.

Paul Blair


On Tue, 25 Aug 1998 11:33:47 GMT, dbowen@custard.net.#SPAMTRAP#.au
(Daniel Bowen) wrote:

>"Ron Bennell" <ron.bennell@qr.com.au> wrote:
>>This maybe the same situation that occurred at Glenhuntly years ago when
>>crossing trackwork was replaced. Because of the difficulty in getting
>>maintenance closures on such crossings, little maintenance is done.   When
>>they opened up the old crossing, it had little or no ballast. The new
>>crossing work was placed on ballast and had heavy sleepers to avoid the
>>need for future maintenance. As this was effectively new track on new
>>formation, it subsided, and required re-leveling again a few months later.
>
>Glenhuntly's speed limit is something like 40 for passenger trains (I'll
>check the next time I'm down there). The whole crossing now has
>rubbery squishy kind of stuff, instead of concrete. I presume it's some
>kind of shock absorbing stuff to lessen the damage when the trains cross
>the tram line.
>
>It's also got automatic operation of booms at most times - do Kooyong
>and Gardiner have this?
>
>Actually, in the 3.5 years I've lived in Glenhuntly, there's probably been
>half a dozen closures due to various crossing and/or tram track works.
>And I've seen the power on the crossing fail a couple of times - the trains
>had to "step" through, lowering and raising the pantos to avoid touching
>the tram wires.
>
>
>Daniel
>--
>Daniel Bowen, Melbourne Australia.
>Remove the spam bait to email me personally...
>

-----------------------------------------------------
Paul Blair
pblair@email.dot.gov.au  or
pblair@pcug.org.au