Re: What!!! Running crosses???!!!!???

["Rod" <berlina@mt.bigpond.com>]

>On the North East SG you cannot pass a yellow light and then run 8-10 kms
to the
>next signal. The whole idea of the aspects was that where you went that
distance
>between signals you only got one proceed aspect - green over red. Yellows
were
>only provided on signals about 2-3kms out from another signal - not
necessarily
>a home signal.

Exageration is not toilerated, eh... but departing Euroa on the down gives
you a clear site of the Auto preceeding Violet Town9 so 152->167 at least 8
Km approaching and like you said 2-3 to the loop. Several other examples.


>Running crosses on the SG were certainly quite possible with the old and
fairly
>reliable Westronic equipment where the whole line was scanned every 4
seconds
>and change of status and commend instructions were dealt with in that time.
The
>Teknis system is a very much slower CTC system and the elapsed time between
the
>command (or change of status) and an change in the signal aspects or route
set
>can be relatively long. Trains to perform running crosses would have to be
>travelling very much slower than before or arrive at the precise time to
permit
>the system to respond.

You are right again, and we have the added advantage of being able to talk
to each other, and that helps a lot. My other advantage is V/Lines trains
are generally very short these days, consequently easy to regulate the speed
for the cross.
>
>When I was a Signal Maintenance Technician at Seymour this Teknis syetm was
>considered by us to be a retrograde step.

Those few of us left can heartily agree with you! When we have to sit and
wait for an opposing train we ofton see the train out the other end before a
green is available. Running crosses occur only when both trains are
approaching on low speeds and are resonably short. I roll along about 5-10
k's after arriving in the loop.
Rod
[I think my spell checker spells worse than me!]

>DEL.
>