Re: Victorian safeworking systems

[Eddie.Oliver@efs.mq.edu.au (Eddie Oliver)]

>From Andrew Waugh who does not currently have newsgroup access:

Maurie Daly wrote...
> Ararat is a junction station in the middle of
> an OS & T section , but is itself not a staff
> station ,for the main line. The branch from
> Ararat to Maryborough is also OS & T , so
> presumably Ararat is a staff station for the
> branch.

> The mind boggles as to how a train from say
> Murtoa to Maryborough would be worked from the
> up end of Pyreenees loop to the junction, maybe
> carries 2 staffs at once.

The working to the Maryborough line is simple.
The train arrives at Ararat line and locks away
in the siding. The Signaller at Pyrenees Loop (on
the outskirts of Ararat) travels down and
delivers the Maryborough Staff. The train
departs. The Signaller returns to Pyrenees Loop
with the main line staff.

Movements from the Maryborough line are performed
in an exactly analogous fashion.

This form of working obviously depends on the
Signaller being able to easily transfer the main
line Staff; clearly it could only have been
adopted in recent years with the advent of
departmental cars.

However, the basic principle has been used for a
long time in Victoria. A number of minor branch
lines junctioned in the middle of sections.
Examples include Timboon, Mortlake, Maldon, and
Long Island. The section would be worked by
Electric Staff with an Intermediate Instrument at
the junction. The train would work to the
junction on a main line staff. Once the train was
locked away, the Staff would be sunk in the
Intermediate Instrument (freeing the main line
section) and the branch train would obtain the
branch Staff (from the Staff hut at the junction)
and depart.

Exactly the same principle: the train travels to
the junction on a main line Staff, releases the
main line Staff when locked away, and departs on
the branch line Staff.

andrew waugh