Re: Signalling in Victoria

[David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote:

> >Many years ago when I lived in Westgarth as a kid I used to hang out a fair
> >bit at Clifton Hill and the only train that regularily used the centre line
> >was the up empty coal train from the Fairfield paper mill.
> >Never ever saw it used for down trains.
> >Part of the reason was that for a down train to use the middle road required
> >that the train crossed over from the down line short of the Clifton Hill A to
> >the middle road which required 3 extra levers to be pulled off in A box.
> >This crossover was hardly ever used ,and I wonder if it simply was too hard
> >for the signalman to do it , given that there was a fairly long section of
> >point rodding to the crossover.
> >The alternative was to run the train thru the platform road ,and allow it to
> >cross over in front of B box using a crossover which is used for every
> >heidelberg based train.
> >Its common that crossovers which are mechanically operated and are  not
> >used very often are quite hard to pull off,where the rodding length is long.
>
> >cheers
> >MD
>
> On this topic a bit more Clifton Hill is a slightly odd station in that it
> allows for trains to use either of the platforms in any direction,a feature
> that is normally only seen at stations where trains regularily terminate
> but I dont know of any trains that did other than the odd parcels van.
> Another similar station on this line was Alphington , which allowed for
> terminating trains in the down platform and then crossing to the up line to
> run back into town .Never say a train terminate here either.
>
> May have something to do with the time when Alphington to Ivanhoe was single
> track, a bit before my time .
>
> cheers
> MD
>

We did provide facilities for parcels vans to directly access the parcels office
and save having to lug the parcels across the running lines. At Box Hill, there
was a delta at the Melbourne until the early sixties and the up parcel vans used
to be shunted to the down platform and then they would depart directly for
Melbourne. When it was removed the parcels and there were lots in those days used
to be loaded into the van from the down platform via the pit using every station
assistant available. When that was happening, up trains ran via No 3 platform and
the down home signal was held at stop by the signalman until advised otherwise.

DEL