Re: Signalling in Victoria

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

Rufus wrote:

> You have to be very careful when quoting from V/Line Rules and Regulations,
> Appendix or any other publication for that matter.
> During the early '70s I was asked to upgrade a 'new' Appendix and Addenda.
> Also a set of working timetables,,,,,,,I went to Old Head Office with about
> 7 brand new books fresh from the Printer in North Melbourne and spent 3
> weeks with scissors and clag pot inserting amendments to all books.
> Now the GA was bound and approx 3/4" thick, after I finished it was
> impossible to get the covers within 6 ".
> Weekly notices were the prime source of amendments, but many special pages
> were printed to upgrade these very important books.
> When Gerald Dee saw my work, he told me that he thought his own, books were
> completely up to date, because he religiously inserted each amendment as it
> arrived! He doubted that my efforts had  been really successful because I
> could not guarantee each amendment had been made available to me.
> Some six months later a new set of Safe working books and timetables were
> issued, incorporating all the above mentioned amendments, plus another stack
> of corrections and new amendments already found to correct the new manuals.
> I never again worried about keeping these books up to date, instead rel;ying
> on local knowledge and good bosses to keep me on the straight and narrow!!
> So unless you are working full time in the system, you cannot claim to be an
> expert, and even if you do opperate the system every day, how can you claim
> knowledge in those systems, you dont operate under regularly??
> Rod  :o)

Sounds like a good story and I don't doubt your intentions. However, I still say
that if you obeyed the rules about not increasing your speed until the next
signal, did any train actually make Yaapeet at 15 km/h or did they just give up.

DEL