Re: Safeworking!

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <371d3a3d@nap-ns1> "Grahame Ferguson" <grahamef@users.mcmedia.com.au> writes:
>From: "Grahame Ferguson" <grahamef@users.mcmedia.com.au>
>Subject: Re: Safeworking!
>Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 11:53:17 +1000

>Why all the conservatism about Train Orders.  Just stick about Port Augusta
>with your scanner for a few days.  At least 100 orders issued from one board
>on a Saturday, with no mishaps.  They have trains hot on each others heels
>on a Saturday afternoon, and they move without delay and in safety.

>Why all this electronic garbage with ASW, what a waste of money it has been.

>Burlington Northern (now a part of BNSF) has had at least for 10 years Track
>Warrants(Train Orders), given over the radio but they are first put into a
>computer before the Dispatcher actually issues the Warrant verbally.  This
>system is by far more cheaper, but has a computer to back up the
>Dispatcher's directive.
>Why our Australian rail systems did not model on this I don't know.  The
>software licence would have only been a fraction of the ASW millions.

>Sure if there is only one or two trains on a branch line per day well Staff
>& Ticket is the best, but if you want to run trains fast in high density CTC
>is the go.  For medium density over long distances where power supplies and
>cost prohibits CTC, well Train Orders has shown its worth.

>Why does NSW persist in Staff & Ticket from Parkes to Broken Hill, when
>there South Australian Bretheren can do the same job at a quicker speed.
>The glass ceiling for logic has only hardened in NSW.
>Broken Hill has a large Entrance/Exit push button power panel, but the main
>line East keeps its ancient relic. The cash strapped SAR at least put in APB
>to Pt Pirie.

>The electric staff north of Casino is useless unless you have men on the
>ground to work the now extinct auto staff exchangers.  New locos do not have
>these ofcourse.
>The Ulan coal line is another case in point, 8000 tonne trains having to
>stop sometimes solely to change an electric staff.
>In NSW its all Back to the Future!
>Their radio system still sits there unused for the past 3 years, except for
>sections west of Orange.
>Base stations and locomotives all fitted out, and no one to talk to!

>Thank you Commonwealth and South Australian Railways for your Train Orders.



The above comments are extremely interesting and spot on in most cases.
In the AN case for lines like the TAR and CAR for that matter when they were 
first built then Train Orders would have been the only viable for of 
safeworking due to the remoteness of the line and the absence of any sorts of 
facilities to allow any better forms of safeworking.
In the case of the TAR now , just about all the extra facilities which are 
neede to implement CTC across the plain are there , in the form of power
and comms via the Telstra/ AN optic fible cable that runs the whole length of 
the line.
Same is true of the CAR except its based on Microwave Radio links.
This doesnt mean however that TO should be abandoned in favor of some more 
modern system.
Neither the TAR or CAR currently carries enough traffic to warrant something 
like CTC yet, but may do if / when AP to Darwin gets built.
In the other examples , eg Casino to Greenbank, or Newport to Ararat, these 
lines do now justify CTC and just about all the requirements to install it 
are there , power,comms ,loop signals and power points , all thats needed is 
track ccts for the single line sections or axle counters.