Re: Safeworking!

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

Barry Campbell wrote:

> David Langley wrote:
> >
>
> Thanks for jogging my memory re ES on the TAR. (Also thanks to Eddie for
> his e-mail) The ES instruments used on the TAR were different to the
> battery operated setups used in other places. IIRC it was necessary to
> wind a handle of the type used on a manual phone to operate the
> instruments.

If they were not battery then they were magneto which were not unusual because Vic
had plenty. The difference was probably that they were S type instruments rather
than M type as used in Victoria. Stirling North-Port Augusta-Spencer Jcn were
certainly S type. And before you ask there was not much difference between S and M
types.

>
>
> As far as Goobang - BH goes, my old Western Division Local Appendix is
> unfortunately still packed (I will never move again) but ISTR that ES
> went to Ivanhoe for certain but I am not sure whether it went right
> through. ES was quite common on many branch lines when the number of
> trains was greater.

My 1951 WTT shows OTS Goobang Jcn-Bogan Gate-Yarrabandai-Euabalong
West-Matakana-Roto- Trida-Conoble-Ivanhoe then ES Ivanhoe-Darnick-Kaleentha
Loop-Menindee then reverting to OTS Menindee-Kinalung-Broken Hill. When the
interstate SG line was completed a number of former wartime loops were reopened as
crossing stations prior to the conversion of the loops to the extended double loop
variety.

>
>
> According to some of the "old timers" I worked with on the BH line in
> the seventies, the ES instruments were earth return type instruments
> which were earthed by plates stuck in the ground. Instructions were
> issued to gangers that fettling staff were to water them regularly in
> this dry region. As all fettling staff were male in those days they were
> conveniently issued with the appropriate equipment.

Yes, and not just in NSW. Stories abound among ancient S&T staff in Victoria,
thankfully mostly dead now, about p____ing on the earth return.

David Langley.

>
>
> Barry Campbell