Re: Lilydale (and Macleod)

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

MarkBau1 wrote:

> 
> Question for David, I always assumed that withdrawl of the pilot staff only
> secured the signals at that location, NOT the signals at the other end of the
> single line section, is that correct?

At least in NSW, it is not correct; the removal of a half pilot staff
secures all the entering-section signals at stop.
 
> I think the whole idea of pilot staffs was a transitional thing from good old 2
> position to more modern signalling. The thought being, I'm sure, that if the
> new fangled electric systems screwed up you just turned the section into a good
> old staff section and what better way to do that than to have as the staff two
> "things" that when withdrawn secured the signals to stop, very definately
> cancelling the CTC or ATC.
> 
> I wonder if at the start of ATC/CTC days they were thinking that the trains
> could just run through the section with both pilot staffs, (no pilotman) till
> it got fixed, hence the term "staffs"

The idea (again in NSW, although I don't think it is different in
Victoria) is that the two half pilot staffs are joined to make a full
pilot staff, which can then be used more or less as in normal
staff-and-ticket.

It is permissible for the first train to travel through the section in
the direction A-B with the half pilot staff from the A end, provided
that the one at the other end has been secured in a safe place first.
The two halves are then joined and remain joined for the duration of the
pilot staff working. When it is to be cancelled, the two halves are
again separated and the process is done in reverse.

Because the removal of either half pilot staff sets the signals to stop,
there is no risk of a train entering the section on the authority of the
fixed signals, but the procedures above have to be applied to ensure
that there is not a cornfield meet with two trains each in possession of
a half pilot staff.

Eddie Oliver