Re: Indian Pacific hits freight train - Who's the Responsible Investigating body?

[petan@NOSPAMion.com.au (PETer and susAN)]

On Fri, 27 Aug 1999 01:48:45 +1000, David Johnson <trainman@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>gonoNOCRAP@bigpond.com wrote:
>
>> Come on David the sand on Cowan bank thing was a major cop out i do
>> not believe for one second the whole train was insulated from the
>> track circuit the probability of that would be infinitesimal that
>> story was to appease the press!!!
>
>I believe it.  I was like you until I read the report and saw some photos of the
>accident scene, including a photo of the wheels of the rear carriage completely
>coated in sand.  It can happen.  Nothing is impossible.
>
>--
>David Johnson
>trainman@ozemail.com.au
>http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/
>

In the past, during the steam era, sand was a problem for track circuits as the following material I
found in the NSWRTM publication "AD60" P.124 will show.

The AD60 book mentions the scrubber car that used to be hauled  over the tracks at Woy Woy tunnel
and Cowan bank as well as the Lithgow Zig Zag areas. It had a metal scrubbing device to clean the
sand off the rails to prevent sand causing interference with the track circuits.

Cheers
Peter Cokley
 http://homepages.msn.com/PicnicPl/petan-oz