Re: Glenbrook - Vandalised Phone

["Paul" <morbieus@hotmail.com>]

I can remember waiting for some time to use the sat-phone used on the XPT
to ring home (just for the experience). Several people had trouble free
calls for the half hour or so leading up to Glenbrook, but my call was
quickly terminated due to loss of signal in the Glenbrook cutting. The
problem is quite simple. Satellite communications require a "line of sight"
to the satellite, however the Glenbrrok cuttings have a very high rock wall
on the North side and the satellites are on a fairly equatorial orbit so
the "line of sight" is lost.

Similarly cell-phones require a fairly direct signal and numerous repeaters
would be necessary to cover every "blind spot" in this location (let alone
the tunnel).

On another note, I was lucky enough to miss a similar collision (one person
killed), by catching a train before the one involved,  in the vicinity many
years ago when a goods train ran into the back of a double deck commuter.
The wreckage was pushed over into the gorge where it remained for some time
until cut up and removed by helicopter (chinook, I think).

A similar visibility problem on the curves? Cant remember the outcome of
the investigation.

Paul Bech
morbieus@hotmail.com

pm <pmelling@orac.net.au> wrote in article
<ht424.71$GZ5.604230@news0.optus.net.au>...
> There was an article on tonight's ABC TV news that the phone the driver
of
> the IP was attempting to use, had been vandalised.
> 
> This may sound like a dumb question, but why don't they use radios?
> 
> 
>