TRAMWAY "SAFEWORKING"

["Ron BEST" <ronbest@bigpond.com>]

Recent posts on this subject remind me of the practice mentioned in  one of
David Keenan's excellent books about the Sydney (2nd generation) tramway
system ("The North Sydney Lines"):

At Athol (Taronga Zoo) Wharf, in the evening peak there would be several
trams to meet each ferry. When a tram arrived at the start of  the single
line (Taronga Zoo top entrance) to run down to the wharf, the driver would
not know how many cars had already gone down, and therefore whether he
should take the staff or a ticket. (Yes, for those that don't know, the
Sydney tramways used full-blown railway-style "ordinary train staff and
ticket" working on single lines. They tried using colour-light automatic
single-line track block, but couldn't work out how to cope with "double
trams", i.e. two trams running coupled, both with their poles up.) The
practice developed of each driver but the last in each "convoy"  placing a
rock or piece of ballast on top of the staff box. If you got there and there
were already N minus 1 rocks (where N is the number of cars in each
"convoy"), you swept them off and took the staff! Don't know how many
pranksters "stuffed" the system by adding or removing rocks!

The system was "formalized" in later years by provision of a dial and
pointer system.
Rgds
Ron BEST
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Rgds

Ron BEST