Re: Reporting Rail-related emergencies

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

Whilst not a real rail emergency this is a humorous story that may amuse.
Back in the days when Yass Jnct was attended the SM used to use the local base 
station on 450.05 to talk to the trains going passed and inform them of 
impending crosses etc.
The Base station was for those in the radio comm business is an old 
FM828.usually quite reliable radios, however this one wasnt and whilst it 
would receieve quite well its transmissions were quite distorted and hard to 
understand.
As a result the drivers of the trains wernt able to understand what 
the SM was trying to tell them,but he could hear them quite clearly.
This situation went on for months and months and nothing was done .
So eventually I sent an email to the SRAs website in Sydney telling them what 
was wrong with the radio , who I was and how to fix it.
About a week later I got a call from the SRA district engineer for the 
southern district asking me whether I could fix the radio for them,which I 
subsequently did and have fixed  more since.
The sad part of this story is that the corporatization of the SRA into lots of 
little groups has cost them expertise and test equipment and the ability to 
perform really simple tasks like this.
You really have to wonder where it will all end.

MD