Re: History of the building of the NE SG line.

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)]

wajohns@tpgi.com.au (bill johnston) wrote in aus.rail:


>A couple of questions, for anyone still with me. Was the installation of the 
>fixed points at both ends of the double track, the first installation in 
>Victoria or did these beasts exist in the Wodonga area earlier? The fixed 
>"points" use a casting on the inside of the converging / diverging rail to 
>carry the flanges of the wheels across the gap. Why is this not done 
>elsewhere such as the flat tramway crossings or Cane railway/tramway 
>crossings? This would avoid the hammer blows, as the wheel drops into the 
>gap, that eventually wrecks any such installation? The same method could be 
>also used on point frogs to again reduce the hammer effect and the wearing of 
>the frog. I presume someone will come back and say it is a derailment hazard 
>as the flange may break; but many many wheels have now passed over Dynon-West 
>Footscray and other similar junctions without flange failure.
> 
I think that "fixed" points certainly existed when the BG reached
Oaklands in 1938. My photos I took of the yard in 1969 show these
fixed points. I would doubt that they only existed post-1961. They may
also have existed much earlier at Tocumwal where dual-guage trials
were carried out in 1915 (Refer VR to '62, page 203).

The problem with the wheel falling into the frog-gap is sometimes
eliminated, either intentionally or otherwise, by allowing the wheel
to ride on its flange over the gap. You'll see the grooves where the
flanges have worn into the area betwee the frog and rail-wing. I'm not
certain about this but others lurking around here working for John
Holland would know for sure.

Les Brown.