Re: Sydney CityRail suburban service chaos - AM services Thursday 17 June 1999

[Wallabz <wallaby@fl.net.au>]

David Langley wrote:

> Huh! As one who maintained point machines and their adjustment in Victoria (NE
> SG) I have never heard of adjusting points for the weather. And besides you
> are always trying to tell us that the weather in Sydney is warmer than
> Victoria so that can't be the problem. Occasionally when a point failure fixed
> itself before we could find the cause we would suggest that it was ballast in
> the blades, worked some of the time.

They're all EP there, but even if they were electric machines I believe it.  I
attended numerous failures caused by the cold.  The Westinghouse 'S' units which
control the drive of those have a regulated output as opposed to the old C, D and
E units, apparently because it causes less wear and/or is safer for people working
near the switches.

One side effect is that as the switches and other gear give more resistance, the
intial 'shove' isn't there with S units to overcome the added resistance, rather
it is a gradual built up push.

All the lubrication is still AFAIK oil.  Is it true that in Vic you've been using
lubricants like Rocol for years?

Maybe that's one of the reasons Vic points don't freeze up in the cold weather.