Re: IT'S ACADEMIC - EASY ONE! -AND ANOTHER NOT-SO-EASY

["Jeff Melvaine" <jeffm52@rivernet.com.au>]

Railway Rasputin wrote in message <36DB907D.B6894088@fastlink.com.au>...
>
>
>Ron BEST wrote:
>
>> What do you mean by "arse about"? I always thought the "UP, UP, DOWN
DOWN"
>> layout made more sense - the passengers don't have to play "musical
>> platforms", guessing which one the next train will arrive at!
>>
>> Why was this arrangement used on this section? Was there once a plan to
>> convert Sydney - Granville to the same arrangement?
>>
>> Actually, it's just occurred to me, that you weren't referring to the
>> "parallel" arrangement, but to the fact that the inner tracks should be
the
>> "main" lines and vice versa. Perhaps this relates to how they originally
>> proposed to join the inner and outer sections. Of course, we now have the
>> ridiculous situation where a track changes its name at an arbitrary point
>> (down main becomes down suburban between Harris Park & Parramatta etc)
>>
>> Rgds
>>
>> Ron BEST
>
>Correct! You have the ridiculous situation of a main line being slower than
the
>suburban and the main line "terminating" on one track and reforming on
another!
>
>ok its not the most correct way of describing it but you know what I mean.
>
>rgds
>
I read somewhere that when this quadruplication (Westmead to Seven Hills)
was put in, Richmond was regarded as a main line destination, and all its
trains originated from Sydney Terminal.  Not sure when this was done, but I
think it was some unemployment relief deal, which would put it during the
depression or maybe immediate post WW2, but anyway LONG before any
electrification on the Richmond branch.  Given the layout of the Seven Hills
flyover, the main lines therefore had to be the outer tracks.  (Pass lightly
over the fact that even with this rationale, the down main suddenly became
the down branch unless you took the curved leg of the points at Seven
Hills).  As to why the flyover was built that way, I would guess that it was
intended as the cheapest way to eliminate all at-grade crossings between
conflicting movements.

Didn't they swap the M and S codes around when the Granville to Westmead
section was quadrupled?  I thought I read about that somewhere (RD?).

Jeff