Re: Looking on - with responsibility

[Neil Waller <nwaller@dehaa.sa.gov.au>]

Hunslet wrote:
> 
> 
> Perhaps ASR and the other operators could advertise a public phone
> number in each State where rail incidents such as this could be
> promptly advised.   Rail fans see many incidents which they find it
> impossible to report - shifted loads, skidding wheels, etc. etc.

I would concur - although without a mobile phone and at some distance from a
public phone you can be at a disadvantage.

I can remember watching an NR freight through Adelaide's Hawthorn station and
hearing this squealing approaching then feeling the heat of a bearing running
very hot from beside the track.   

And 45 wagons back in the train the crew had absolutely no hope of hearing it.

The wagon needed urgent attention but who to ring?

Was it AN Control (back in AN days) or NR control?

What was the number?

Would I, as a non-railway person, be believed anyway?

So I left it.   I have no idea of how far the train got before the problem
became so obvious it was dealt with.   Tailem Bend if there was a banker,
Dimboola?  Melbourne?


-- 
Neil Waller	(nwaller@denr.sa.gov.au)
Department of Environment Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs
Telephone:	Oz: (08) 8204 9218; International: (618) 8204 9218
Mail:		GPO Box 1047, ADELAIDE 5001     Australia

Unless explicitly attributed, the opinions expressed are personal
and not those of DEHAA or the South Australian Government.