Re: VR Staff & Ticket and Pilot Working

[jdennis@acslink.net.au]

In article <375141CA.7667@efs.mq.edu.au>,
  Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au> wrote:
> Gavin Potter wrote:
> >
> > Victoria as far as I know never had switching out levers or things
like that
> > at train staff and ticket stations, but did have switching
facilities at
> > electric staff stations to switch out intermediate instruments.
>
> It is interesting (?) that NSW theoretically had short and long
section
> staff-and-ticket instances in considerable numbers (even if they were
> virtually never applied) but very few short and long section electric
> staff instances. Victoria was exactly the opposite.
>
> There was only one NSW case of short and long section electric staff
in
> NSW in relatively recent times, i.e. Nooroo could theoretically be
> opened to split the section Monkerai - Stroud Road. Although the
> facility lasted until maybe the 1960s, I doubt that it was ever used
> after about the late 1940's. Can anyone confirm or deny this, and/or
> comment on other such instances in NSW?
>
> We did of course use divisible electric staff (in our sense of that
> term) in many places, sometimes with an intermediate block post and
> sometimes just with time interval working. Am I right in thinking that
> what we call a divisible staff (i.e. an electric staff which can be
> physically split into "staff" and "ticket" portions) is a "composite
> staff" to Victorians?

This was covered in a fairly recent thread.  Let me quote David
Langley's response to my query:

: IIRC, there were two different types of electric staffs which could be
: split.  One, when withdrawn, could be unscrewed into two halves, which
: were then able to be used under Train Staff and Ticket rules with an
: intermediate station opened as a temporary staff station.

Yes, Divided Staff.

:
: The other style of staff could be split into two or three sections.
: One of these was the "staff", and the others were "tickets".  This
: type of staff allowed following movements through a section - the
: first train ran through on the ticket portion of the staff, and after
: arriving at an intermediate block post, a following train could run no
: the staff portion.  When both (or all three) trains arrived at the far
: end the staff was combined and sunk into the machine.
:
: One of these was called "divisible" and the other "composite" - I
: think in the order I have described them.  Any comments?

The first was called Divided Staff (divisible staff was used in NSW and
was actually the Victorian composite staff) and the second was Composite
Staff.

Composite staff was initially introduced to divide a long section up
into shorter sections to facilitate the movement of a number of trains
in the same direction. In later years it was used to enable the
de-manning of stations where there were few trains. Now staff exchange
boxes did that you will say but what about when there were two down
trains and one up.  Here the composite staff would be split and Ticket A
given to the first train and the remaining portions given to the second
train. For these situations the trains usually ran many hours apart but
it saved having a signalman come on duty just to run the second down (or
up) train. When the second train arrived at the far end, the various
portions were joined up and the whole staff was either placed in the
instrument at that end when the signalman resumed duty or was used for
another train in the reverse direction possibly without the signalman
coming on duty at all.

Some times staffs went up and down their section up to four or five
times between signalmen's shifts.

> Another NSW oddity was the ability in at least two places to replace
> electric staff over several sections with ordinary train staff and
> ticket over the combined sections - i.e. the Belmont line where the
> electric staff sections Adamstown - Fernleigh Loop - Dudley Junction -
> Redhead could be amalgamated into a single staff-and-ticket section,
and
> an instance on the Richmond line in the latter years
> pre-electrification.

Another similar oddity was in Tasmania, where the staff operations on
the North-West were "suspended" on Sundays allowing a single train to
run without manning stations.  I cannot remember the details, but will
check out my WTT (mid 60s, IIRC) when I get home.

Cheers...JD
--

John Dennis
Home of the Dutton Bay Tramway
http://www.acslink.net.au/~jdennis/dbt.html


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.