[VIC] Epping line 24/11/99

[Jennifer Richmond <richmond@melbpc.org.au>]

Interesting afternoon on the Epping line yesterday between 1600 and
1715. I'm not sure what happened as there are conflicting reports either
a bird ran into the overheads and fried a substation (must have been a
bloody big bird!) or a car hit a level crossing at Settlement road, Keon
Park and, which caused a power surge when the electrical cabinet was
hit.
Anyway, when I walked in to work at 1630, the poor bloke who was there
on his own was trying to close his shift while people were yelling at
him. The power surge crippled the PA system and the METROL phone so he
could do nothing. I took over and turned the microphone off and on and
was able to get enough power to make an announcement that busses had
been ordered and no trains b/n Keon Park and Epping until further
notice.
By the time Reservoir were able to round up enough buses, the problem
had been fixed and trains were running again, albeit slowly due to track
circuit failures all between Lalor and Keon Park (all autos showing STOP
so trains had to wait 30 sec at each signal.
By the time things started to run normally it was 1800!
What an afternoon!

Sam Eades