Re: Interesting Workings at Brisbane - [Qld] Obviously

["Dean Stalker" <dstalker2000@hotmail.com>]

Beat my own record this morning, saw a 12-car (4 MUs) SMU220 consist passing
through Northgate station. Any idea what QR are up to with their SMUs?
Seeing the 9-car (3 MUs) SMU220 consist yesterday was interesting enough and
they were definitely not using the wash plant at Normanby. Maintenance I
guess?

A note to southern readers, the Multiple Unit trains in Queensland are
usually run as one or two units, so a 3-car train is 1 MU and a 6-car train
is 2 MUs. Any greater is not a passenger service due to platform
limitations.

Also heard a couple of rumours, firstly about the Kippa Ring line. If it is
ever built, it could in fact run as a loop. From what I heard it could run
from Petrie, through the south of Kallangur, cross the Bruce Highway pass
through the Mango Hill development, pass through Rothwell run down to Kippa
Ring to the park and I'm not sure whether it will go over or under the road
but it will pass through Margate to Clontarf then the old Hornibrook Bridge
crossing Hay's Inlet would be removed and a new rail bridge put in
(expensive?, Certainly) to connect with either Brighton or run parallel with
the Deagon Deviation down to the Gateway Arterial Junction cross the
Arterial Road next to the Racecourse and cross Braun/Sandgate Road and
connect with the Shorncliffe line.

The next one has to do with the Cougal Spiral on the border of Qld/Nsw. It
appears the tunnels in the actual spiral are gradually sinking 1cm a year,
due to an underwater spring right below the tunnels. You can also probably
see the creek that the spring feeds when passing through the spiral. I don't
think that the double-headed NR class freights help the stability of the
tunnel much. The best bet is to bypass the spiral all together and put a
tunnel from the bottom of the range to the top on a gradual incline.
Ambitious? I know. But if the French and English can build a tunnel
underneath a large body of water, and all the other larger tunnels in the
world, there is absolutely no reason why they couldn't put a new bypass
tunnel in. It would save travel time, instead of also wasting the XPTs
capabilities on curves. The alternative was mentioned a while ago on this
newsgroup, that being a dual-gauge extension from Murwillambah through to
Brisbane via Coolangatta. The XPT could certainly flex its legs on the
140km/h zones on the Gold Coast line after being hindered by the speed
restrictions of the old wooden trestle bridges and the curving track between
Casino and Murwillambah.

Thats my say, can anyone else add anything?

--
Dean A. Stalker
Ph: +61 (07) 3886 0809
Email: dstalker2000@hotmail.com
Home Page: http://welcome.to/qrhistory/ - The unofficial QR history and info
site
Kallangur, Qld


Dean Stalker <dstalker2000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
81th1b$ofs$1@news1.mpx.com.au">news:81th1b$ofs$1@news1.mpx.com.au...
> Firstly in the morning, saw 15??/24?? hauling an SX Set (must have been
the
> Shorncliffe to Roma Street service) into Mayne Yards from Normanby. Also
in
> the afternoon saw a 9-car ... yes a 9-car SMU 220 consist running through
> Central, though lost track of it after Brunswick Street. Also paralleled
the
> 'City of Maryborough' Tilt Train 301 from Toombul to Northgate on the
> afternoon Petrie service. Looks like the fourth track is finally open
> between Albion and Northgate though it merges into double track shortly
> after the station. The Petrie train terminated on Platform 1 -
Up/Northbound
> while the Caboolture service arrived 10 minutes later on Platform 2 -
> Down/Southbound which I've never seen done before. Usually the Petrie
train
> terminates on Platform 3 - Refuge Loop.
>
> Well thats all. Shall I see anyone on the Santa Steam Train excursion to
> Cleveland on the 12th December. If you didn't know already Sunsteam are
> using Beyer-Garrat 1009 instead of the BB181/4 1079 + C17 974 combination.
>
> Dean A. Stalker
> Email: dstalker2000@hotmail.com
> Ph: +61 (07) 3886 0809
> Home Page: http://welcome.to/qrhistory/ - The unofficial QR history and
info
> site
> Kallangur, Qld
>
>