Re: Country(link?) - try walking instead

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

One of the major problems with the Nth Coast line is the large number of very 
short crossing loops.
Historically , before NRC days , most of the freights on the Nth Coast were 
short and could fit in most of the existing loops , but today with NRC trying 
to run 1500 M trains there are only a handful of loops long enuf to hold these 
trains.
Between Maitland and Acacia Ridge we only have 13 crossing loops currently 
which can hold 1200 M - 1500 M trains out of a total of 53 crossing loops.
The worst section is Kempsey to Grafton where we have only Eungai,Boambee and 
Kungala which can hold the long NRC trains.
The major bind that a Controller is in is that if a short train like an XPT is 
running on time and a very long train is running late then by rights the XPT 
should be given the right of way.
This means however that the freight must be put away in one of the very few 
long crossing loops that can hold it , and kept there until it can be given a 
run to the next long crossing loop.

Having played for many hours Train Dispatcher on this line , what happens is 
that long freights end up sitting for many hours at Boambee Beach loop and to 
a lesser extent at Eungai and Kungala.

The end result is that exactly what Jack is describing happens , the XPT gets 
put away to be crossed by the long freights as the alternative is to have the 
long freights running hours late.

There is no right answer to the above problem other than lengthening all of 
the short crossing loops, but dont hold your breath.

MD