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Old 6th September 2019, 05:43
aussiesteve's Avatar
aussiesteve aussiesteve is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Bathurst
Posts: 577
G'day BW,
Single line working on the Mountains back in them Good Ole Days was FUN.
Especially during overhead maintenance.
Interurban emu sets continuing through the dead sections being dragged by weasels.
RIP and TEAR.
Other than when I gained seniority to go onto the senior firemans roster to work the Silver Streak and other loco hauled pas jobs, this was our only chance to play with a cattle train.
Crews and locos would be sent to each end of the single line section to hook onto an urban and drag it through, stopping at the various stations en route.
An 8 car Blue Goose (double decker V set) was heavy on the big hill ( 1 in 33 ).
And you had to belt them to run any where near to the original time table.
Naturally them emu sets having regen brake plus EP, where as when being dragged by a weasel only westinghouse train brake.
So, FUN attempting to stop the things on the platforms which many are shorter than the 8 car length.
Since we got capitalized, no more dragging urbans around.
Omnibuses substitute.
Our Mountains Blue Goose 8 car sets cram in them cattle and it is often obvious when passing one that there are many cattle standing.
Bonzer trains to hog, though SHSSSHH, I was not actually qualified for them officially.
FIVE power notches, unlike the suburban squirts which only got four power notches.
The V setters ( and also the older gone to history single decker Uboats ) had / have second stage weakfields for notch 5.
All of our suburban squirts are now 8 car double deckers, except for a couple of short lines where 4 car sets continue.
Our M setter squirt cannot be divided into two four car sets as are the others.
It was policy (night safe) to divide squirts into four car sets for the after peak evening period.
Scrunch the fewer cattle up into four cars so that nefarious types could not cause too much aggro.
And as midnight approached, two of them fours cars were locked off and lights out.
Scrunching the fewer again cattle up into just two cars to avoid any nefarious activities.
My only joy during me Bullet ride was squizzing the highway traffic.
Bumper to bumper, a virtual parking lot.
HA.
The Bullet was TARDY due to the track work, but at least it did move more than them motorist cattle.
A sea of multiple lanes of red tail lights banked up for kilometres.
The only good view of smog hollow is in the rear vision mirror.
And, NOT during the peak hours.
Steve.
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