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Old 5th May 2021, 05:03
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aussiesteve aussiesteve is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Bathurst
Posts: 577
G'day Fritz,
I am pleased that you have solved the situation.
As mentioned earlier, I am intrigued by the differing railway safe working systems employed around the globe.
There was a fair bit of technical information available, if you knew where to look on the www.
Alas, many railways are now restricting access to technical documents due to terrorism.
Plus, not being able to spruike the lingo is also a challenge.
One Canadian post that baffled me was the horizontal oblong board with a pair of dots.
It has been a while since I last viewed any Canadian cab ride video clips.
So, I now forget the presentation of the post, but think that is was a white board with black dots, though might be the other way around.
I had pondered if this was to do with flanger warnings due to the position of these posts.
I did finally manage to confirm the purpose.
This board being very different to that utilized in the USA.
No need for flanger warnings here, thankfully we don't suffer those horrific conditions.
Though, back towards the end of the soot belcher era here, a train did get stranded in snow.
The crew uncoupled the soot belcher in an attempt to ram through the snow.
The soot belcher then becoming stuck at a distance from the train.
The cattle had to hoof it to nearby farm houses to survive the conditions.
The train finally recovered after the snow melted.
And, I have stood for a couple of hours in snow protecting my train which had stalled.
I think that the worst incident that I know of occurred in Tasmania on the Melba branch.
Winter is nasty in that region of Tassie.
The Melba ore train derailed in a deep snow drift and became stranded.
Poor Tiny the driver had to endure around 72 hours stranded until a highrail vehicle was able to reach him.
He was permitted to keep the lead loco idling for heating and radio communication.
Each night that I was working on the South Line, I would hear TC call Tiny to check up on him.
You might imagine the reason for his nickname.
That did save him from fading completely away during that period of nil tucker.
I DETEST winter.
Steve.
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