Resources

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

AD Tooth ASTC MIEAust MIEE Chief Engineer, Masters Equipment Pty Ltd This paper deals with a new approach to the problems of railway signalling using the technology which has been developed over the last few years in hydraulics for the aircraft and allied industries. This approach involves the use of a sealed hydraulic system which is completely self-contained and should offer a 10-year mean time between fai lure period. The use of hydraulics provides a means of generating power from a train itself for remote areas. The system also gives a means of providing a more economical and reliable power signalling system for areas where mains power is available.

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

David Haley MIRSE Signals & Operational Systems Corporate Services Engineering Division Queensland Rail In Queensland, private railways operated for cane haulage by sugar mills are referred to as Tramways. The majority of these railways are 2' (610mm) gauge. Despite the gauge these are real railways with some mills operating long trains and hauling quite significant tonnages. The Pleystowe Mill operates trains up to 600m long and during the crushing season (June to  December) hauls in excess of one million tonnes of cane from the cane fields to the mill. At present Queensland Rail has eighty five at-grade tramway crossings. Many of these crossings are at or near 90" and with seventy crossings on the North Coast Line (Brisbane - Cairns). The filler block diamonds used in 90" crossings have 50mm wide flange-ways through the heads of the running rails of both gauges. The filler blocks are provided to allow the wheels of QR trains to run on the flanges thus reducing the impact as the 2' gauge flange-way is crossed. The mechanical shock to the diamonds is considerable and is the main factor in their service life. To maximise the service life of the diamond, maximum train speeds of 40kph or lower are desirable. Queensland Rail presently operates trains up to 80kph over such diamonds, resulting in a maintenance penalty. In some cases diamonds are physically taken out of track outside the crushing season to extend their lives. For shallow angle crossings (e.g. 25O) it is possible to design diamonds which rely on wheel tread running only and produce much lower impact loadings. To date there has been little alternative to the 90" at-grade crossing. Grade separations involve significant earthworks and purchase of land to accommodate the cuttings or embankments. The gradient acceptable on the tramway is limited by the fact that the trains are operated with head end power only and brakes on the locomotive only. The land resumption is in general very expensive as both railways are in general running in prime cane land. Oblique angle crossings are more wasteful of land and due to the need to purchase land for the required deviations are not an attractive solution to upgrade existing 90" crossings.

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

EPA Holman A.M.I.E.E. Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd. This paper has been written following the recent bringing into service of the Automatic Hump Yard in Melbourne.  This is the first yard of its kind in Australia and represents a considerable improvement over other methods of shunting previously used, and which are still in use elsewhere. blew equipment of this kind naturally stimulates considerable interest, particularly amongst those involved with railways, and it is hoped that this paper will give a reasonable understanding of the technical aspects of automation. There have been several previous papers dealing with the subiect of Automatic Marshalling Yards dating back as far as 1934, but these have mainly been written in general terms, whereas this paper deals specifically with the Yard at Melbourne.  However, these papers give an extreme1 valuable background of the facts that have led up to present day thoughts on the subiect of automatic yards and so for reference a list of these papers is included.

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

OS Nock ACGI, DIC, BSc, CEngr, MIRSE IRSE President The delivery of a Presidential Address is inevitably something of a personal occasion for the President himself, and I feel most conscious of the honour you have conferred upon me, particularly as it has come almost at the end of my innings.

Date Presented: December 28th, 2015

N. Holland Westinghouse Systems The Muswellbrook to Werris Creek rail section is an important link in the total SRA upgrade of country rail routes. The section is located approximately i45km north west of Newcastle and extends approximately 125km northwards (see fig l). This particular section carries important coal and wheat traffic to Newcastle and is a major route of the SRh flagship - XPT. The need to upgrade this area called for CTC operation, resignalling, communications facilities, increased length crossing loops and overall speed upgrade of the turnouts. The CTC area is defined by the boundaries of hberdeen section to the south end of Werris Creek shunting yard. The CTC control centre is located at Broadmeadow, a suburb approximately 5km north west of Newcastle. The CTC complex also houses control facilities to service the suburban area and the north coast system from Newcastle to Casino.