Tasmania's Fingal Line (Conara - Avoca section) Safeworking screenshots

[pware]

This thread, over the next few weeks, will showcase screenshots from the DLS route "TGR Conara - Avoca 1952 NG42 SWO Version". This route, together with its demo sessions, were announced in the Freeware Announcements thread at http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...O)-Rule-with-demonstration-route-and-sessions.

The screenshots are from the session "TGR Conara - Avoca: Servicing Avoca Coal Loaders".

---

Its 6:10AM at Conara Junction, Tasmania, Australia in the year 1952. The crew prepare a TGR T-class for a return coal working to Avoca. The driver oils around while the fireman shovels forward. A Conara safeworking officer walks east along the dirt road that runs by the loco shed to set the points for the loco to leave the shed.

 

[pware]

Its now 6:17AM, Conara Junction. Passing the Conara water tower after leaving the depot. A pump station was located 8 km to the northeast of Conara Junction on the South Esk River. From there it pumped up to a reservoir on top of a hill 750 metres away from the railway water tank. The reservoir fed the tank by gravity. (Andrew Dix, Tasmanian Transport Museum)




6:20AM, Conara Junction. There are no flashing lights or boom gates to protect the Midland Highway traffic in 1952. The Conara safeworking officer confirms the traffic is stopped at the crossing before pulling off the inner home branch signal to allow the TGR T-class to move forward to its train of coal empties waiting in the north yard. Train 145 is due away in 10 minutes, bound for Avoca.

 

[modeltrains]

Nice work mate! Really nice work!

 

[pware]

6:24AM, Conara Juncton. The T-class loco for train 145 briefly runs on the main Hobart-Launceston line in its journey from the loco shed to the north yard. The double-arm semaphore signal is designated 'up second home branch' (upper sempahore) and 'up second home loop' (lower semaphore). Before train 145 departs for Avoca, the upper semaphore will need to be pulled off by the safeworking officer using the ground frame located adjacent to the signal. On the north yard shunting neck you can see a stored Australian Standard Garratt (ASG). These started to accumulate at Conara from the early 1950s, withdrawn after less than 10 years service on the TGR because of mechanical shortcomings and unpopularity with crews.




6:35AM, Conara Junction. Train 145 departs for Avoca, taking the north arm of the wye out of the village. In doing so, the train passes through the branch platform and misses the main line platform on the west arm of the wye. The branch platform fell into disuse sometime in the 1950s, and its face had been removed by the early 1960s. Branch passenger services from Launceston subsequently used the main line platform, then reversed back to gain access to the branch via the north arm of the wye.




The mainline platform and station at Conara Junction with the branch line platform and train 145 in the background.

 

[JGPNGEAMR]

Looks killer guys! im so happy that theres finally some TGR stuff in trainz!

 

[ElStoko]

Looks killer guys! im so happy that theres finally some TGR stuff in trainz!

To be honest, we haven't added much to the amount of TGR models on the DLS. Some existing models have been modified to suit the project, but the modifications have not been so radical as to transform a non-TGR model into one.
Any modellers out there with an interest in developing TGR assets, we'd like to hear from you!

 

[pware]

7:00AM, Llewellyn. The fireman of train 145 takes the opportunity to top up the tender at Llewellyn, 8 miles east of Conara. In 1952 Llewellyn was a permanently unattended staff station, so the crew had to look after the safeworking.



According to regulations, the guard must handle the safeworking at Llewellyn. The driver hands the ordinary staff for the Conara-Llewellyn section to the guard, who will leave it in the station office. There he will also make an entry into the train register to record the arrival and departure times for train 145 and, if it is there, pick up the staff for the Llewellyn-Avoca section. However, if the staff is already at Avoca, the guard will have to call Avoca SM by telephone and complete a black "outwards staff telegram" form as an official record of the call. Avoca SM will then provide authority for the train to proceed to Avoca, as recorded by the guard on a red "inwards staff telegram". The staff telegram forms lingered on from the period before the telephone came into common usage and communications were by telegraph.



To save the guard a hike back to the rear of the train, the driver pulls the train from the water tower slowly past the station so the guard can hop into the van on the move. He will have handed the staff for the Llewellyn-Avoca section to the fireman as the engine passes him. Once back inside the van, the guard will hand signal to the engine crew that all is OK to proceed to Avoca.

 

[pware]

7:10AM, Stoney Creek bridge. The original 19th-century bridges on the Fingal Line were all timber trestles, like this one at Stoney Creek, just east of Llewellyn station. By the 1950s these bridges were not worth maintaining and a decade-long program of gradual replacement commenced. A hazard speed restriction of 10 or 15mph applied to timber trestle bridges.



7:22AM, Eastbourne, 12 miles from Conara Junction, has no village around it. Onboard passengers intending to alight here had to advise the guard, while those waiting to board had to flag the train down. Half the listed Fingal line locations in the 1952 working timetable (8 out of 16) have similar provisions, while another quarter are not passenger stations but mine junctions or sidings (Malahide, Silkstone, Mt Nicholas, and Jubilee). The stock yard was not seeing much use by 1952, the transport needs of the local pastoralists being met by the adjacent Esk Highway.



7:28AM. The Fingal line crosses the Esk Highway 4 times in the first half of its length from Conara, then the highway stays immediately south of the railway from there to St Marys. The crossing just east of Eastbourne is the second such crossing. As with the crossing of the Midland Highway at Conara, there were no automated warning lights or barriers in 1952. Signs to sound the whistle and reduce speed to 15mph were safety precautions which had to be observed by approaching train drivers.

 

[pware]

Near Avoca. 7:40AM. The pond may predate the railway, created by a farmer for water storage. It is on a normally-dry watercourse that runs down to the South Esk river seen in the distance. The position of the pond immediately upstream from the railway bridge over the watercourse suggests a different heritage. The railway forms a barrier to runoff in wet times. The runoff runs down to the watercourse to pass under the railway. To prevent a sudden rush under the bridge in a deluge, the pond could act as a retainer that will slowly release the water after the deluge, and thereby prevent undermining of the bridge supports. So there is a possibility that the pond was constructed by the railway.



Avoca - St Pauls River bridge. 7:43AM. The railway crosses the St Pauls River very close to its junction with the South Esk River. The junction can be seen downstream from the bridge. The timber trestle bridge shown here in 1952 was replaced by steel girders on concrete piers in 1959/60. “…in the great flood of 4 and 5 April 1929 the river rose 56 feet (17m) above its summer level and destroyed track and buildings. It also shifted the St Pauls bridge off its foundations, closing the line for two weeks.” (“Tasmania’s Fingal Line”, Jim Stokes, Australian Railway History, Jan 2010, p.24)



Avoca - Merrywood coal washery. 7:43AM. Two coal loaders were served by rail at Avoca, and featured train 145 provides the empty wagons to maintain this service to both loaders. At the east end of the yard, tip trucks from Stanhope colliery tipped coal directly into wagons waiting under an elevated platform. Shown here at the west end of the yard is the coal-washing plant that processes coal delivered by truck from the Merrywood colliery. Washed coal was then loaded from a stockpile to rail wagons. The arrival of train 145 marks the beginning of a busy period for the Avoca safeworking officer, who must marshal the shunting that will place the empty wagons at both loaders and assemble the wagons loaded yesterday into the return working, train 148.

 

[pware]

Avoca 7:46AM Train 145 moves slowly along the loop line after entering Avoca Yard. Visible on the platform is the signal frame for Avoca. This controls the two signals that protect the yard. Signaling on the Fingal line was limited to down and up home signals at the 3 attended staff stations on the branch (Avoca, Fingal and St Marys) plus signals to protect the Cornwall colliery branch and wye at Cullenswood. There were no conventional signal boxes. Signals were operated by ground frames or open-air platform frames as shown here. Some points were operated by ground frames, but most were of the ball throw-over type.



At Stanhope coal loading dock. Train 145 has been divided with a 10 wagon section (plus guard van) left on the loop and the other 13 wagons moved onto the branch line (shown in the background). The locomotive has moved forward past the junction to the stockyard. The SWO is about to throw the point lever to allow the loco to move into the stockyard siding and then reverse to hook onto the loaded coal wagons (shown in the foreground) standing beneath the coal loading dock. The shunting operations will disassemble and distribute the empty wagons from train 145 and then assemble the loaded wagons for train 148.