NO snow on the Sandstone & Termite

[gregh]

No snow here in Sydney.
Air temp around 30C, but I measured the rail temperature with my infra-red thermometer at 65C in the sun. Don't lean your hand on the rails while leaning over to uncouple! (Sleepers, both timber and plastic were over 70C)
Three of us still had a great time, but not surprisingly, most shunting work was done at Melaleuca (In the shade of a big tree) with few trains visiting Sandstone in the full sun.

 

[Gavin Sowry]

Once rail here reaches 55°C, it's a blanket 40km/h speed restriction. Got very close this past week in quite a few places.
Our iail is stressed to a neutral temperature of 32°C, and in areas where the stress is either unknown, or not at 32, then when the temperature gets to 40°C a 40km/h
restriction is slapped on. All the sites are listed as heat restrictions on Bulletins, and when the word goes out that the 'heats are on' for a particular zone, then all the sites in that zone get restricted.
There are little weather stations around our network that measure rail temperature, air temp, and rainfall.

 

[dunnyrail]

Greg nice vid of a clearly too hot for us Brits in UK day. One thing I noticed but had not before, at least one of the Locomotives had 2 sets of buffers at each end but none of the Stock that I could see had them. I know that Oz had many Gauges so that ponders my query are you mixing Prototypes up on your lines? No problem so far as I can see Rule 1 and all that.

 

[gregh]

Greg nice vid of a clearly too hot for us Brits in UK day. One thing I noticed but had not before, at least one of the Locomotives had 2 sets of buffers at each end but none of the Stock that I could see had them. I know that Oz had many Gauges so that ponders my query are you mixing Prototypes up on your lines? No problem so far as I can see Rule 1 and all that.

I can't find any shot in the video showing 2 buffers - certainly not my locos so must be Keiths or Geofs, but I have never noticed.

 

[ge_rik]

Another great video Greg. Plenty of variety and lots of action. Bit of a contrast to the sub zero temperatures here of late.

Rik

 

[Rhinochugger]

No snow here in Sydney.
Air temp around 30C, but I measured the rail temperature with my infra-red thermometer at 65C in the sun. Don't lean your hand on the rails while leaning over to uncouple! (Sleepers, both timber and plastic were over 70C)
Three of us still had a great time, but not surprisingly, most shunting work was done at Melaleuca (In the shade of a big tree) with few trains visiting Sandstone in the full sun.

Sunshine - I think it's overrated

 

[Lobethalbahn2]

Greg nice vid of a clearly too hot for us Brits in UK day. One thing I noticed but had not before, at least one of the Locomotives had 2 sets of buffers at each end but none of the Stock that I could see had them. I know that Oz had many Gauges so that ponders my query are you mixing Prototypes up on your lines? No problem so far as I can see Rule 1 and all that.

Jon, I think you are referring to the loco which I think is based on a NSW 19 class. It appears to have buffers and a screw coupling on the front of the loco and a knuckle coupler on the tender. Not being an expert on NSW locos I can't give a precise answer but would probably be accurate.

I can confirm some highly varied practice with couplings in Australia. Put simply, 6 different state networks each run by an individual state government, plus a 7th run by the federal government. On the state-owned networks there are 4 different gauges (2'6", 3'6", 4'8.5" & 5'3"). Couplings varied over time and between broad, standard and narrow gauge. For example, most systems used UK pattern screw or three-link couplings with buffers in the 19th century but shifted to knuckle couplers on the wider gauges and choppers on the narrow gauges during the 20th century (there were exceptions, Tasmania used buffers and screw couplings on its narrow gauge stock).
This is partly because states like South Australia and Victoria on their 5'3" networks were more influenced by American practice after the 1920s and replaced British style couplings and buffers with US pattern knuckles.

The image I've posted shows a South Australian Railways 5'3" gauge 500 Class 4-8-4 built by Armstrong Whitworth in the 1920s. Originally fitted with buffers (you can still see the holes in the buffer beam), these were soon removed and knuckles substituted.

Today, I think all Aussie locos and rolling stock (non-heritage), regardless of gauge, use knuckles.