Why Am I Still Alive

by Brian Hogan

  Photo 39 – XPT passenger train

  Living at Castle Hill at the time meant a long journey to site. Numerous calls were made whilst travelling at that early time of the morning to manage the works as well as advising the Chief Executive of updates.

  Electrical work crews were dispatched quickly and were on site attending to the incident. I met my electrical engineer on site and we walked the whole area developing a game plan. This incident would also impact on the morning peak service. The game plan had to include not only freeing the XPT, so it could continue its journey, but also rebuild the overhead so electric passenger trains could be used for the morning peak passengers.

  Maybe I should have just stayed in bed!

  Once the overhead was earthed, works were completed quickly to cut up the eucalypt tree and remove it from the overhead wire to free up the XPT train. Lifting the wires off the train was a bit more difficult but it was carried out smoothly to allow the train to pass through this section of track.

  As the XPT train did not require the overhead power because it was diesel powered, the overhead repairs were not carried out under the emergency situation to allow the trapped train to continue on its way.

  Once the XPT train had been removed from the site work then started with a new gang of maintenance crews to repair the overhead wiring. What was done to expedite the works was to cannibalise the overhead system which ran on a siding nearby and utilise those electrical assets to quickly rebuild the main line. After the quality checks were completed the overhead wiring was re-energised it for normal traffic.

  The morning peak ran under a re-scheduled timetable but at least some trains could run.

  For me, it just meant another longer day for work that day.

  As the ramifications of this event became known in both the media and in political circles, there were directions made by the hierarchy to remove all tall trees from outside the rail corridor that had the propensity to fall across the rail line, so incidents like this could not re-occur.

  Wow that is a huge statement to follow through on. For obvious reasons, this was not done.

  So, in high windy periods trees still fall and some still cause operational impact for the running of trains.

  Another Normal Day

  I received a call early one morning as I was driving to the office to start another day of work. It was peak hour for both the road traffic and the suburban passenger trains. I pulled off into a side street to take the call. This sounded like a bad call. It was my electrical maintenance engineer, Edward, who was on the phone. I knew when he rang me at this time of morning there were problems somewhere on my area.

  Edward said, “I was called out about a half hour earlier and am on site near Campsie station where a passenger train was stopped. The overhead wire above the train had dropped onto the train’s pantograph and the train was going nowhere fast”.

  The electrical dropper that held the overhead wire in place had failed so that this electrical contact wire was now spanning along nearly half of the length of the eight-car passenger train. The train was completely full of early morning commuters who were on their way into the city for another working day.

  Another call was coming through on my phone, so I asked my engineer to hang on and I stated that I would come back after I took this call. I thought it may have been another emergency issue being rung through as I found they normally came in twos and sometimes threes.

  It was my younger brother ringing me. What did he want so early in the morning?

  My brother said, ‘Hey Brian, I am stuck on a train near Campsie station on my way to work in the city. We had been stuck for some time now and no one had advised what is going on”.

  He then said, “Can you sort it out as I am now late for work”.

  What a coincidence. He was on the same train; and what a good sibling to ring me with his problems!!

  I said, “I have just become aware of the problem. let me see what I can do, and I will get back to you”.

  I went back to the electrical engineer and asked for a diagnosis and what the next steps were.

  He stated, “They were in the process of removing the power so that they could detrain the passengers who would then walk back along the track to Campsie railway station which was about 500 metres away”.

  He went on to say, “Then they would arrange for a locomotive to remove the disabled train from the site which would allow them to affect the repairs to the overhead wiring. Busses had been ordered to replace trains on the Bankstown line whilst the repairs could be effected”.

  I felt it was going to be a very long morning.

  There must be other ways that we could move the train and move it quickly. Particularly since it was full of passengers. Unfortunately, it needed power to energise its motors.

  Hang on there is an option I thought. Not bad for an early morning solution!

  I phoned Edward back and asked, “Where has the wiring fallen on the train?”

  Edward said, “It was on the front section”.

  I asked him, “Is the front pantograph still operational?

  He replied, “Yes, it is still okay”.

  I said, “Can you arrange for the train driver the lower the front pantograph on the train so that the only power coming in was through the train’s rear pantograph?”

  That end of the train still had the overhead in the right position and still connected.

  He said, “I will check with the driver and come back to me”.

  I rang back my brother on the train and said work was underway to fix the problem. When I told him about getting off the train to walk back to the station to catch a bus, He said “I do not want to get off the train and walk back along the track to Campsie station. I have been sitting in the stationary train now for half an hour, to go back to Campsie station and wait for a bus to the city would take another hour at least”.

  He stressed quite adamantly he was relying on me to sort this train issue out and quickly. He had meetings to attend and needed to be in the city soon. Nice one I thought.

  I rang back Edward on site and asked him what the status was. He said “The overhead wiring was still attached as designed at the rear end of the train and where it had fallen at the front of the train it was not tangled up in the train’s pantograph and that it had been a straight drop.

  I proposed to him another option, I said to him “Why can’t we arrange for the train to lower its front pantograph move forward at a slow speed using the back pantograph to power the train. With the front one lowered, then as the train arrived at the section where the overhead had dropped, drop the rear pantograph, raise the front pantograph in the section where the train had moved to where I assume that the contact wire was as per design, and continue with the train through the section until the train was clear of the problem?”

  He said, “Great idea I think we can give it a go”.

  I rang back my brother and said, “We are going to try to move the train”.

  Whilst I was talking to him the train started to slowly move forward. I could hear a cheer go up in the background on his train.

  I said to my brother, “The train will move forward then stop, as it changed power sources through its pantographs then it should start up again. If this worked then the train should be able to get through the problem area and you and the other passengers will not be required to disembark from the train. Let’s hope this works.”

  I hung up and spoke to my engineer on site.

  He said, “The power to the overhead has been re-energised. The train had moved forward under his instructions and with the okay of the electrical trouble office. His staff on site were watching the train’s movement and ensuring there is no problem with the contact wire as the train moved slowly forward. The train had now stopped and was lowering its back pantograph whilst the front one was being raised”.

  The train then moved on slowly using the front pantograph and was finally clear of the section where the overhead wiring ha
d dropped.

  The train was now clear of the problem site. It picked up speed and was now on its way into the City.

  I rang my brother on the train and asked him, “If the train was now moving and picking up speed?”

  To which he replied, “Yes and we are finally on our way again”.

  He thanked me for my efforts. Fancy having one of your relatives tied up on a problem you were working on.

  I went to site and worked with the crew to restore the overhead where it had failed and undertake an inspection of the site to ascertain what had caused the failure.

  Later, I spoke to my brother later in the day to see how he fared with the late arrival into town and his work. He thanked me for getting the train to continue its journey without having to leave it and said he was about one hour late into work but managed to meet all his commitments.

  He said though, “A funny thing happened on the train”. He went on to say, “With the calls to me, the others in the carriage close to him could hear what he was saying. They did not know who I was talking to, but they assumed I was someone important. They saw that with my phone calls the train problem was sorted out, and quickly. The train moved on and they arrived at their destination”.

  He then said, “When the train started to move I got up and stood in the vestibule area. When I did that the six people sitting around me also got up and stood beside me. They thought we need to be next to this guy as he can talk to the powers in up in the Railways and he gets things sorted out. We need to be close to him in case there are any other problems before we get off”.

  Sounds like my brother had an interesting day too.

  Now it was starting the car, leaving the site and getting to the office to sort out the rest of the day’s issues.

  Visit to nobility

  It was the late nineties and high-speed rail was back in vogue. The three governments, Federal, New South Wales and Victoria had jointly agreed to finance the development of a feasibility for a Very High-Speed Train service from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra.

  This Project was to be constructed in two phases with the Sydney to Canberra section being the first length of the track to be built. Expressions of Interest had been sought. Consortiums were being developed with international Companies who had the expertise in this area.

  International seminars were being held or set up. These were occurring at the same time to hype up not only the need for the high-speed line but also provide technical advice on how to best build the line and how to maintain it once it was constructed.

  Working as I did in the rail construction arena at the time it was felt that my Employer could form a consortium to build, operate and maintain this piece of infrastructure. As a current operator, maintainer it was felt we had the expertise and the goods to carry out those functions. I was nominated to be placed on the bid team for my Company.

  An alliance was formed. The consortium proposed a pendular tilt train for the privately operated high-speed train service between Sydney and Canberra. This would be a commercially viable, safe, affordable and efficient train service. The consortium consisted of Patentes Talgo, a leading Spanish manufacturer of passenger trains and associated rail and maintenance equipment. Patentes Talgo would be represented by Medina Engineering in Australia. Other members included Qantas for its electronic ticketing systems and my employer, Rail Services Australia. Rail Services Australia had Government approval to competitively tender for major infrastructure projects. My Company has both the experience in maintaining the infrastructure in this corridor and the appropriately skilled personnel.

  The intent was to provide a system between Canberra and Sydney that would allow for trains to be up and running in less than two years. The trains would run at speeds more than 200km/hour. With minor upgrade to the existing rail alignment in the corridor, travel times between the two main centres would be only two hours. Future track upgrades would allow for high speed trains to run on the corridor of more than 360km/hour. These trains have been tested up to 500km/hour.

  Would our proposal take shape and win the day?

  A few of the bid team members, including myself, visited Canberra to attend the Very Fast Train International Conference. It would also allow for networking with other attendees and to pick up contacts as support for the bid work. Upon us accepting to attend the Conference, the Spanish Ambassador was advised, and he formally invited us to his residence for dinner and discussion on the project as to what he could do in the political circles to promote our proposed bid. Apparently, the Spanish firm Patentes Talgo, in our consortium, had approached his office to ask for his support.

  After attending the seminars during the day, the big night for dinner at the Spanish Ambassador’s residence had arrived. On the night of the dinner at the Embassy, not knowing where the Spanish Ambassador lived, we ordered a taxi to take us from where the conference was being held and where we were staying to the Embassy.

  Having the address, we told the taxi driver where we needed to go.

  He stated, ‘that is the high-class area in Canberra’. Having the time, we asked him to show us some of the sights of the suburb. He drove us down the street towards the Embassy and he pointed out the Fairfax residence.

  It was a magnificent residence on the most beautiful landscaped grounds. We told the taxi driver so.

  Photo 40 - Approval letter from Premier’s Department

  He then drove past the Murdoch residence which was just as impressive and as beautiful. We then discussed if the Spanish Embassy could be even better then these abodes. The taxi driver heard us talking and said that the Embassy was much better than the two houses we had just sighted.

  It certainly was.

  Photo 41 - The Spanish Ambassador’s invitation

  It was good to know that some tax payer residences are better than private residences!

  We arrived at the Embassy after driving through security gates and up through the most beautifully landscaped grounds. We were welcomed by the Ambassador’s butler at the door and taken into the immense sitting room where we waited for dinner to commence. We were ushered into the large dining room.

  The Spanish Ambassador warmly greeted us and introduced us to his other guests which included the Spanish Minister for Trade, the Minister for the Environment and the Spanish Prime Minister. The dining table was very large and could seat more than 25 people. Every position around the table was taken that night as it also included representatives from the Spanish company which was in our consortium. Talk about a small world. I wonder if the same would happen if we were bidding for work in Spain?

  Eating etiquette was explained to us beforehand. We were told to not raise our cutlery to eat until the Spanish Ambassador had taken the first bite of his food, to which we studiously followed. I could not pronounce the Ambassador’s name, so I just called him ‘Your Ambassador’.

  There were numerous maids serving and removing dishes all night long as we discussed the high-speed train proposal. I had never seen so much cutlery on a dinner table before. There were at least six knives and six forks on either side of the plate. Being the novice that I was, I just followed along with everyone else.

  After dinner we all retreated to the drawing room which again could have easily been a grand ball room. Here we sat with the Spanish Ambassador and discussed what he could do to assist our proposed bid in the political arena. He also asked us questions on “this strange Aussie Culture” he had experienced. Also, how to best relate to the Australian Prime Minister. As if we would know!

  We certainly both learnt from each other that night. He was even trying some of the Aussie beer that he had on tap as well. That was not bad for someone who was also of royalty and a Spanish prince.

  All in all, it was a night well spent and we achieved a lot on both sides. We were assured that the Ambassador would talk to the Prime Minister about our proposed high-speed rail bid and its advantages of using a team that included an experienced European alliance partner with a prove
n history in operating and maintaining a high-speed rail operation as well as Australian members who were also experts in their own fields.

  The bid was rapidly being prepared. Deadlines were being met. Information was being sought from the NSW Government who were co-ordinating the bid teams.

  Unfortunately, a few weeks later we were advised the Federal Government decided that it would not provide concessions for any of the bid teams as part of the construction of the Very High-Speed Rail line. As such the whole project became non-viable to construct for all the bid teams so after a few months, one by one the bid teams withdrew.

  Hence the whole idea for the VHSR line fell over and the whole idea was dropped. Our Consortium could have offered so much for NSW and for Canberra. Our strategies and proposals were of so much benefit to the people of both States. However, it was not meant to be. “Cie La Vie” as they say.