Saturday, 18 March 2000, Tuggeranong

Today saw the health gang re-assemble at Tuggeranong siding.

Most came by car, but a few brought the sleepers down from Royalla on the track vehicles, the new air horns on the VW quad giving the three wild and woolly sheep which have lived around the Tuggeranong curve for years, a heart attack or two.

The aim of the day was to place new standard sleepers into the turnout for Tuggeranong siding.

While the existing point timbers continue to support the rails, they have not been holding the track to gauge.

The sleepers have been placed between the existing timbers under the main line rails to hold them in place and stop the movement that had begun to take place.

If the siding were to be re-opened, then more work would be required on the turnout.

At this stage, it has been decided to concentrate on restoring the main line to Royalla to service.

Re-sleepering in general is hard work. Dealing with turnouts is torture.

Fitting sleepers under three or four rails involved digging to few holes "to China".

The sleeper had to travel deep under one rail to go across one of the other rails before being levelled to slide into place.

Then the resultant wombat hole had to be re-filled in order to pack around the sleeper.

After the necessary five sleepers were placed and packed, exhaustion beckoned.

While this took place, the Burra Bush Fire Brigade burnt piles of dead trees heaped up at Tuggeranong following the bush fire that swept the area two years ago.

These constituted a fire hazard as well as restricting train crew vision of the level crossing.

How much of a fire hazard existed was demonstrated by the largest pile going up in a roaring blaze. Just as well the firies were there.

Judicious hosing kept the bonfire confined - it even threatened the new safeworking hut but that had its own dedicated hose pipe to stop any unfortunate happenings.

Another sleeper day is programmed for Saturday, March 25, to deal with a gauge problem and poor sleepers close to a culvert.

These two places and Guises Creek bridge are the biggest remaining trouble spots stopping line re-opening to Royalla.

Recent track work at Tuggeranong - contact Alan Ward for information and to provide assistence. Mobile: 0412 00 1750

Sunday, 20 January 2000, Kingston

On Sunday, February 20, Rail motor CPH 37 made the first revenue service to Tuggeranong for many months.

The re-sleepering work during last month has restored the line to operational level from 332.5km to the face of the points at Tuggeranong siding.

Tuggeranong is a handy distance from Canberra as three return trips can be run during a day.

This is despite the Xplorer services which also inhabit the Canberra-Queanbeyan section of line.

Our three trips were well patronised with, unusually, the first one being booked out.

The rail motor really shows off the advantages of our line. On the Canberra-Queanbeyan section, it easily matches the Xplorer timetable on the mainline standard track.

Its seating and window arrangements enable passengers to see much more than other vehicles allow.

Passengers could see the re-sleepering work being carried out for the Rail Access Corporation to enable the Hume to Port Kembla log trains to run. Those sleepers and repairs to Arnot Street bridge have also allowed our services back on the line.

The de-rail located on the 1 in 40 grade below the log loading point was also pointed out along with the reasons why we check its position, locked out of the way, veeeeerrrry carefully.

Tuggeranong became the picnic spot for each trip. We provided cake, bikkies, tea and coffee.

One family came with the picnic blanket and the lot to make their three young boys really comfortable and fed. Others prowled around, food and drink in hand to see what remained of the former Tuggeranong station site, siding and goods loading ramp.

Stumps of the former platform face can be located (Stewart Sharpe please note) while the loading ramp only suffers from graffiti. Rail Access Corporation have installed their staff hut with operational telephone in preparation for their resuming train control functions to Tuggeranong.

Having the Queanbeyan-324.1 staff on hand (not left at Harman due to vandalism of the staff hut there), the Annett key on the staff was tried in the lever frame to see what happened. Lo and behold, it unlocked the frame.

The points themselves are spiked over, clipped and locked out of use. The siding has been out of use for decades.

The locking lever on the frame is fully operational, clearing and re-engaging the facing point lock as if it had been serviced yesterday.

Continued in next column...

... Continued from previous column

The points lever itself could be freed, with the rodding trying to move the secured point blades. The catch point on the siding will require some repairs to its rodding and connections.

Some thought is being given to bring the siding back into use. Sleepering is required under the points themselves as part of repairs to the mainline, so a few more sleepers could bring the siding to the goods platform up to standard.

Rail motor pasengers could than use the platform and the grassed area behind it for picnicing and viewing the Melrose Valley.

It is difficult to run three trains a day through to Royalla due to timetabling (read Xplorer) constraints. Those running days requiring three services could use Tuggeranong as a terminus.

A picnic in your own rail motor is really attractive to our passengers. The scene at Tuggeranong recalled those 1930s ads where the (well-heeled) family was seen picnicing in the country beside their Bentley Roadster.

Our version attained the vintage without the cost.

Thursday, 24 February 2000, Canberra

Michelle and Michael Potter are the proud parents of a baby girl born 8.00am on February 24. Mother and daughter have been certified for traffic.