Yallourn Open Cut, Interconnecting Railway between Yallourn and Morwell

Submitted by Denis Meany on Wed, 23/03/2011 - 11:15
Year (OLD)
1970
Relationship
Open Cut

When I was a young apprentice working down the Yallourn Open Cut, I was told the story about this photo. Apparently it was a foggy night late 60's - early 70's, when the Loco on the right stopped for a red light.
The Loco on the left came through and ploughed into the stationary Loco sending its trucks up and over the stationary Loco (Lucky Number 113).
I was told that the emergency trip stop failed on the track and the driver was very lucky not to have been killed as the Electrical Overhead lines are 10,000 volts DC.
If anyone has more accurate info, please feel free to comment - after all, it was a long time ago.

Tag
Railway
Open Cut

Submitted by Julie George on Wed, 23/03/2011 - 15:33

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Great photo Denis. I am surprised the photo ever saw the light of day and the photographer not drawn and quartered by the SEC as they were not renowned for displaying their stuff ups.

Submitted by Denis Meany on Wed, 23/03/2011 - 16:03

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Hi Julie, you are right the SEC would have frowned at this in a big way, but the photo was the pride and joy of my Supervisor.
So being a young thrill seeker Apprentice who stayed out of trouble, I gave it a new home when his back was turned.

Submitted by Shane Browne on Fri, 06/05/2011 - 07:30

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Now this photo brings back memories... Back in the early eighties I worked with a great team of people to repair and maintain these locomotives. I even remember this particular "loco", as they were affectionately called; it was a 90 Ton Siemens, which was easy to maintain and relatively reliable compared to the later model 120 Ton Siemens. I remember several incidents while working on a 2x5 Shift of these locos either colliding due to signal faults or driver error; but most were due to derailment at points.
As a electrical tradesman, I remember being particularly fascinated with the Mercury Arc Rectifiers that use to supply 1500 Volts DC (sorry denis definately not 10,000V) to the overhead lines. When in operation, they would glow and hum intensley when loaded by a the many high torque direct wheel DC motors (Bogie Motors)... Have you seen a Plasma Ball operation? Well they displayed visual effect similar to that.