On Tue, Aug 3, 2021 at 12:25 PM Yuri Sos trams4me@...> wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Aug 2021 11:49:16 +1000, Hunslet wrote:

>

> >Yuri makes mention that THE Tait set stalled on the bank approaching

> Camberwell station.

>

> One of the gunzels at Riversdale rang/was rung by someone at Camberwell

> who passed on the information when the train hadn't appeared at Riversdale

> at the appointed time of 10:04am. It appeared at 10:12 on the down and

> 10:23 (scheduled 10:26) on the up. I'd agree they probably reversed at

> Ashburton rather than continuing all the way to Alamein.

>


I wondered, when I read Yuri's information about the train stalling.

The ruling gradient from Hawthorn to the summit (between Camberwell and
East Camberwell) is 1:50. Though I can't now locate the exact information,
I believe I have read that the gradient on the approach to the flyover on
the Alamein line is 1:30, possibly even steeper. For that reason, the up
(inward-bound) line between Camberwell and Riversdale was signalled for
bidirectional running, so that outbound goods trains and special workings
would use the up line which didn't climb up to the flyover. And trains
with motors cut out were not permitted to use the track to the flyover.
The climb from (Upper) Ferntree Gully to Upwey was similarly prohibited to
trains with motors cut out.

It seems much more likely that the Tait train, if it had a problem, may
have come to grief on the climb up to the flyover, rather than the easier
grade approaching Camberwell from the city end.

Hal Cain