Hi all,
Espee8800 – many thanks for the pics from A Box and of the surrounds.

I did visit the Box after it went colour light signalled and the panel at the platform end of the box occupied the space where the first 30 levers had been.

I never got a photo of the frame either and although all same the McKenzie and Holland frames used in west Aust; our floor plates had two slots – Signals in the furthest, and points and bars in the other, compared to the Victorian style McK & H frames which had the 3 slots to hold the lever in place.

I also visited both Boxes B & C and never got photos of them either.

Keep up the photo posting, I am enjoying these.

Bob in Perth

From:tramsdownunder@... tramsdownunder@...> On Behalf Of espee8800
Sent: Sunday, 17 October 2021 7:54 PM
To: tramsdownunder tramsdownunder@...>
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Re: More snaps from World War II.

I only went up it once as Flinders Street A Box and the viaduct signals never had its own Electrical Fitter, well not in my time at the Flinders Street district. All maintenance was done by weekend 'maintenance shifts', an operation where about 7 or 8 suburban Electrical Fitters and their assistants would get a weekend overtime shift. The worst part about the climb was getting onto the ladder from the track; not unsafe but certainly a bit nervy. Once upon the bridge it was just like being on any signal bridge except it was a further distance from ground level. I once spent 10 days during the Royal Melbourne Show period and we only had one little problem in that time. The rest of the time was spent being on call on the operating floor with many magazines read, a bit of photography both from the box and walking across the Yarra River bridge, and best of all learning a portion of the frame - the Ports and 'Sallys' section. It was a busy busy place keeping the three signalmen and the block 'boy' on their toes. The one thing I can't reconcile was the complete lack of photography inside the box; no pictures were taken of the frame especially seeing it was one of two boxes in Victoria with levers on both sides of the building, Dudley Street was the only other.

Here are a few from that time. Apologies for there being no trams but they are electric suburban trains -- well almost.

On Sun, 17 Oct 2021 at 12:30, Mark Skinner emessk@... mailto:emessk@gmail.com > wrote:
Compared to working on footboards of tramcars though...

On Sun, 17 Oct 2021, 10:42 am Bob Pearce, probert@... mailto:probert@iinet.net.au > wrote:
Nice pics indeed.

I’m not sure that OH&S or Worksafe or whatever name is being used this week, would be thrilled about someone having to climb up and work on the gantry just in front of the semaphore gantry.
There seem to be a lot of quite tall and vertical ladders on that thing – not for the faint hearted I suspect.

Certainly not this little black duck anyway.
Bob in Perth, who used to climb such creations in a past working life.

From:tramsdownunder@... mailto:tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com tramsdownunder@... mailto:tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com > On Behalf Of Andrew Cook
Sent: Saturday, 16 October 2021 2:15 PM
To: TramsDownUnder tramsdownunder@... mailto:tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com >
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Re: More snaps from World War II.

Note the old-style helmets on the coppers.

Cheers,
Andrew Cook.