TAN Re: Melbourne Z41 And The Chemist

Yes, this story shows the peculiarly Oz combination of (a)
mismanagement and (b)union featherbedding that was the essential lead-
up to the failure of Ansett Australia. Air NZ was admittedly stupid
enough to buy a "sinking ship" but it would have sunk anyway because
of the long history of (a) and (b). Interesting too that under Qantas
ownership Ansett NZ failed just over a year ago. Perhaps Kiwis are
more resilient and less inertia-bound than their cussies across the
ditch? We didn't hear them complaining and threatening... like the
past few days.

--- In TramsDownUnder@y..., pcc7407@w... wrote:

In the Southern Summer two years ago, tram 41 was working the next

to

last outbound (down) trip of the night on the 72 line. Melbourne
practice had in the past been not to dawdle in running times,

especially

for the last trips, and car 41 was carrying out this tradition.
Melbourne also has a large number of crossovers (shunts) at
intersections of two routes, making the number of curves in the
intersection lower. Before #41's arrival at Glen Ferrie and

Commercial

Roads, another pull-in tram had crossed over from the inbound line

to

the outbound and turned the corner into Glen Ferrie to go to Malvern
Depot. The switch (points) was left open, but when number 41 came
roaring up the street he didn't see the open switch and entered the
intersection at an estimated speed of 55kph. The front truck

(bogie)

tried to go around the corner, but derailed about half way around

and

the car then smashed head first into a line pole on the corner,

while

the rear trucks continued to go straight. The centrifugal force

from

the the car pulled the rear end right off the tracks after the

front

had hit the pole, all the while swinging around almost 180 degrees,

and

then the whole car smashed into the chemist shop (Mom & Pop type
drugstore) and a traffic light, street light pole, overhead line

pole,

and store awning. The motorman (driver) was injured and as far as I
know, never returned to work. The four passengers on the car were

stone

drunk and thought it was a fun ride. None were hurt (although we'll
never know how). The motorman blamed his inattention on the four

drunk

kids, but everyone feels he just dozed off. It took from 12:45am to
9:00am to get the car back on the tracks. The derailment marks

left in

the street were a sight to behold for months. The car was towed to
Malvern Depot (where I took my photos of it) and was loaded on a

flatbed

truck to be taken to the Dandenong ABB plant for repair. It was
unsurprisingly scrapped though, but the folks at Preston Workshops

said

they could have fixed it with little trouble. (Just another one of

the

absurd situations the streetcar system there is now faced with. It

is

two operating companies who don't cooperate with each other,

Government

ownership of track and wire (but private repairs), and one of the
World's best equipped streetcar shops doing basically nothing as

most of

the repair work is farmed out to either Adtranz or Alstom.)

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