Melbournesparks
Registered
It is a tramway, but operating large heavy rail trains under the same conditions as small electric trams was certainly... interesting.
The giant flamethrower is a useful piece of overhead maintenance equipment!A mildly warm spring day of 28 degrees has seen the return of a fixture of last summer, the dreaded heat buckle:
Operationally it hardly matters for the speeds we do here, but it does demonstrate effectively the high expansion factor of the aluminium rail.
The vegetation around bridge no. 3 is finally looking a bit more lush. I half seriously considered a plan for main line extension recently that would have seen this entire area annihilated, but thought better of it in the end. Sometimes not-perfect-but-still-good is fine too.
Another wooden overhead wire pole rotted through at the base. This was an important one, it has to hold the tension of the wires where they terminate for the removable section across the path.
Replaced with a new fiberglass and aluminium structure that should be much more durable and won't rot.
Ballarat 33 started out with an original Bachmann trolley pole, but bits have gradually been replaced until now the only original bit is the lower base. The Bachmann poles are not really suitable for continuous operation, eventually they go high resistance and don't conduct well. The brass replacement should be much more durable.
