No mention of Y2k here but there's apparently a big spike in derailments in Australia. Story:

State told to act urgently as more trains leave the rails

By MALCOLM BROWN

The deputy leader of the State Opposition, Mr Barry O'Farrell, has attacked the Government over the state of the rail system, which despite a series of inquiries has seen two derailments in two days and seven in four weeks. Mr O'Farrell accused the Government of putting up a smokescreen, by announcing inquiries but not giving specifics about how they were being run. His attack follows a derailment at St Marys yesterday, when a train carrying sandstone to a development site turned off onto a siding privately owned by ADI Ltd. A spokesman for Freightrail said the accident, at 10.15am, left most of the train still on the western line, briefly disrupting other rail traffic. The second derailment was at Junee railway yards on Tuesday night, during the shunting of a train carrying grain to Port Botany. Nobody was injured in either incident and there will be inquires into both of them. But Mr O'Farrell said there were too many incidents to be ignored and very little was being done to deal with them. He said he had no information on progress in the much-vaunted audit of the rail system announced by the Government a month ago, and being conducted by Richard Oliver International. "I have not seen their terms of reference and I have put in a request under Freedom of Information legislation to get them," he said. "I have been seeking information on which Richard Oliver representatives are in charge and how many days they have spent in Sydney. I am told it is [a single figure]. "My argument is that there is a lack of urgency. The Government has a catch-all public relations response but where is the action, and how long have we got to say, 'Another day, another derailment'?" A spokeswoman for the Minister for Transport, Mr Scully, who is on holidays until the end of this month, said the terms of reference had been released a month ago when the audit was announced. She said Richard Oliver personnel had been in Sydney this week and that Mr Andy Waters, the British expert doing a review of driver training, though he had not yet arrived in Australia, had been fully briefed and was starting his review based on material supplied to him. There are two other reviews in progress, as well as a coroner's inquest. One involves the inspection of all rail wheels, following an incident when the wheels of a National Rail train did not make proper contact with the track and the train temporarily disappeared from the controller's board. The system is not without outside critics. Mr Clive Boehme, a retired railwayman from Henty, in southern NSW, said a derailment at Junee station in December and this week's in the Junee shunting yard were symptoms of a widespread problem. "The conditions at Henty are so serious that I can see a serious derailment occurring here any time," he said. "I have been to the engineers' office at Wagga telling them to inspect it. "A mate of mine told me that travelling on the XPT from Sydney to Melbourne, the track between Wagga and Albury was so serious that everyone on the train was shaken awake." Mr Boehme, who has taken his private campaign onto the front pages of the Wagga Advertiser, said he would not be surprised if the conditions existed on a State-wide basis. A spokeswoman for the Rail Access Corporation, which is responsible for track maintenance, said the State's 8,500 kilometres of track were in the best condition for the past 10 years. She said that since the early 1990s, the number of speed restrictions due to track condition, had dropped by 25 per cent, and that was because of a continuous program of track maintenance. The St Marys derailment had occurred on a section of track outside the State system.

Link:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0001/20/national/national10.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 19, 2000

Answers

And what's the latest from Norway and Toronto, on train safety?

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-- Squirrel; Hunter (nuts@needanew.address), January 19, 2000.

The story of Australian railroads is tangled in Commonwealth with States and State to State rivalry. Things were so convoluted in earlier times that different guages of railroad track were the norm and places like Port Augusta were railroad towns where trains changed guage tracks.

Sometime in the 1980s it was decided to favour road transport and road freighting companies got the business of moving Australian produce. The trucking rigs got bigger pounding the rural roads built for lighter traffic and the outlying railroads were closed down.

Fuel excise was welcomed by the Commonwealth government to finance welfare programmes etc. rather than utilising for roadworks.

A close friend of mine got the MacMahon Holdings contract to rip up rural railroads for salvage. All railtrack iron was sold to China where they made new railroads from it. The foreign aid departments of Australian Governments arranged matters apparently. There were many rural protests in the mid-north of South Australia circa 1989/90/91 with protestors lying down on tracks etc. Whole communities are now no more, and yesterday a publican from one of these towns in the mid-north of SA dropped in to say hello and he said his town has 49 people left, all elderly. This is a grain town that once boasted 3000 inhabitants and railroad with silos.

Railroad tracks are often laid with timber sleepers with iron replacements now. You'll probably find the New South Wales railroad tracks are mostly resting on timber sleepers, with iron ones fixing the rotting white ant eaten broken to bits sleepers. More than once in the past year I've walked track to see the condition they are in and it's not pretty sometimes.

Lately railroads are getting political mileage as it slowly penetrates even thickest bureaucracy heads that pitching large trucks at substandard rural roads simply makes matters worse.

I think there is an element of regret creeping into the Australian political spyche that railroads were allowed to be dismantled.

There is some unsubstantiated gossip that failures in NSW are computer/signal related. I doubt the truth will ever come out, as the posted article already indicates a degree of dis-info going on.

Regards from Oz (and Carl, we do have excellent railroads also)

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), January 19, 2000.

Carl,

White ants are voracious. They have been particlarly active since rollover. It's white ants. Yup, no doubt at all.

Regards from Down Under where trucks-n-dog are called roadtrains.

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), January 19, 2000.

The first derailment described in this story sounds like

dare I say?

embedded

switch

....which the US FRA web site identifies as a y2k problem...check the url, some planned to reset....wonder what the buffer's like on those embeddeds?

========================================

http://www.fra.dot.gov/doc/y2k/rr/index.htm

"Canadian National:

Control Systems

Have you investigated the imbedded chip problem, where real-time clock circuits imbedded in electronic hardware may cause a Y2K failure?

Have you identified any Y2K problems concerning:

-Yes, our experts in systems such as process control have been involved quite heavily. Basically CN's Engineering department, as well as our Mechanical department and all district offices have been involved in identifying and remediating Y2K issues. "

"Burlington Northern:

Control Systems

12. Have you investigated the imbedded chip problem, where real-time clock circuits imbedded in electronic hardware may cause a Y2K failure?

Yes. An inventory assessment was completed in June 1998."

"CSX:

Control Systems

12. Have you investigated the imbedded chip problem, where real-time clock circuits imbedded in electronic hardware may cause a Y2K failure: Yes, an inventory of embedded has been conducted.

Have you identified any Y2K problems concerning:

Signaling systems: No operational issues; Y2K issues with logging and 2/29/00 dates detected; remediation is underway; operability not effected.

b. Interlocking plants: No

c. Dispatching office systems: Y2K issues detected, remediation complete, unit testing complete; end-to-end testing underway.

d. Telecommunications systems, both fixed and mobile, internal and commercial: Yes, assessment complete, remediation/replacement underway, some unit testing completed. End-to-end testing noted above includes communications systems.

e. Grade crossing signals and grade crossing signal event recorders: No operational Y2K issues; date resets necessary on some recorders."

"Illinois Central:

Control Systems

12. Have you investigated the imbedded chip problem, where real-time clock circuits imbedded in electronic hardware may cause a Y2K failure?

ICR Response: Yes

13. Have you identified any Y2K problems concerning:

a. Signaling systems?

b. Interlocking plants?

c. Dispatching office systems?

d. Telecommunications systems, both fixed and mobile, internal and commercial?

e. Grade crossing signals and grade crossing signal event recorders?

f. Tunnel ventilation fans?

g. Draw bridges?

h. Wayside failed-equipment detectors?

i. Automatic equipment identification system readers?

ICR Response: This category represents the greatest risk to ICR based on our analysis of core business processes and the impacts of Year 2000 failures. ICR policy is to test mission- and safety-critical hardware, software and embedded systems regardless of whether they have been certified Year 2000 ready by the vendor. ICR tests indicate that signals and highway grade crossing devices do not employ date calculations. This finding is consistent with rail industry research.

ICR is dependent on third party vendors for Year 2000 readiness of key systems and equipment. The vendor of the dispatching system provided ICR with a written Year 2000 readiness statement. ICR completed its own Year 2000 tests of the hardware and software in May 1998. ICR will continue to test this system during 1999 to confirm that vendor maintenance and software upgrades have not affected Year 2000 readiness. Another third-party vendor supports the transportation management system. This vendor provides bimonthly updates on Year 2000 readiness to ICRs information technology steering committee. Vendor remediation of the transportation management system is complete and integration testing by the vendor was completed during 1998. ICR will review this vendors Year 2000 test methodology and results during 1999."

"Kansas City Southern:

grade crossing signals and grade crossing signal event recorders? Answer  No operational problems have been identified. However, some older event recorders will require the date to be reset. "

"Norfolk Southern:

Grade Crossing Signals - No, and grade crossing signal event recorders - No "

"Union Pacific:

e.Grade crossing signals NO and grade crossing signal event recorders?

YES, some event recorders will require resetting the date after 1/1/2000."

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 19, 2000.