Monday 23 April 2007

The quaint, old Railway Station at Mount Lofty


Adelaide has one major railway line connecting it, through the hills, to the Eastern States, and along which all rail freight is moved.
The Mount Lofty Railway Station is at the apex of the steepest gradient on this local and interstate rail line.
If a coupling breaks between freight cars, one wonders if the last cars might plummet backwards, down to Adelaide at breakneck speed.
Here is a broken coupling on the ground and a rail car with no coupling. We need arrestor beds on the railways as well as the Freeway?

32 comments:

Z said...

That's one scary thought! I hope it is an extremely rare occurence, to find a broken coupling? -- Nice grouping of photos.

Villigen, die Schweiz

Michael Salone said...

What is an "arrestor bed"? Sounds like something Lynn would be into! *wink*

M.Benaut said...

Sure, Michael, I reckon Lynn has a couple of them.

Son amant est un type d'homme qu'il l'arrête!!

Please look at my post dated Friday 30 March and you will see a Highway arrestor bed being used to arrest the speed of a run-away truck.

M.Benaut said...

Z,
Sure is scary and I hope that there were no dire consequences.
Ich hoffe, daß Ihr Wetter heute sehr gut ist.

inspired said...

The station house looks the ideal place to convert into a little home... Be good to live in an old converted Train station could RUN ALONG the same LINES as the old converted BARN houses....

Anonymous said...

Well that is something. I would assumed they would have arrestor beds or places that slow the descent of trains out of control. I remember we went to North Carolina and they had extra roads off to the side for trucks or cars to use to slow down if they lost their brakes. I just assumed those kinds of things would be on railways too.

I like your photography.

Abraham Lincoln
Brookville Daily Photo

M.Benaut said...

The Salems,
You must be psychic. The old station is now a Bed and Breakfast joint. And it's very nice, too.

M. le President,
I feel like a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
I came across this by accident whilst looking for a goods train to shoot on a sunny day. I soon realized that this event had occurred and wondered about it's implications. If there is something serious going on, then it's not been publicized.
Last week I found that my Canon Powershot S45 had decided to die on me. This is one of my first shots with my new Panasonic DMC-TZ3. Would have liked an SLR, but this has 10x optical zoom, 7.2 megapixels, 28mm wide angle and a Leica, quality lens for much less cost.
Thank you for the compliment, but your shots are world class. I'm trying to be one fraction as good as you.

dive said...

What a quaint station in a beautiful setting, MB.
If my station were anywhere near as pleasant I wouldn't mind all the delays. Looks like a nice place to just chill out with a beer.

M.Benaut said...

M. Dive,
Perhaps I should have it renamed, 'Mornington Crescent'. Seems like the rules are a bit hard to follow.
Anyhow, when you get here, (eventually), I'll take you to all the places that I've posted and there'll be considerable chilling out to be done.
Refer to my post of Friday 2nd February, "Relaxing with Dick". That would be a good starting point.

Sally said...

Mornington Crescent, lol!

I think your shottie hottie from yesterday should hop on over to Naples, Florida for his dinner!

http://naplesdailyphoto-prettyizzy.blogspot.com/

isa said...

Yes, M.Benaut, please send in the troops...the are 6 bunnies in my garden at this moment! They are breeding like...rabbits ;-)

M.Benaut said...

Ladies,
We have much to learn from les lapins !!!

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

Not too hard to follow for a chappie like you M. Benaut. Come on over and make a move, do.

The arrestor bed, you're quite right Michael, i used to have one. Sadly it broke one night under duress. I've never found an adequate replacement, resorting instead to other sturdy supports. The kitchen table has just been reinforced, so...

Monica said...

..learnig with rabbits, arrestors beds... isn't it curious how no matter what subject the post brings it seems you guys are always talking about the same thing!!! It's so funny! I'm so erm... naive I'm just watching and learning...

;-)

Michael Salone said...

Sure Monica...you keep up that innocent front. I'm sure SOMEONE will believe you ;-)

Monica said...

he he Michael, sometimes playing innocent IS part of the game!

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

That's it, Mon' - keep the innocent thing going. I do with some success. WHAaaaat? :0

Anonymous said...

Hi,
it's 5am, I'm currently watching the news on France 2
http://video-direct.france2.fr/player.php?id=29

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

These are great shots and i'm curious as to how you got it into this collage?

Monica said...

Yes M.Benaut do tell. How do you make this collage?

M.Benaut said...

Guys,
Mein guter Freund, Herr Schaussengraben,,,
is going to teach me how to use a new programme to acheive this result. I took these shots on Friday and on Saturday he made them into this collage and sent them back for me to post. I will pass on better information when I know more of what I am talking about.
Lynn,
I'm truly, truly sorry about your kitchen table. It must have been a terrifying thing.

Anonymous said...

I helped my good friend m.benaut with this montage of his great photos by using Adobe Photoshop. A brief description of the process is... open all 4 photos in 'Photoshop', make sure all are the same size, increase the canvas size of the first one 4x with it sitting in the top left corner. Select all of next one, copy, paste & position in 'large canvas' and so on. Then 'flatten image', draw 2 white line to divide photos, flatten again and resize to1600 pixels W and 72 ppi then it is ready to post. Herr Schaussengraben at your service Mein guter Freund.

M.Benaut said...

Die ist eine sehr gute Arbeit, Monsieur Schaussengraben. Ich danke Ihnen sehr viel !!!

Monica said...

Anonymous, you've lost on me "4x with it sitting in the top left corner..."

:O

(the problem is with me, I know)

Michael Salone said...

Another way to make collages is with Picasa (free download from Google). You select all photos you want in the collage by holding down the Alt or Shift key, then at the bottom of the window there is an option called "collage" or something like that.

This one looks very professional though!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Monica... I meant that the canvas image size is to be made 4 times bigger than the first photo's dimensions and there is a option to leave the first photo sitting in the top left hand corner when it is applied.
Photoshop CS2 can be very complicated.
Michael's method may be easier.

Monica said...

Anon, I knew what you meant by 4x, but then... it's just that instructions tend to get me distracted, usually in the middle of the sentence I'm lost already. Told you the problem is me!

I'll try this and that Picasa sometime. I have succeded to register at a very challenging PORTAL once, so maybe I'll figure this collage thing out too.

Trueblue Bob said...

Hi Monica, I think it might be my poor ability to descride the correct process. Having just retired from work and after using the Photoshop program for years, I know what to do myself but need m.benaut's fine ability to put it into the correct words. If you wish to learn more about the technique, which not hard if you have adobe Photoshop. I am willing to describe the process more fully. ( I do not want to be anonymous anymore)

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

Yay Rob's out! Much better than being Anon. isn't it. Great tips there - not sure i've the courage to try but maybe one day i will.

Will try your tip first i think Michael. Seems safer for me don't you think? I do have Photoshop but i use it for the most basic of things.

M. Benaut: I have recovered well now, thanks. It was a very disconcerting experience i can tell you. Quite wobbly, i was. Quite literally like the earth was moving. lol. My man's quite handy though so it wasn't long before he was on the job. Legs all sturdy again. Eh? What did you think i meant?

M.Benaut said...

Lynn,
As I have said before, you are just a little devil !! And you are leading both Monica and Michael astray.
Neither of them are British, and we need to gently edge them in, to this sort of stuff. You must remember that foreigners are not accustomed to spontaneous British etiquette and you may be leading them on, all too quickly.
They probably think that you are teaching them something about carpentry. Just go one step at a time.
It's a bloody good thing you never mentioned the handcuffs, or they may have run away in fright.

Anonymous said...

Hullo

In response to your question, as I'm a train driver myself - we use a system called "Westinghouse Air Brakes" on trains - compressed air is sent down the entire length of the train. The train brakes are actually held off by the compressed air. When the driver makes a "reduction" (i.e. lets air out), the brakes will apply until the train air pipe is recharged (i.e. air replaced). If a coupling brakes, the air hose between carriages will pull apart (the air couplings are designed to separate in such circumstances), and thus the compressed air is released (dropping the air). This means that the brakes will apply and hold for a significant period of time - long enough till handbrakes etc can be applied. The driver will know the train has parted as he too will also lose air pressure and the train stop.

No need for arrestor beds, or concern for that matter!

M.Benaut said...

Howdy Anon, the Train Driver.

Thank you for taking the time to comment on Adelaide Daily Photo.

As this post is nearly 3 years old, it's amazing that you found it.

I have posted other stuff on the subject of trains and if you have any questions, I would always be happy to assist where I can.

I'm also a little crazy on the subject of trams !

Thanks especially for your explanation about the Westinghouse Air Brakes.

If you have any rail or tram sites you could refer me to, I would be pleased to hear of them.

Many thanks again for your visit, Benaut.

m.benaut@gmail.com