Category: Overhead Works

Work has commenced on the long-delayed project of wiring up road 13 in our secondary operations building, which will allow for Variotram 2107 – which is stabled in this road – to be powered up and moved out of the shed via overhead power, as opposed to the wondering lead currently used. The first stage of this project – spearheaded by one of our young members Daniel Nguyen, with assistance from Michael Hatton and Infrastructure Manager Danny Adamopoulos – is to restore five sections of depot overhead troughing that the museum has in stock. This troughing was originally donated to the museum in 1980 by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences from Ultimo tram depot, with many sections from this donation already used for the overhead in Roads 1, 2, 3, 4 and 12. Each section of troughing selected will go through specific stages of renewal, starting with sanding, two coats of primer then a coat of electrical insulating varnish before assembly, then a final coat of varnishing.

February 2022

4th February

The best sections of troughing have been selected and laid out along the floor of road 13 to determine the final length. Pieces which have rotted ends will be marked and cut accordingly.

12th February

Brackets to support the overhead have been picked out from our stock and labelled.

19th February

The first sections of troughing have been placed on work horses for the beginning of restoration works.

Danny has also put PVC glue on any problematic cracks in the timbers. Once dry the wood will be ready for sanding.

March 2022

12th March

The first set of timbers have received both coats of primer, which will prevent the insulating varnish being absorbed by the wood

19th March

The first coat of insulating varnish has been applied to the troughing.

Meanwhile miscellaneous pieces such as side and triangle timbers have been primed and varnished for future assembly.

26th March

More pieces have been varnished with assistance from young member Nathan Woo. A trial fitting of the first two sections is expected to happen soon.

April 2022

9th April

Trial fitting of loose troughing parts has taken place, which will help determine the cutting and positioning of the various pieces in the final result. Once decided, the pieces will be permanently fitted and the second coat of varnish applied to the entire length of trough.

In the meantime, priming and varnishing of more troughing timbers continues to progress at a steady pace.

16th April

Completed sections of troughing have been labelled and stored for future final fittings. Meanwhile work reaches the halfway mark as the last several sections of troughing are sanded back and primed.

23rd April

Varnish has been applied to the second last piece of main timber troughing, with only one section and several loose pieces left to do before another fit out.

30th April

Several more miscellaneous pieces such as side timbers have been varnished or primed with undercoat.

May 2022

7th May

Progress continues on varnishing and preparing more side pieces.

21st May

More loose troughing pieces have been assembled together as full panels for eventual installation above Road 13.

June 2022

11th June

Works have begun on renewing the final piece of main troughing needed for this project, with splits in the timbers glued and clamped and sanding undertaken on other sections. In the meantime, more side pieces continue to be varnished.

18th June

With the glue now dry on the sections of timber previously split, these sections were sanded off before the first coat of primer was applied. With only another coat plus an application of electrical varnish left to do – in addition to the renewal of more loose pieces – this project is approaching closer to the finish line.

25th June

Both coats of primer have been applied to this piece of troughing, with Michael Hatton applying a coat of electrical varnish to one side shortly after drying. The other side still needs attention. Works will then focus on renewing loose parts for eventual joining.

July 2022

2nd July

9th July

With the main troughing timbers complete, works will now mainly focus on refurbishing enough side timber pieces for eventual assembly. Three pieces have been so far selected and sanded.

23rd July

Daniel has prepared more side timber bits and applied the first coat of primer to all of them. A second coat will be applied soon followed by insulating varnish.

30th July

With both coats of primer now applied, Daniel has applied insulating varnish to one side of the timbers with others to follow next week.

August 2022

6th August

13th August

A further set of side timbers and triangles have been primed and varnished. These are expected to be the last pieces in need of renewal before final assembly of the troughing.

20th August

All troughing parts for the Road 13 overhead have been primed and varnished and are now ready for final assembly.

September 2022

10th September

Danny has assisted Michael and Daniel in assembling more lengths of troughing. Good progress has been made with only two lengths of timber left to be assembled before a final coat of insulating varnish is applied.

16th September

Trial fitting of some overhead holder brackets have been carried out. The bolts for these brackets have been cut down to size on the ends. A final fitting will take place soon.

October 2022

7th October

November 2022

12th November

The final stretch approaches with Danny, Michael and Daniel making good progress on more troughing assembly. Only one panel is left to be put together before a final coat and hanger brackets are made before installation above Road 13.

In November 2020, a heavy storm brought down some trees alongside the line into the Royal National Park. One tree managed to strike the overhead; pulling down the wires and poles either side of it. Consequently, the poles needed to be replaced and the overhead re-erected and realigned back into position. The first few weeks were spent cutting back vegetation in the area where the poles needed to be replaced, and ensuring enough donations were received in order to pay the contractor’s cost of $5000 for both pole replacements. Once this was completed, the main work could begin.

• 

• 

• 

December 2020

In late December, the contractor arrived with their small poles and borer machine to install the two new 11-metre poles. Once both were installed, the overhead was tied to the poles with rope at a safe height, which would allow Overhead line car 99u to easily access the site for installation of new side arm brackets that would support the live wire.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

January 2021

Over the course of three weekends, the infrastructure team made a concentrated effort to re-erect the trolley wire to the new overhead poles. The first weekend on the 9th January focused on installing the new side arm brackets and attaching the main overhead wire to the new fittings, the next week on the 16th saw the pull offs re-strung and the overhead correctly aligned and centred for future pantograph operations, and the last on the 23rd was general maintenance involving the removal of kinks in the wire, replacement of any faulty insulators, along with several inspection runs to ensure the line was suitable for passenger operations.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Postscript

A time-lapse compilation video of the overhead repair work undertaken between December 2020 and January 2021 has been uploaded to the museum’s YouTube Page, and is available to view below.

With works on the National Park line all but complete – not just involving overhead but crossing repairs as well – reopening of the line is expected to occur very soon once final approvals are signed off.

This is a long-awaited project undertaken by John Holland Rail’s overhead crew; completing a task that was started when the National Park line was re-opened in 1993.

When converting the former railway line for tramway use, the overhead was hastily reassembled to allow trolley pole equipped trams to use the line. As a trolley pole can track a wire quite badly off centre, most of the pull-off installation was skipped for expediency. It was always intended to go back and finish the job, however as the line was perfectly fine for trolley pole operation this was a low priority.

Upon the arrival of SLR 2017 however, we needed to finally address this and make the overhead pantograph compatible. While several of the museum’s foreign cars also were pantograph cars, two had been converted to pole operation. Converting a vehicle such as 2107 would not be historically appropriate so it was decided to finally make the museum ‘dual-mode’ compatible as originally planned for maximum flexibility.

The job was too big and would have taken too long with volunteer labour, so John Holland Rail was approached to do the job over a 3 day period. In October 2020, the John Hollands crew visited the museum, and working with our overhead supervisor, collected up the necessary pull off parts the museum had stockpiled, assembled and then installed them along the line, using their appropriate works vehicles.

Postscript – 16th October 2020

A walk along the line shows the completed works, with the overhead finally centred under the track; resulting in much less stress on trolley pole mounted trams and the eventual ability for pantograph cars operate to the Royal National Park.

Further pull off replacement – March 2022

Prior to John Holland’s work, only one curve on the line had pull offs installed, using traditional Sydney-style ears that allowed only for trolley pole mounted trams. Some of these had deteriorated due to their age and as such, the opportunity was taken recently to replace the offending pull offs with modern pantograph-compatible types as installed along the rest of the line. Eventually every traditional Sydney-style pull off on this curve will be replaced, allowing pantograph mounted trams to traverse the entire national park line.

August 2020

After a long hiatus, the installation of the pull offs on the curve to the level crossing has been undertaken. Recent storms (August 2020) caused some damage in this area and while addressing those issues, the work to install the extra pull offs on the curve was undertaken.

Emergency storm repairs were undertaken on the weekend of the 15th of August 2020 and the opportunity was taken to complete the installation of one pair of pull offs. This used the railway style ‘bracket arms’ we obtained a number of years ago. The following weekend the next pair were installed.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Further work is required in this area. The National Park line section isolator is not a pantograph-compatible type and will be replaced along with other adjustment work in the next few weeks.

October 2020

Final works in this section were undertaken on the 10th of October 2020, and included the replacement of the old section isolator with a brand new pantograph-compatible one. A further set of pull offs on the curve approaching the isolator were also installed.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Below shows the end result of these works, as seen a few days later.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The work involved in this area now makes the route to No.2 substation pantograph-compatible and will put less stress on the trolley wheels of the older pole-mounted trams as the wire is more centrally aligned to the tracks.

Now that the leaning pole at the back platform has been stabilised, work can proceed with ‘tightening up’ the depot overhead.

This will ensure that all the overhead fittings are correctly aligned and enable pantograph equipped trams to pass easily.

Most of the fittings used are 2nd hand ex Melbourne.

• 

• 

• 

Photographer: Michael Hatton

On Friday, January 27th, the overhead department had a working bee and changed over 5 poles on the Sutherland line. The poles had been placed into position by our specialist pole contractors some time previously.

99u was used to assist this work.

 

Scott Curnow

 

The big ‘East Coast Low’ storm of early June 2016 caused damage to the overhead on the Royal National Park line. The line was closed to all trams as a result. It took several weeks for our regular pole installation contractors to be able to get to us, (being very busy due to the storm) and 4 new poles were installed on Monday the 27th of June.

This wasn’t the only tree down in the area. On the Sunday morning, in the cold and rain, an Ausgrid crew worked to remove a tree that fell during the night, from the 11kv power lines that feed the museum. The museum had no power at all for several hours. The RMS had bought in a small petrol generator to power the Rawson Ave/Prince’s Highway traffic lights.

The museum had a few weeks wait for the pole contractors. Their services were in heavy demand following the storms. They arrived on Monday the 27th of June with 4 new poles, 1 to replace the fallen pole, 2 more for other locations on the Royal National Park line and 1 for the Sutherland line. A crew of two with a specialist truck quickly get the new poles in.

With the new poles in place the overhead team organised a work day on Saturday the 2nd of July and after a solid days work got the bracket arms onto 3 new poles, repaired some other minor damage and inspected the line, performing other minor but necessary maintenance tasks like lubricating the curves.

The workshop wanted to take Ballarat 12 out for a longer test run, so a full inspection of the line was undertaken using No 12.

18th May 2015

‘Smalls’ installed 4 new poles on the Sutherland line between TAFE and Army during the morning of 18th of May. The overhead branch will move the wire to the new poles in due course. Due to another job finishing earlier than expected, Small’s used two trucks and crews at the same time and knocked over the museum job quickly too.

These guys have the right tools and equipment and can get a pole in quickly and with little fuss.