--- In TramsDownUnder@..., Hal Cain <hecain@...> wrote:
>
> Mal Rowe wrote:
> >
> > rnveditor wrote:
> > > My memory, which I have not been able to check with a photo search, is
> > > that there were stretches like this in Ballarat and in Bendigo, but for
> > > a different reason: this facilitated the detection of trams for the
> > > operation of the single-line signalling.
> >
> > Hi Rod,
> >
> > As Noel Reed has pointed out, your memory has let you down on this one.
> >
> > The contactors in the overhead for the Ballarat and Bendigo systems were
> > in the passing loops - not in the double wired sections beyond the loops.
> >
> > See: http://tdu.to/2550.att&size=o http://tdu.to/2550.att&size=o
> >
> > ... where you can see the contactors in the overhead at top left and top
> > centre. there were similar contactors at the other end of the loop
>
> However, in Ballarat, the junction at the east end of Bridge St
> (pictured a day or two agao, but now I can't find it! -- the double-wire
> overhead junction), in the middle of the single track section from
> Grenville St, had contacts on both branches; a tram heading for the
> Victoria St route would then clear the signals on the Mount Pleasant
> route, and vice versa. How it was wired I don't know.
>
> I have the impression that "following car" in Ballarat, at least towards
> the end, had to be notified to the opposing driver at a loop by the
> driver of the car being followed -- the signals didn't keep count.
>
> In Sturt St West I think there was only one loop, the next one towards
> the gardens was in Carlton St. As Graham Jordan says, it was not used in
> normal running, but available if required. In my experience, most
> drivers would happily wait and run late rather than use it, if they had
> a choice. The signal contacts on the overhead seemed just to be wired
> in parallel with those on the straight road.
>
> Hal Cain, who rode a tram on that loop only once (but drove through the
> straight track a couple of times)

Hi Hal

There were actually two loops in the Sturt Street West section from the end of the double track in Sturt Street at Pleasant Street, and the Carlton Street loop which was located basically at the present southern terminus of the tourist line in the Gardens.

The first loop was outside Ballarat & Clarendon College, the second was just before the Russell Street intersection. Both loops were visable from both directions for tram crews, in the event of the need to cross.

the phot posted yesterday was taken at the second loop, looking towards the city.

grahamj661
>