Random observations around the network ...

[red dragin]

Was definitely a carriage and not an RM.

Very round windows. The RM reference was to the bare stainless steel finish.

[ozbob]

DEL with a stainless steel carriage (think RM finish but Sunlander shape) and an old open car wagon south through Petrie at about 8.30am. That was the entire train 

Was driving so no photo.

Certainly wasn't an M or L series. Closer to an SX trailer but had round windows and single doors at each end (working from memory).

Also spotted an NGR Kippa Ring bound at Mango Hill Station at about 10.30am. Didn't see which number.

I have asked on the QRIG list to see if anyone might know what the train was.

[jesse]

DEL with a stainless steel carriage (think RM finish but Sunlander shape) and an old open car wagon south through Petrie at about 8.30am. That was the entire train 

Was driving so no photo.

Certainly wasn't an M or L series. Closer to an SX trailer but had round windows and single doors at each end (working from memory).

Also spotted an NGR Kippa Ring bound at Mango Hill Station at about 10.30am. Didn't see which number.

NGR 716 was the unit you are referring to Red! Saw it passing through Bray Park heading back to the city

[ozbob]

DEL with a stainless steel carriage (think RM finish but Sunlander shape) and an old open car wagon south through Petrie at about 8.30am. That was the entire train 

Was driving so no photo.

Certainly wasn't an M or L series. Closer to an SX trailer but had round windows and single doors at each end (working from memory).

Also spotted an NGR Kippa Ring bound at Mango Hill Station at about 10.30am. Didn't see which number.

I have asked on the QRIG list to see if anyone might know what the train was.

A response was ' Power car refurbishment for or ex Bohle '

[red dragin]

Thanks. With that information, according to RailPage it is a common transfer.

Power car explains why it looked different 

[ozbob]

NGR UP Goodna 3.22am lite up

Night 🌃 moves. .

[ozbob]

NGR UP GOODNA 4.08am lite
Interesting as inner closure might have been out on Goldie and back via Tennyson.

[ozbob]

UP coalie 3.40am Goodna.  Closure has not stopped them

[brissypete]

UP coalie 3.40am Goodna.  Closure has not stopped them

Seems fairly common for the dual guage line to remain open as I often see coalies during closures at Fairfield.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

[300LA]

RP train (arriving in the city about 8:12 -few min late) was the busiest I've ever seen it this morning.

On a side note, RP trains run at 6min and 12min headway during the am peak. I'm assuming the 12min headway is to let a Northgate starter(?) use the up-main?

[red dragin]

RP train (arriving in the city about 8:12 -few min late) was the busiest I've ever seen it this morning.

Possibly to do with the price gouging on petrol. Costco can sell E10 for 132.7, why can't the rest get under 158+ ....?

No traffic on the Bruce Highway (Pine River) on Monday when I went through, usually 40-60 km/hr at about 8.40am. Didn't go that way yesterday nor today, but Google Maps showed green well before then for that section.

I'll try to remember to swing through Murrumba Downs Station car park tomorrow and see if there are more cars in there.

[red dragin]

I'll try to remember to swing through Murrumba Downs Station car park tomorrow and see if there are more cars in there.

Went through yesterday and today, no noticeable difference. Maybe a few more cars, but only 10 or 15 at the most.

Car park today was less than 40% full.

[kram0]

I saw an NGR train operating on the Doomben line this morning to Park Rd.

[ozbob]

I saw an NGR train operating on the Doomben line this morning to Park Rd.

There are some scheduled NGR services on a Saturday

From > http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=3706.msg208319#msg208319

[not_available]

Shorncliffe train on mains just after bowen hills. And another one on subs just after. Then late BNE on mains. EMU 22(or 21) / 73 stationary lights off before p1 fortitude valley. What is going on?

[Fattious]

Breakdown. Delays 10 minutes all lines.

[Stillwater]

On-board voice message on train pulling into Roma Street Station this afternoon: "For your convenience, Queensland Rail has placed the platform on the left-hand side. Trying to alight on the right-hand side will lead to disappointment."

[red dragin]

Pre-recorded or one of the guards with a sense of humour?

[Stillwater]

The latter.

[ozbob]

IT News --> Queensland Rail swaps direct IT ownership for the cloud

As part of managed services refresh.

Queensland Rail will "cease" direct ownership of its IT infrastructure and shift to a solely cloud-based operating environment by July next year.

The government-owned rail operator revealed the plans as part of a refresh of its managed services outfit.

Centralised IT services are currently delivered by the agency's internal provider 'ICT' in tandem with several managed service providers.

This includes overseeing 437 applications – 132 of which are considered business critical – and managing in excess of 8000 end user devices to more than 6500 staff.

The agency migrated to a managed service for data centres, service desk and on-site field support, and application management in 2012 in a bid to better handle peaks and growth in demand.

It handed Logica a $33 million deal for the work, which included managing the first phase of the move away from IT infrastructure shared with rail freight giant QR National (which has since become Aurizon).

Queensland Rail is now looking to refresh that contract, and in doing so adjust its "target operating model and services scope in order to achieve a more sustainable and beneficial business outcome".

It wants to appoint up to two suppliers to provide core IT services for up to the next seven years.

As part of this it will ditch its IT infrastructure ownership model in favour of cloud to address challenges that stem from managing service integration from a number of internal and external providers.

"To ensure that ICT can continue to be relevant and responsive to Queensland Rail's business strategy, internal resources are focused on adding business value," tender documents state.

"ICT is seeking to address this challenge by ceasing to have director ownership of IT infrastructure in preference to private and public cloud services."

This will begin with "an immediate sale of data centre assets" and gradual replacement of "expendable items such as desktops by fully packaged 'as a service' offerings".

The agency currently has two data centres in Brisbane, which "the [successful] supplier will be required to purchase" and transition to an IaaS cost model.

In doing so it hopes to leverage "the full extent of IaaS features such as agility and scalability", while retaining accountability for planning, build and delivery of IT services.

It wants the first tranche of services (service integration, service management, and service desk) to transition by July 2019.

Managed application services, end user compute services, infrastructure and cloud services and security operations will then transition between July 2019 and January 2020.

The agency said it would consider appointing a supplier for each tranche, but may also use a single supplier in a bid to rationalise service providers.

[ozbob]

^

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1003895386379964416

[Stillwater]

Some shire councils have done this - seems to work for them.

https://www.technologyonecorp.com/about-us/media/news/articles/noosa-council-heads-into-the-cloud

[red dragin]

We're switching to the cloud at work at the moment (small real estate).

For us it's a logical step. Data access and backup, not to mention eliminating an ageing server and its power consumption. Everything we use is already Web based aside from the property management software which gets changed to a cloud product on June 30th.

[JustSomeTrainGuy]

I noticed an EMU with "Qantas Express" displayed on it's LED desto display at Taringa heading down about 4:30 AM a few mornings ago. Strangely, I've also seen "Bundaberg" displayed on an SMU heading up from Toowong in the past.

[ozbob]

I noticed an EMU with "Qantas Express" displayed on it's LED desto display at Taringa heading down about 4:30 AM a few mornings ago. Strangely, I've also seen "Bundaberg" displayed on an SMU heading up from Toowong in the past.

They have some fun from time to time.  Steve Austin ABC Radio said he saw a train with desto ' Take it easy ' today ..

This comes from this old marketing grab:

[red dragin]

Saw one with QE2 Stadium once. I think there was an event on though.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Saw one with QE2 Stadium once. I think there was an event on though.

Would have been displaying ANZ Stadium. Code 56 or whatever it was at the time.

[Paul B]

Was at RBWH platform 1 about 5pm today. Noticed (yet again) 66's due to depart were just sitting a few metres away from the platform with the driver sitting there. Maybe they have to leave slightly later because of timetable fat??? Also noticed routes like 310,335,346 take an awful lot of time to just get OFF the busway, and yet don't serve the valley (Gipps St, which isn't handy for many)
so we all crammed on to the 333 and 330's with plenty of manspreading and seat hogging, whilst the 66 sat idle behind us. Then he decided to pull up to the platform as the 66 behind it was also coming in (sighs)...
Maybe someone in control decides these things, who knows.
The frequency from RBWH to the valley is poor out of peak (weekends its not even worth it) given the 370 and 375 are both running infrequently.
Maybe a single route from RBWH to the valley or maybe Valley/Kangaroo point would be something in the interim while they wait for the metro?

[Cazza]

The 66 sits just before the platform because it starts here at RBWH and runs to UQ. It doesn't sit on the platform because it:
A-takes up valuable space on this short and busy platform waiting until the start of it's route and
B-lets commuters board other services so they don't sit on this idle bus until it's time to depart.

I think if timed correctly on weekends, you could have the 370 and 375 (which run every 30 mins each) combine for a 15 min RBWH to Valley frequency (in addition to the other Valley routes). As HappyTrainGuy will be more than happy to point out , the northside bus network does need a significant overhaul.

[Paul B]

I'm talking about late by 5 min 66s hence two arriving at once and severely slowing down 333/330s

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1006998249197039616

[tazzer9]

Noticed the Aurizon rail grinder in sunshine yard yesterday.   I didn't know that rollingstock still ever used this yard.   Possibly to do with the QR ballast trains in mayne north yard and albion.   Also a funny, that first sentence works perfectly in victoria as well.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1007396085713682432

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1007397337235197952

[Stillwater]

Yesterday's (Thursday's) southbound Gympielander was due to arrive at Nambour at 6.59am, but turned up about 20 minutes late due to a 'computer problem', intending passengers were told.

[Arnz]

Yesterday's (Thursday's) southbound Gympielander was due to arrive at Nambour at 6.59am, but turned up about 20 minutes late due to a 'computer problem', intending passengers were told.

Probably the ATP again.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/1008150756510199808

[not_available]

what's it say on 718's pid?

[ozbob]

Queensland Rail

[not_available]

Queensland Rail

Thanks, haven't seen that before.