POLL: Beenleigh line upgrade

[somebody]

Between Yeerongpilly & Acacia Ridge was dual gauged first, in the early '90s, as a non-electrified freight connection between the Tennyson Line / Moolabin and Acacia Ridge.  Electrification and dual gauge Yeerongpilly to South Brisbane happened later, in time for the opening of the Gold Coast line first stage to Helensvale.

Is that yet another example of a QLD project which is a job lot (i.e. useless without the whole lot) being done in stages?  Certainly seems like it.

[mufreight]

Unfortunately the Tennyson line can not be acessed from the dual gauge line.
Had the planned provision of a standard gauge connection into the Mooloobin yards for market traffic been built prior to the construction of the Fairfield Road overpass things would be different but once again thanks to the beancounters not only was the freight traffic at that time lost but also now the potential to operate northbound passenger and freight services from the dual gauge line through Tennyson.

Huh?  For NG, there are points from the DG and from the down track.  There is also a crossover to the up track.  What is lacking is two roads between Moorooka and Tennyson.  Trains from the DG also do not need to conflict with the trains on the down to Yeerongpilly.

The current timetable even has a Corinda-Moorooka service at 7:27am.  I understand that game specials have operated between Robina and Milton via Tennyson in the past also.

A northbound movement on the Dual gauge line has to cross from the dual gauge line to the existing inbound NG line between Clapham and Yeerongpilly then cross the DG line to access the Tennyson line which blocks the inbound NG line for the movement, had the SG line been built as planned it could have been dual gauged which would have given direct access to the dual gauge line in both directions and a double track connection between the Tennyson line and the lines between Yeerongpilly and Moorooka, not only would this arrangement simplify operations but it would provide a greater factor of redundency when problems arise.
The original dual gauging betweenAcacia Ridge and Clapham was to enable the operation of electricly hauled freight services from Acacia Ridge to the north via Tennyson and Sherwood and thus minimise conflicts with suburban passenger operations.

[somebody]

A northbound movement on the Dual gauge line has to cross from the dual gauge line to the existing inbound NG line between Clapham and Yeerongpilly then cross the DG line to access the Tennyson line which blocks the inbound NG line for the movement,

Unless there is some problem with the signaling, this is not correct.  Link1: http://www.nearmap.com/?q=@-27.527642,153.013399&ll=-27.527642,153.013399&z=19&t=h&nmd=20110113
Link2: http://www.queenslandrail.com.au/NetworkServices/Documents/Yeerongpilly%20to%20Corinda%20and%20Clapham%20-%20NAG%20017-18.pdf page 50 (NAG 017-16) or page 52 (NAG 017-18)

[colinw]

Somebody is correct.  The junction arrangement is like this: (excuse clumsy ASCII art!)

                                               To Tennyson
                                                        /
                                                       /
DG ==================\=========/========= DG to Roma St & Port of Brisbane
                                     \              /
                                      \----/---/
                                           /
Down NG >--------------------/--------------------- to Yeerongpilly

Up NG     <-----------------------------------------  from Yeerongpilly

So to travel via Tennyson a North bound train on the DG turns out to the right and then joins another NG track which came of the Down NG line to the left.  The track then curves left to cross the DG track on the level and then pass under Fairfield Rd.

This layout can be clearly seen in the Nearmap image.

[mufreight]

Have to apologise here, I did not realise that the second connection had been made that went from the DG line to the southern leg of the triangle at Yeerongpilly.   

[colinw]

No worries.  I'm wondering if this junction has gone through a couple of changes, possibly when the old SG depot was removed.

I can't remember what the layout was when the non-electrified DG went in, even though I used to look at it nearly every day as I was a Beenleigh Line commuter right through the early '90s.

[mufreight]

Heve asked a few people but believe it went in when the DG was extended from Clapham yard towards the Pilly.

[ClintonL94]

Anyone got a copy of the timetable from a few years ago on hand?  There was one timetable that had a small number of Gold Coast via Tennyson services.

Heres some of the timetables that I managed to find:

Gold Coast timetables
July 2007
March 2008

Beenleigh timetables
July 2007
March 2008

If you require anymore please just ask me what timetable and I'll see what I can find in the web archive.

[somebody]

So the Beenleigh line now has LESS limited stop peak services by one/day than it had in 2007.  Oh dear.