Queensland flooding

[CaptOblivious]

I know we have several members from Brisbane and surrounds. The recent flooding in Queensland is tragic, and I hope that our members in the affected areas, and their families, are well. I don't know what we could do, but if anyone there needs assistance, I suspect that the forum has sufficient critical mass that we can make something happen…

 

Having spent quite a lot of time in Brisbane recently (hell, I'm wearing a UQ hoodie as I type…), the images of the Brisbane CBD under water are shocking to me. I can only imagine what it's like for those of us who live there.

[westfalen]

The latest news is good in that the rain has stopped and the water is slowly receding after a slightly lower high than predicted, but as the water goes down that will bring it's own set of problems, the TV is already starting to report the stinking layer of mud and oil and goodness knows what else that is covering everything that was under water, one thing I remember from '74 is the smell that hung around everywhere water was for months afterwards. I'm high and dry but pretty much cut off from anywhere including work but yesterday and today are my days off anyway so I'll see what happens tomorrow, my brother who is a guard at Ipswich and his wife who is assistant station master at Bundamba have been told to just stay at home. If I had been on an afternoon shift rather than a morning one on Tuesday I might have been stuck at work instead of at home. I haven't been out much but this photo was taken yesterday a few streets away from my place (the caption says it's at Goodna but it's actually Bundamba, the water is usually a small creek two or three feet across in the distance of the photo. The Courier Mail newspaper website is a good one to keep up with what is going on for those who haven't heard, it's too big an event to sum up in a few words. http://www.couriermail.com.au/ One of the club members who lives about six blocks from me has had the lower level of his house flooded where his trains were stored but he and his family are ok. As I type they just announced on TV that a 13th body has been found at Grantham to the west where pretty much the whole town was washed away in a flash flood. As far as the real railways are going suburban trains are running to an optimistic hourly timetable but several sections of track are closed including the Ipswich line and many crews can't get to work. I've just seen some TV footage from a helicopter showing several trains parked end to end along the mainline, I assume to get them out of Mayne yard which went under water in the big 1974 flood. My sister-in-law's nephew who is a driver in Toowoomba says it may be 8 or 9 months before the line from Brisbane to Toowoomba, especially the section up the main range, is fully operational again and it usually sees a continuous procession of coal trains, but the rail network through the whole of the state is in a shambles, as is a lot of other things.

[ShinCanadaSen]

Good to hear you are doing ok, Westfalen. I hope the situation gets better soon.

[westfalen]

QR has booked me on for my rostered shift tomorrow at 1657 to do a run to the Airport and Gold Coast though I think that's a bit optimistic at this stage.

[Martijn Meerts]

We've never had it as bad as what's going on in Brisbane, but the Netherlands has had it's share of water problems. In the city where I live there's a fairly sizable river which used to cause floods occasionally. At some point in the 90s, it flooded the city center 2 years in a row, which was quite painful for those involved, as most of them had only barely gotten everything fixed before the 2nd flooding. I was studying at the time, but couldn't reach the school at all at first. Later they built some temporary bridge so people could actually get through the flooded parts and to the other side of the city. It's definitely a strange experience.

 

Here's a picture of what water can do to railway track, this one is from a massive flooding back in 1953. http://www.anno.nl/gfx/content/watersnood1.jpg

[westfalen]

That may be me on my way to work tomorrow.

[westfalen]

Got to work yesterday after a long detour of about two hours instead of the usual 40 minute drive, the main roads between Ipswich and Brisbane were still closed although the water has mostly receded. It was a bit surreal driving through previously flooded suburbs where everyone had all the contents of their homes and businesses piled up on the curb waiting to be hauled away then areas that had not been flooded where it seemed like business as usual. Brisbane is a hilly city and while there has been a lot of devastation there are also a lot of unaffected areas. On the way home after midnight the roads had reopened except for a short detour but all the flooded areas are still without power and it was a bit eerie driving around even familiar suburbs in total darkness without even other cars, it was like being in one of those movies where the world has come to an end.

 

On the rail front there was an hourly timetable based on what was operating Christmas Day on all but the Ipswich line which is only open as far as Darra but with most of the crews on hand to run the normal Friday evening services it was a case of signing on and waiting to be given something to do. I ended up with just a couple of short runs. All the trains that were stored along the four track mainline between Milton and Indooroopilly to escape flooding in Mayne yard got covered from end to end and top to bottom with graffiti but cleaning that off will be easier than getting an electric train back into service after being submerged in water. On a brighter note, with the Ipswich line beyond Darra not looking like being opened for a few days the authorities are said to be looking into opening the new line from Darra to Richlands a week earlier than planned as the new station has a large car park. It was also announced yesterday that all public transport in southeast Queensland including the airport line will be free for the next week to try and encourage people not to drive and keep traffic off the roads while the cleanup is underway.

[Guest ___]

I hadn't realized Brisbane was in that bad of shape. I have quite a few friends there, as well as other in Queensland, though most of them are safe and had little to no flooding I guess due to location or geographical terrain.

[westfalen]

Sadly the death toll now stands at 16 with one man's body found 80km from where he went missing. The only consolation is that it is not as bad as the current flooding in Brazil where over 500 are dead. Unfortunately there is always someone worse off than you are. One of the biggest problems at the moment are traffic jams caused by the large numbers of people volunteering to help with the cleanup operation.

[to2leo]

I wonder if the recent flooding is the result that Australia's climate is changing.

[Martijn Meerts]

It's all just preparations for the big end-of-world wave that's coming in 2012 ;)

[westfalen]

I wonder if the recent flooding is the result that Australia's climate is changing.

I don't think we've been here (Australia) long enough to know if this is unusual or not. The Brisbane River has a history of flooding like this with equally big ones in 1974, 1893 and, I think, 1852 and the early explorers who first headed up the river in the 1820's found flood debris in trees high up on hillsides that would make anything we've seen since settlement of Queensland by Europeans started look like someone left the bath running. It's one of the pitfalls of having a big, lazy river wind through a city, it makes a nice place to live but occasionally it flexes it muscles and takes back the land we've used for our expensive riverside homes.

 

I did a run on a train out to Darra, as far west as we are running, yesterday afternoon and the lower lying suburbs of Milton, Auchenflower and Chelmer were still covered in a sea of sticky mud that after a couple days of sunshine is starting to get that smell that anyone who has been through a flood will know. At every station we were picking up or dropping off people with shovels and brooms and mud covered clothes. Crews are still being told not to stop at South Brisbane station as although the track is elevated through there the station itself is at street level and was under water at the height of the flood. They say we will be running a normal service tomorrow (Monday) but I'm not too sure, there is still much work to be done on the Ipswich line where a lot of track was under water. On my way home last night whole suburbs were still in darkness as the power company struggles to check out flooded equipment and get everything back on line.

[Guest ___]

It's all just preparations for the big end-of-world wave that's coming in 2012 ;)

 

Pft, you mean the alien invasion.

[westfalen]

P.S. It has just been officially announced that service will start on the new Darra-Richlands line tomorrow, a week earlier than planned.

[westfalen]

Things are starting to get back to normal on the railways in Brisbane with a full weekday service running though the rest of the community is still cleaning up, on my way to work today through my own suburb I had to dodge a convoy of army trucks hauling debris from a part of the suburb that was under water. The car park at Yeronga station in the hardest hit of the southern suburbs is home to a huge and growing pile of what used to be the contents of homes, as I passed today there were three dump trucks lined up waiting their turn with everything from water damaged plaster board to washing machines just being dumped in one big heap. The Ipswich line is expected to reopen all the way tomorrow but the minister for transport announced today that the line beyond Ipswich to Toowoomba may not be fully operational for at least three months. This won't effect passengers much as there is only the twice weekly Westlander but as I mentioned earlier there is a lot of coal traffic with trains sometimes seemingly following each other on yellow signals. I did a run to the Gold Coast Sunday afternoon and people were taking advantage of free rail travel for a cheap day at the beach, on the return trip we were like a Yamanote line train in the rush hour. Tonight I heard control calling a freight train on the radio for the first time in almost a week.

 

An unfortunate side effect is graffiti, the photos below are a train I took to Cleveland this evening, all three cars of the unit were like this although some out there are worse, on this one you can still see a few bare patches that they missed. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say about 10% of the fleet have been done. They are units that were taken out of storage yards that were feared might go under water and parked in higher, but not so secure, locations around Brisbane. It is relatively rare to see graffiti covered trains in Brisbane as the graffiti cleaning gang at Mayne usually clean them off as soon as it is done, but they are a bit overwhelmed at the moment and several days with little maintenance is seeing a shortage of serviceable units so the painted ones have to stay in traffic. To me what beggars belief is that during the several days of flooding and chaos that followed some people had nothing better to do than paint trains.

[Guest ___]

I know tihs is going to sound stupid, but I never really think of oz having a graffiti issue with it's trains.

[CaptOblivious]

Just loujt of curiosity, are the catamarans running, or are the quays all underwater?

 

Shashinka: I've never seen graffiti like what's covering Brisbane. My wife says parts of euorpe are worse, but its hard to see how. At least QR does keep the trains themselves quite clean.

[keitaro]

Mother naures way of clearing the land I guess

 

 

I remember reading ages ago in some article that the entire east coast of aus gets hit every 2 or 3 hundred years by a massive tsunami hope that don't happen anytime soon,.... Or at all

[disturbman]

Just loujt of curiosity, are the catamarans running, or are the quays all underwater?

 

From what I've heard the quays are destroyed and the ferries safe.

 

Shashinka: I've never seen graffiti like what's covering Brisbane. My wife says parts of euorpe are worse, but its hard to see how. At least QR does keep the trains themselves quite clean.

 

Never saw anything worse than that in Europe. In Paris some trains are taged but the majority are clean if you overlook the propagation of engraved tags on the trains' windows and interior hard surfaces. :( :( :(

[keitaro]

aus is way to lenient on on graffiti and many other things i personally like graffiti if it's in a place designated for people to be creative.

 

I hate tools going around spraying some dumb shit ass tag for no reason. money cleaning it up could be well spent else where

[westfalen]

The City Cats are safely moored at the Manly marina in Moreton bay although the moorings in the river will be out of action for a several months.

 

We have a graffiti issue, it's not uncommon for two or three trains a night to get done, especially on weekends, but they are usually cleaned off before anyone sees them. A common ruse is to short a track circuit and while a train is stopped for 5 to 10 minutes getting authority to pass the red signal the rear cars are getting painted. This afternoon's MX newspaper says 90 trains were painted during the floods with cleanup expected to cost about $1,000,000, the article also says QR is to start sueing convicted perpetrators for the clean up cost no matter what their age (most are adults though) and using whatever means necessary. My shift tomorrow is in the yard so I'll probably spend the day moving units in and out of the cleaning shed though there is a rumor the cleaners have run out of paint stripper. We also have the problem of 'engraved' windows, if you see a pristine window in a train you can bet it's a replacement for one that's been hit by a rock or as happened to my train on New Years Eve kicked out onto the side of the track. There is a lot of graffiti trackside and there is a painting gang employed in painting over it but the flat green paint they use just seems to provide a nice under coat for the next lot of graffiti. It will be interesting to see if QR follows through with their new initiative to sue perpetrators and whether it makes a difference.

 

The floods have gone down just leaving the cleanup and rebuilding process, the first picture below is of the pile of debris in the car park at Yeronga station that now covers the entire car park to a depth of 20 feet or more. The second is another painted train in Mayne yard.

 

The last two photos show that mother nature hasn't finished with us. Heading west to Darra this afternoon the skies became increasingly threatening, thirty seconds after the last one was taken a tree fell on the overhead further west cutting the power and we coasted into the next station where we sat for two hours. The Ipswich line had been reopened for about 30 minutes then it was out of action again. While the suburban network is back in service the scuttlebutt in the crew meal room is that tunnel 3 (out of 9) on the Main Range climb to Toowoomba may have to be dynamited to clear the line.

[disturbman]

There is a lot of graffiti trackside and there is a painting gang employed in painting over it but the flat green paint they use just seems to provide a nice under coat for the next lot of graffiti.

 

That is for me wasted time and money. Better let the old graffiti and tags in place. It's a lost battle anyway and it's not like those type of graffiti and tagging was a real problem. There will always be someone to tag over anyway, why make everyone pay for the under coat?

[Fat Al]

I must say though, some of the graffiti work makes the trains look kinda...nice.

[westfalen]

I must say though, some of the graffiti work makes the trains look kinda...nice.

When the perpetrators throw ballast at you or chase after your workmates with a cricket bat you lose your appreciation of it real quick. The TV news tonight said two of the culprits have been arrested. The train below was in the yard today, it got off lightly, some units have all cars painted.

 

The other photo is a few streets away from where I live where the contents of the homes are still piled up on the street waiting to be hauled away, despite the convoys of trucks it's still a common sight a week after the flood.

[Kamiyacho]

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come

And I believe it could be, something good has begun

 

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one

And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

 

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train

Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again.................