CBH's train illumination pledge hits a stumbling block
The farmer-owned co-operative pledged 18 months ago to install LED beacon lights on the front of its locomotives by 'early 2025' in response to a national campaign pushing for improved lighting on trains.
Once complete, the upgrades will make CBH an industry leader in train illumination, with trains only required to have headlights and 'ditch lights', which illuminate the side of the track for train driver visibility.
CBH's upgrades involve installing 12 new lights on each locomotive — including four on each side, two on the front eyebrow, and two at the rear eyebrow.
The company started installing lighting panels on 'current and future locomotives' in October 2023.
When probed for an update, CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw told Countryman the works were 'taking longer than expected' but the co-operative remained committed to 'continuing the lighting installation program on our locomotives'.
'The program is progressing well but taking longer than expected,' he said.
'After an extensive design and review process, installation has been aligned to the component change out program.
'(This means) when a loco receives a new engine or alternator (it receives the lighting installation), to ensure there is sufficient time to complete each loco with a full upgrade.
'Eleven out of 25 CBH locos have now had the full, three component initiatives installed: that is, LED headlight upgrades, ditch lighting upgrades, and side and brow beacon lighting installed.'
Mr Daw revealed CBH was working on a trial of photoluminescent strips on grain wagons to enhance visibility.
He said initial trials showed the strips 'did not work as well' as the co-operative had hoped.
'However, our next trial is under way where we have installed alternate yellow and green strips,' he said.
'Independent of the trials, currently every wagon has reflectors on them that reflect vehicle lights when shone on.'
The new LED beacon lights will be positioned on narrow and standard-gauge locomotives, which CBH Group believes will enhance train visibility, without compromising the safety of road users or train drivers.
The eyebrow lights will flash when the horn is operated, in-sync with the existing bottom ditch light, in the direction of travel. The remaining eight side lights will also illuminate when the horn is sounded, however will remain extinguished all other times.
The current lighting configuration on CBH locomotives meets Australian Standards, which feature two headlights, two marker lights, locomotive number lights on the top headboard of the locomotive, and two ditch lights on the bottom.
The ditch lights flash when the horn is sounded.
The move comes after years of campaigning by a group of 12 families who have lost family in rail-crossing accidents, including four from regional WA — the Jensen, Broad, Smith and Dempster families.
The campaign — by the Improve Train Lighting and Level Crossing Safety Group — also called for CBH to bolster lighting and visibility for wagons, which can stretch hundreds of metres behind locomotives with limited lighting and operate on more than 2000km of track in mainly regional WA.
Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation's most recent freight train visibility report revealed there were 98 collisions occurring between trains and vehicles at passive crossings between 2015 and 2021.
In all, 32 collisions occurred at night with rolling stock (33 per cent) and 55 collisions occurred at passive crossings with rolling stock (56 per cent) day and night combined.
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