Melbourne level crossings

Getting back to Western Tport in Melbourne, they would give you some pickups (all over the ruddy place) then, usually around sunset, you'd back into the dock to load the general for Townsville.
The dock hands were hot the trot to go home (I can't blame them) but they got upset when I wanted to cross rope each gate as we were loading, once the gates were full the curtains were hung. (sorta)
They then carried on stacking freight on, then we rolled the under tarp out and it was tied ( just enough to keep it there) then the same with the cap, all ropes off the ground so I would not run over them when I drove out of the shed, into the rain and cold at about 9.30 pm >
About 2hr later I left, wet, cold, finger bleeding from tying ropes, then all these low bridges to get around, bad memories. >

Low Bridges, my actual first Interstate trip 1972 I had loaded the trailer with baulks of square timber at the rear in the middle I had loaded knocked down wheel barrows at Federal Wheel barrows Sydney. Then I loaded cardboard cartons at the front to above the gates, It was then decided to top it all off with sink units, all complete with their cardboard protective edges. by the time I got sheeted up the cap did not meet the curtains at the front, the gaps were filled with cardboard, The front of the trailer was higher than the rear. I had a shower and an hours kip and away, about halfway up the Pacific Highway there was a bend in the road with a railway bridge over it all supported by timber it had 12' 3" in faded paint on the support, I was in a bonneted MAN and I was hanging out of the window trying to see the front of the trailer go under the bridge, it did OK. I got to Brisbane and I remember being on the Ipswich Road near I think Wooloongabba. I was on a slope with a steel bridge on it it said 12' 8" the lower edge was mangled with previous load contacts, I inched the cab under the bridge, bearing in mind I'd been under a bridge with 12' 3" on it, I got the front of the trailer under the bridge and I thought it was OK but I was on a slope, as I drove forward I saw pedestrians faces look toward me as the trailer front cleared the bridge. I stopped climbed up the front of the trailer and saw the cap was ripped back like an opened sardine tin and all the sink units back to the middle of the trailer were smashed flat, but what I later found was the wheel barrow chassis which were all stacked within each other were also mangled by the impact and were now solid lumps of metal. Never believe what you read on a bridge and is one height different to another on a slope.

I picked up my new 100 tonne Drake spread (4 x 8 with 2 x 8 dolly) at Drakes in Brisbane and headed home to Kalgoorlie with it, in early 1993.
John Steel, my driver, was driving the Valueliner .. I was piloting in my Landcruiser .. and we stopped in Browns Creek near Bathurst to pick up a Cat 245 excavator to backload to Kalgoorlie.

It took us a week to get all the permits and conditions whilst we were waiting to pick up the float.
Getting out of Browns Creek was bad enough .. we were routed to backtrack to Blayney and Bathurst, even though the Mitchell Hwy was less than 20 kms away from the mine.

We detoured over 70 kms back to Blayney and Bathurst to get to 20 kms North of where we started from. It was all to do with a heap of wooden bridges North of the mine, that were seriously weight-restricted, apparently.

The fun started in Bathurst, when I discovered a roundabout at the Western end of town that we had no hope of getting around, with the Mack, the dolly and the Drake.
We were spread out to 14', the Cat 245 was over 65 tonnes, we were grossing just under 100 tonnes, and we were 5.1M high.

We had to call out the local cops in Bathurst to block the roundabout so we could pull straight through it on the wrong side.
From Bathurst we were routed to Orange, Parkes, Forbes, then to West Wyalong and on to Broken Hill.

We were cruising along pretty nicely .. passed through Forbes, and just started picking up cruise speed out of Forbes .. when all of a sudden, as I came to the bridge over the river just out of town, I spotted this sign .. "Maximum height - 4.6M" ..

This bridge has overhead beams supporting the side members .. so yelling out to John to hang on the picks, we jumped out and started cursing every useless, unmarried parents individual in the NSW DOT, that gave us a dodgy permit for a bridge that was lower than our load!!

We climbed up on the roof of the 245, and unbolted and removed the air-conditioner guard (no mean feat), lowered the hydraulics on the float until the tyres were nearly touching the deck .. then checked that we had 4.6M height .. and started to slowly sneak forward, watching the roof of the excavator like a hawk, as it approached the first of the beams.

When the roof of the 245 reached the first beam, we were spewing, to find that it cleared the beam by a good 70cm!! The bridge clearance was actually 5.3M, NOT 4.6M, as indicated!! :

We were spewing, that we'd worked so hard, and wasted an hour, to get the height down .. when it was all completely unnecessary!! .. :'(
Better that, I suppose, than tearing a few of the bridge beams out, or pulling an excavator off in full flight!! ..

Low bridges again '73 I got back into Sydney one lunchtime from Byron Bay with 16 ton of festering cow hides on my COE Mercedes 1418, I was told drop the trailer pick up another and load an International 180 onto the trailer with another driver go to Baan Baa NSW where our coe White had rolled. We found a yard just south of Sydenham, Sydney with a ramp to get the Inter on to the trailer by now it evening. The Inter had a stainless steel exhaust sticking way above the cab. About midnight we managed to get away I still had not had any sleep and as we travelled through North Sydney I realised we had to go over the bridge at Singleton which was about 12 foot or so. So I stopped at a 24hr petrol station and borrowed a hacksaw, up onto the trailer and onto the Inter we were now level with bedrooms above the shops, the noise a rapidly blunting hacksaw makes is unreal on a stainless pipe, there was heads at the windows shouting about not being able to sleep, it took a few blades and a lot of temper and arguing before we had about 5' of pipe chopped off and away again, I then had a sleep while my mate drove, we got though the bridge OK and Baan Baa in the morning for the load transhipping.

Not just incorrect signage, you have to take into account if the road has been re-surfaced as that can reduce your clearance heaps.
Had measured the boat plus cradle and we were flying along to the sandblasters.
Arrived and along came a furious lady, started tearing strips off the poor truck driver. She'd had her phone wires ripped off again. (each time it would take a bit of the house with it)
Sure enough, the road had been re-surfaced and raised a lot to prevent local flooding.

Nice shot of Rocklea Carrying's float.

Bit of an overkill, hey.
Later on they carried my mast on an extendable, the two of us lifted it on.

I can recall one effort, about 1960, travelling with the brother, who was driving his boss's Leyland Hippo and float.
We were shifting a Cat D8 in the Rocky Gully region in the SW of W.A., and we climbed a big hill on this gravel road, and went whizzing down the hill on the other side.

About half way down the hill, just as the old Hippo (well, it was actually new, then ) hit warp speed, about 80kmh .. I spotted this huge telephone co-ax cable slung across the road from posts each side.
It was about 12 feet off the ground, and it must have been 2" thick. I knew it was way too low, and yelled, "look out - a telephone cable!", to the brother, but it was far too late.

The cable hooked on the canopy of the D8, and as I looked back, I saw the poles each side bow in about 2' .. then KAPOW! .. the co-ax snapped and whipped back across the cab of the Hippo like a circus lion-tamers whip!

We didn't pull up until the top of the next hill, because the damage was done, and it was pointless to stop at the bottom of the hill, only to have to lose momentum.
We were stopped and were dragging the cable remnants off the tractor .. when along came a PMG dual cab Inter, full of lineys! :

They pulled up, and observed the remnants of the cable, with some surprise. The brother was a little apologetic, thinking they were going to start becoming abusive.
However, they weren't in the least concerned, and one of the lineys cracked a joke, saying .. "Well, we were sent out to find a fault .. it looks like we found it!! .. "