Access Lift - T1 Power Station

On the 19th. of October, John Inglis gave a presentation to the Lift Engineering Society  of Australia (LESA) on the design, manufacture and installation of the unique Access Lift in the Tumut #1 Power Station (forever known as "T1 Access Lift" at Arnolds, Arnold-Otis and then Otis).

NOTE! All images will enlarge when clicked. 

Above is John (JI) in full swing at the lectern.
I understand that the other gentleman is the DLI Lift Inspector who inspected the installation all those years ago.

Below is the invitation as issued by LESA..........

The following item is an extract from "Voice From Snowy", by Margaret Unger (1989) and is an interview with Bill Spradley, an Arnold's employee working on the installation...........

The evening was well-attended, from what I was told by Bob, with 47 people able to accept their invitations.

I could not attend for the simple reason that after nearly 71 years my back has decided to give me grief.

However, Robert (Bob) Deahm was there in the audience in company with Michael Yarrington and also Peter Gregory, Jack (Mister) Gregory's son...see the photo immediately below, with, (L to R) Bob, John, Peter and Michael.

John's talk was supported by photographs and diagrams, some of which are reproduced below.........

Photos above kindly provided by Bob Deahm.

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As  a footnote to this update I have a somewhat strange connection to T1, which, although the string is now broken, lasted for over 40 years.

It first started in 1966 when JI and myself flew (in a DC3) from Sydney to Cooma and then drove up to Cabramurra. I think the reason was to do a regular inspection of the installation and it was a two-day visit. This was when the original fibro barrack-style accommodation was still being used; "modern" Cabramurra township still being completed.

For the rest of my employment with Arnold's I never went near the place again and it wasn't until I took up the role of Area Manager for Otis in Canberra in 1984 that the connection was remade.

Our guys would do a regular two-day trip each month from Canberra to Cabramurra, more frequent servicing not required as the lift was rarely used.

(Note that when initially designed it was intended for T1 to be accessible to tourist groups. This plan died in the 1960s/70s and by the mid-to-late 80s there were no group visits available at either of the only two underground power stations in Australia - T1 and, further downstream, T2).

Around 1989 we had a major modernisation project, with the replacement of the unique two-speed floor selector by inductor switches on the car and magnets located in the shaft.

When I left Otis in 1993 we were still doing the visits but the frequency had dropped. It wasn't every month anymore but quarterly, as the (by then) Snowy Hydro were covering their own servicing for anything other than major items or any essential repairs.

So once again the connection was broken but was to reconnect yet again in 2006!

I joined a company in Canberra which was responsible for all the cleaning across all Snowy Hydro premises, including the power stations and in June 2006 I accepted the role of Occupational Health & Safety manager and also Quality Assurance manager (actually one hat but two responsibilities = lower salary!).

Once a month I would do inspections of premises and power stations, visiting Cooma, Jindabyne and Guthega - a day out from Canberra, returning late afternoon.

A fortnight later I would do a monthly two-day trip to the "other side" (as they used to call the upper Snowy region), visiting Cabramurra (T1 & T2), Khancoban (Murray 1 & Murray 2), Talbingo (T3) and Blowering (near Tumut).

So there I was, on that first trip in almost 20 years to Cabramurra, wondering just what the heck it was that was keeping me connected to Tumut #1 power station in particular and the Snowy in general.

In 2009 (I think it was that year)  there was a severe bushfire in the Cabramurra locality and a firestorm raged up the hillside below the lift house for the T1 Access Lift.

Apparently the fire was so severe that the windows on the ravine side of the structure exploded and fire entered the lift house.

Although all power stations are now controlled by computer, remotely from the Cooma HQ of Snowy Hydro, there are still small workgroups who visit the stations from the regional control centres.
But they are no longer permanently manned and haven't been for at least a decade, if not longer.

(See screen, below, which is one of many types used to monitor power stations across the Snowy Hydro. That shown is in the visitor's centre, Cooma, and also shows the Laverton gas P/S).

So it was that during an assessment of the damage following the fire it was (supposedly) considered by Snowy Hydro to not repair any damage and to mothball the lift......until it became clear that to do so would remove the only means of emergency egress from the power station for any employees who may be in there if a flood occurred.

So that lift will probably be kept in operating condition well into the future.

In 2012 my link finally became disconnected when I retired.