The title says it all. I while on my bike the other day, I had to wait for a streetcar to turn left at an intersection where the tracks give them the options of continuing straight, or turning left or right. There are no “swithces” that I can see, like the ones they use for trains.
So okay, do drivers steer the trolleys like a car? How to they avoid getting on to the wrong track?
I ride my bike pretty much anywhere within a 20 mile radius, so I don’t use public transit much, otherwise I’d ask a driver.
I’m not extremely familiar with urban transit lines, but if the streetcar is running on rails, there has to be a switch - I’m not aware of any streetcar that the operator can steer like a car. The difference between an urban transit switch and a regular railroad switch is that since streetcars can take such sharp curves (essentially a bus on rails) the approach to the points needn’t be nearly as long. Regular rail lines need quite a bit of space to switch directions, mainly because the switch radius must be a pretty low number - single degrees of separation.
In this photo you can see a transit employee manually switching tracks for a streetcar at a turnout. It looks like he carries his own tool to do this, as opposed to a regular switch that would have a linkage permanently attached. I’m guessing it’s a fairly simple matter of moving each point with the tool, much like a crowbar.
There are probably urban transit lines that have powered switches controlled by a central dispatch center, but since they run on the streets and have limited space for such things, the manual system is likely more common.
No, that doesn’t look right. The streetcars around here turn a LOT and there is no employee anywhere around except the driver. I’ve seen what you’ve got in your photo, but that usually happens at areas where the tracks are shoddy and they have to be wrestled back into place.
Often you’ll see annoyed drivers get out and go back to a section they’ve just past (particularly along long straight sections) and use the crow bar technique on tracks that are migrating out of place.
I’ll see if I can take a picture of some tracks where there is a turn. I honestly see nothing that resembles a switch. Although I believe you when you say there probably an automated one, I just can’t identify it. Streetcars here come every six minutes during rush hour, but they are far from being accurate when it comes to schedule. I’m not sure how the switches would work.
Yes, if you can snap a few pics of the turns, that would help out. Looking at the pic I posted again, it appears that there’s only one movable switch point (the one that the operator is working on) and only a guard rail and frog on the other side. That strikes me as odd, but I suppose with such a sharp radius, one flange taking the turn would wrestle the wheelset over far enough to not need a moving point on the other side.
The thing is when I look at the crappy condition of the tracks around here and consider that the Toronto streets get horribly coated in slush in the winter etc. I just can’t imagine a moveable part actually working.
Trust me you should see the state of the tracks here. :rolleyes:
The intersection I pass regularly allows streetcars to go straight or turn left, or turn right, which they do sometimes back-to-back. I would think that with a switch, considering how crappy the tracks are here, you’d end up with streetcars on the wrong tracks regularly, and there is really no way you’d be able to get traffic to back up the several tens of yards that would be required to back-up and get the streetcar back along its intended route.
The trams that I’ve mostly observed have been those in Melbourne, Australia. Once, when a tram was being taken off the normal route to go back to the sheds, I saw the conductor get off the tram to manually shift the points. However, at busy tram intersections, the point changing is done remotely – perhaps from signal boxes that observe the intersection at a distance,. and perhaps more automatically, by the system getting a signal from the tram about which route it’s supposed to be going on. In addition, the driver has stop/go signals, which are synchronised with the traffic lights for the regular traffic, and I think gets some kind of signal as to which way the switch ahead of the tram is pointing.
I don’t know where the OP is located, but if the streetcar system is at all complex, manual switches will be the exception and not the norm.
[ETA: I see on preview that Swallowed My Cellphone is talking about Toronto.]
In a city with a complex network, with several lines merging and splitting at various places, a reliance on manual switches would cause the system to grind to a halt (even more often than usual!). Computerized dispatching, in which a control center knows where each streetcar is and where it’s headed, allows switches to be set at the relevant times – i.e. not on a set clocked schedule.
I could see where a city that has a single functioning streetcar line (perhaps mainly for tourists) might operate with manual switches, but anywhere that relies on a streetcar network to move tens of thousands of commuters per day (e.g. Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento just as a few North American examples) is going to be automated. Not much of the switch will be visible; there’ll be an access plate flush with the roadway for maintenance purposes.
I just read the wiki article about Toronto’s streetcar line, and except for the odd track gauge, it doesn’t seem to be different than others. They’re apparently looking to replace the fleet sometime soon, and since several companies are being considered to provide the new cars, I can only assume that there’s no special requirements other than gauge and perhaps a special power pickup pole.
In this photo you can see a switch in the foreground. Though the left rail is too dark to really see, the right rail is clear. The switch is lined for car 4075 to come through (moving toward the camera.) If you look on that right side rail, where the track bends off to the right, you can see the movable switch point. It tapers down to its point, which faces us, and you can see the “notch” cut out of the pavement where that switch point would be if the track were aligned for car 4123 to come toward the camera.
Next time you’re out and about, see if there’s a similar ‘notch’ in the pavement, and if so, it’ll show you which part of the track moves.
Melbourne trams are switched remotely by the driver as he/she approaches the intersection. There are a couple of big, prominent buttons on the dash to do this. Drivers also carry a switching tool which they can use if the remote mechanism fails, or on little-used switches which don’t have one.
The switch/turnout itself is fairly similar to a railway one, but is a little simpler in design. The blades (movable parts) are shorter than a railway one, there are no visible checkrails as such (these are the rails that hold the flange in place from the rear when the flange on the other wheel is temporarily unrestrained by a gap in the rail) because tram rail is of a design that always has its own built-in checkrail for the entire distance of the route - so you won’t notice it, and for this reason, there’s no actual frog as such (the frog is the small crossing point in the centre where the rails cut across one another).
And of course, the whole shebang - which is simple compared to a railway switch anyway - is flush with the road surface. So there’s not a whole lot to look at, but it’s there.
Yes, that’s a good point. Consider my ignorance fought!
Since I live out in the sticks, I’ve had limited experience with streetcar lines - I’ve ridden in New Orleans and on Dallas’s DART line, and you’re right, it would back the system up pretty bad if all/most of the turnouts were manual.
Also, on older trams which have a traditional trolley pole with a wheel or small carbon skid that actually wraps around the contact wire, the overhead catenary on the route also needs its own switch mechanism in it. This is a major reason why most systems worldwide have changed over to the use of pantographs, which don’t require any moving parts in the overhead.
I’d be interested to know if those exist anywhere, but I think it’s unlikely. That would require railway-style signalling with block separation, and track circuitry. In tramway systems I’m familiar with, the trams (aside from the occasional T light) run under road traffic conditions using road traffic lights. Trams can and do get right up behind one another in queues, just like cars, so I think track circuitry would be unworkable - and probably unnecessary. The things are pretty light after all, and don’t really need it.
That, I’ve seen. Often a Toronto streetcar will start the turn and the overhead switch doesn’t work properly and the streetcar basically stalls mid-turn. The veyr annoyed looking driver then jumps out, runs in front of the sreet car and pulls the line and gingerly lines it up with the overhead wire again.
I looked more carefully at the tracks and there does seem to be switches like in that photo Blake Tayner posted. I had to look closely as I was crossing the street because they are actually kind of hard to see. They are also all rusted to hell and I can’t believe those pieces can move.
I had never noticed this about streetcar switches, but all the pictures in this thread seem to show that, unlike with railroad switches, where blades on both rails are switched, on streetcars only the rail on the inside of the turn is switched, and the inside wheel pulls the outside one onto the turn. It obviously makes the switch mechanism simpler, and presumably is possible because of the substantially lighter weight of the rolling stock. Interesting!
