This music video (I believe it’s Swiss) takes place on a streetcar. It’s clear the streetcar runs on rails, but the driver has what appears to be a steering wheel in the cab.
Is this a mistake on the part of the video’s creators, or is it accurate to some streetcar somewhere? And what is the purpose of this wheel?
One theory is that it’s a throttle, which is possible but seems like it could cause dangerous confusion if the driver ever operates a non-rail vehicle.
Another theory is that rather than having switches, these trolleys are somehow actually steered when the line splits. I’ve never heard of a rail system that worked that way, but I suppose it could be possible.
The wheel in the video appears to be this one from amazon.com so it was most likely installed just for the video in place of the normal speed controller, which on older streetcars and electric traction vehicles is often a rotating lever like this Westinghouse version or on newer vehicles it’s a more simple forward/back lever (by the operator’s right hand) like an automatic gear shifter in a car or the throttle control on an airplane.
I’ve seen streetcars that were designed to be hybrids. In other words, they were designed to be streetcars, but they were also designed so that they could be converted to regular street vehicles if so desired. I’m not saying that is the case in this particular instance, though. I honestly can’t tell one way or the other from the picture.
Thank you! I was trying to find a shot that showed the interior there. Your picture looks like an older model of the same tram, so a good hint that the wheel in the video is legit.
Here’s a video of an operator in Zurich. The wheel doesn’t appear to be like a normal throttle - a very slight rotation appears to start and stop it. But it’s tough to tell what’s happening.
It is weird - I wonder if it’s just done this way because of aesthetics (i.e. it looks normal to see the driver with the wheel) and ergonomics (it feels normal to be sitting in a driving position with both hands resting on a wheel)
Huh, I never would’ve guessed it was original equipment, but I guess so! The way these throttles work is not the way you would normally expect, hence why it looks kind of odd what the operator is doing. They’re basically relay contactors, with notched positions for different sets of resistances and parallel vs series connections. It serves the same purpose as gearing in a car. If they just gave it full power from a stop it would burn out the windings in the traction motors. So the notched controller is used to gradually ramp up the power for acceleration and to have a couple different cruising speeds. It looks like at one point the operator turns the wheel from right of center to left of center when reaching cruising speed, which could mean switching from series to parallel operation.
Seems to be primarily a Swiss thing known as a Stufenschalter. Tourists are puzzled when they see it in the cab of the Glacier Express.
At least in the 20th century, American trams, subway trains, and electric locomotives nearly all used levers on a rotary controller feeding current to the traction motors. As you accelerate, the lever reaches various detents called “points” where the current is routed through resistors of decreasing strength, and then changing the operation from series (for torque when starting) to parallel (for speed). A separate lever applied the air or electric brakes. In the late 1930s, the Cineston controller that combined throttle and brake on the same lever was developed, offering more intuitive and smoother operation. Apparently the Stufenschalter was an earlier iteration of the same idea.
I had no idea that Swiss reggae was even a thing. How did you come across the music video? (I hope it’s OK to ask this now that your main question seems to have been definitively answered.)
I’m pretty sure the “normal way of handling a notched control” is a fairly recent innovation. The size of the wound high-voltage resistors being contacted in various combinations seems to have led 19th and early 20th century designers to a simple solution that put them in a radial arrangement (on a vertical axis) in an enclosed cabinet about the size of a beer keg. The controller handle turned a vertical axle that made contact with the various resistor coils.
I think the throttle shown in your photo, from a diesel-electric locomotive, actually owes its concept to the lever throttles used in steam locomotives, which was doubtless the most straightforward solution for that earlier technology. By the 1930s, it was easy enough to create a throttle with notches like steam locomotives had used, but that was actually switching resistor banks—now so large they could no longer be in the controller box—in and out. Electric locomotives and multiple-unit cars continued to use rotary controller handles until the 1970s, when combination controller-brake levers began to be used on rapid transit equipment.
It was posted by a coworker in relation to an off-topic conversation in our work slack. I don’t speak a word of the language, but it’s utterly delightful.
A follow-up question. Are there trains/trams/streetcars/trolleys that can be ‘steered’ (i.e. left or right track selected at a fork) from inside the vehicle?
