Re: Melbourne Z class trams

Judy Gordon (judyg@deakin.edu.au)
Sun, 24 Aug 1997 20:14:49 +1000

I have seen a tram broken down at Melbourne University and when the light
rail/tram emergency came they tied the patograph down to the roof (the panto had
broken) and untied the trolley and put this up the tram then letf under its own
power running special. They only problem I can see with this is the tram can
only go one direction. It could go backwards on the trolly but it would run
into problems all the time and run the risk of bring down the wire down over
crossovers.

Chris Gordon

cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au

http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~cmgord

Bill Bolton wrote:

> mccallum@melbpc.org.au (John McCallum) wrote:
>
> > I believe the reason for leaving one pole on the pantograph Z3s is to enable
>
> > the tram to be operated by the one remaining pole if the pantograph is
> > damaged, otherwise it would necessary for the tram to be towed back to the
> > depot.
>
> Form observations in Swantson Street a few weeks back, the "remaining"
> trolley poles on pantograph equipped Zs that still had them did not
> appear to be particularly usable. The trolley retrievers were gone
> and the pole was lashed to the roof. It would have taken quite a
> while to get the tram mobile using the trolley pole, if indeed it was
> possible at all.
>
> > A secondary reason might be that it was cheaper to leave one pole there than
>
> > to remove it. :-)
>
> I suspect that this might be the real case.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
> Bill Bolton billbolton@acslink.net.au
> Sydney, Australia