Re: Pantographs (was Re: MBTA BREDA Light Rail Cars)

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz>]

Bill Kinkaid wrote:
> 
> >>
> >>> Now you have grabbed my attention.  Can anybody list the places in
> >>> Australia where tram lines terminated in a loop?
> >>
> 
> You've grabbed mine too. I grew up in Toronto, where places where streetcar
> lines DIDN'T terminate in a loop were unusual. Is/was street loopings the
> norm Down Under, or how else would they do it?

Most trams in the United Kingdom and all trams in Australia and New
Zealand were/are doubled-ended. This means they have/had driver controls 
at each end, and doors for entry/exit on both sides.

At the end of the line, they just run into a Y shunt. The driver goes to
the other end of the car and sets off in the other direction. If the
tram used/uses a trolley pole rather than a pantograph the pole has to
be changed too.

Melbourne still has a very large tramway system (much bigger than
Toronto's which is the biggest in North America) and all the trams are
double-ended and reverse on a shunt. Melbourne does not have any balloon
loops.

The new systems in Manchester and Sheffield in the UK use double-ended
articulated cars, and I believe the systems under construction in London
(Croydon Tramlink) and Birmingham (Midland Metro) are also double ended
(they look it from the photos I have, anyway). From the photos I have,
most of the new French tramways are like this too.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand

I remember the Ice Age. It was what they claimed was happening to the
weather before they invented Global Warming.