Streetcar Tracks on Adelaide

Bojaxs · Aug 17, 2024

kotsy said:
Call me crazy but I really like the spiderweb of wires that comes with our streetcars.

You're crazy.

crs1026 · Aug 17, 2024

kotsy said:
Call me crazy but I really like the spiderweb of wires that comes with our streetcars.

I'm OK with the downtown streetcar network, it's the unnecessarily severe OCS on the new LRT lines that troubles me. Big honking pillars.

- Paul

Northern Light · Aug 17, 2024

kotsy said:
Call me crazy but I really like the spiderweb of wires that comes with our streetcars.

Crazy is a strong word............but as you recently confessed to 'leaving the club' at 6am on a bike..............I think quirky would be fair, LOL

rbt · Aug 17, 2024

crs1026 said:
I'm OK with the downtown streetcar network, it's the unnecessarily severe OCS on the new LRT lines that troubles me. Big honking pillars.

I presume engineering spec'd them to withstand a derailed LRV or snowplow collision.

turbanplanner · Aug 18, 2024

rbt said:
I presume engineering spec'd them to withstand a derailed LRV or snowplow collision.

Some of them are 50+ feet from the tracks

DSC · Aug 18, 2024

turbanplanner said:
Some of them are 50+ feet from the tracks

If a pole is 50 feet from the tracks it is probably NOT connected to streetcar power. Hydro and the City also love big poles.

dowlingm · Aug 18, 2024

Bojaxs said:
Ugh! I wish the TTC didn't purchase all these new streetcars and instead looked at some kind of battery powered streetcars. Get rid of all this nasty overhead wiring. The intersection looked so much better without it.

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450583840/in-d-c-and-china-two-approaches-to-a-streetcar-unconstrained-by-wires

Bombardier had a wireless power technology, Primove. They sold it.

Wireless charging in the spotlight: IPT Group takes over Primove from Bombardier - Sustainable Bus

IPT Group has acquired Primove, the e-mobility inductive charging technology portfolio from Bombardier. With this acquisition, IPT combines two cleantech

www.sustainable-bus.com

The thing about these technologies in comparison to trolley/pantograph/third rail is that they tend to be developed in a proprietary fashion (e.g. Alstom APS) and thus create a lock in for that vendor. Specifying wireless capability for the downtown order would have reduced the number of vendors able to respond to the original RFP and they had enough issues there with the turning radius and grade change performance needed.

Primove would probably have been a kinda good fit for Toronto being below ground whereas APS is ground level tech.

jordanmkasla2009 · Aug 18, 2024

rbt said:
I presume engineering spec'd them to withstand a derailed LRV or snowplow collision.

It's not necessarily because of that. These poles have to support more weight from the addition of the heavier messenger (the wires that carry the bulk of the traction power for the contact wire between substations) wires and resist the tension forces that the wires are under as well.