TTC: Flexity Streetcars Testing & Delivery (Bombardier)

[nfitz]

You're hillarious. Do you make fun of all fat people? Must make you feel really smug. Grow up.

I see nothing in that post that made fun of fat people. Acknowledging and approving of the fact that they've provided disabled seating for the morbidly obese hardly seems to be making fun of him. Can you clarify what in the post was making fun of Ford?

 

[Palma]

On the streetcar on Spadina and St. Clair you avoid these issues because it is on the ROW. Bit on College, Queen and King St it is a problem. One thing is I find since there are so many people on King boarding they already start to come on the street once they see the streetcar approaching so cars need to stop.

 

[Justin10000]

You're hillarious. Do you make fun of all fat people? Must make you feel really smug. Grow up.

Eat less. You'll feel better about yourself!

 

[Long Island Mike]

Since there are multiple tracks at Hillcrest, it would be nice if they could display a

• Toronto Railway Company ancient streetcar,
  
  
• a Toronto Transportation Commission Peter Witt streetcar,
  
  
• a Toronto Transit Commission Presidents Conference Committee (PCC) streetcar,
  
  
• and a Toronto Transit Transit Commission Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) streetcar
  
  

all at the same time they show off

• the Bombardier Low-Floor Light Rail Vehicle (LFLRV) streetcar
  
  

mock-up, all displayed in one place at Hillcrest.

WKL: Good pictures of Toronto's streetcars in a historical standpoint...
With the next generation of TTC streetcars on order what will be done
with the CLRVs when they are retired by the TTC?
Will they be sold off to another city that can further use them?
LI MIKE

 

[smallspy]

With the next generation of TTC streetcars on order what will be done
with the CLRVs when they are retired by the TTC?
Will they be sold off to another city that can further use them?
LI MIKE

I doubt that there will be much, if any, life left in the CLRVs once they are retired. They've been pretty heavily used and abused, and 30 years out of date to boot technologically. Plus, they aren't accessible which a non-starter just about everywhere. Sure you could rebuild them with modern control systems and wheelchair lifts, but at what cost?

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[Markster]

I doubt that there will be much, if any, life left in the CLRVs once they are retired. They've been pretty heavily used and abused, and 30 years out of date to boot technologically. Plus, they aren't accessible which a non-starter just about everywhere. Sure you could rebuild them with modern control systems and wheelchair lifts, but at what cost?

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

I'm sure that there's some 2nd or 3rd world nations that don't have the same requirements for accessibility that wouldn't mind getting some streetcars on the cheap.

 

[Jonny5]

I'm sure that there's some 2nd or 3rd world nations that don't have the same requirements for accessibility that wouldn't mind getting some streetcars on the cheap.

I would have said that's very unlikely, but then the TTC managed to sell some old clunker subway cars to Lagos a few months ago.

The controls though really do need to be replaced and I don't know how expensive that would be. These streetcars almost date back to the vaccum tube era.

 

[nfitz]

These streetcars almost date back to the vaccum tube era.

Which is exactly what you want in some countries. Countries like Nigeria need something that they can rebuild themselves, rather than having to rely on complex computerized controls like they make these days.

 

[leopetr]

San Francisco might want a few CLRVs to run on the Market St line where they operate historic equipment. They already have the necessary exceptions from accessibility legislation for it.

 

[Justin10000]

San Francisco might want a few CLRVs to run on the Market St line where they operate historic equipment. They already have the necessary exceptions from accessibility legislation for it.

The CLRV's are probably too "new" for the railway. The railway runs mostly PCC's and Milan "Witts".

 

[Markster]

Which is exactly what you want in some countries. Countries like Nigeria need something that they can rebuild themselves, rather than having to rely on complex computerized controls like they make these days.

Indeed. Some of these countries lack the facilities and/or money to build their own new equipment, but they do have cheap manpower for running and maintaining.

 

[Jonny5]

Which is exactly what you want in some countries. Countries like Nigeria need something that they can rebuild themselves, rather than having to rely on complex computerized controls like they make these days.

It doesn't work like that. Nigeria isn't magically back in time 40 years. They are not teaching their engineers how to design vaccum tubes, just like they aren't using briefcase sized cell-phones or punch card reading computers. No one is making these computer components anymore. For all intents and purposes, this specific tech no longer exists on Earth (maybe North Korea, but that's different).

We're not talking about going back to steam engines that are just mechanical moving parts. The electronics packages from the 70's are as complex to learn and maintain as what we have now, only the parts are different.

 

[doug]

These streetcars almost date back to the vaccum tube era.

Aren't they from the 80's?

 

[Markster]

The key difference is that when a vaccuum tube fails, you can swap in a generic new one. When a modern Integrated circuit fails, you have to order a new one from the one company that makes that specific IC.

It may be old technology, but it's still a lot easier to maintain if you are constrained to using "off the shelf" parts.

 

[doug]

Streetcars use chopper controllers , which is essentialy Pulse Width Modulation.
This can be accomplished with an SCR, or thyristor.
Where are the vacuum tubes?