"The poles are metal so they can sway." WHAT NONSENCE !
Tommy posted:"The poles are metal so they can sway." WHAT NONSENCE !
Durning the Loma Preita Earthquake, 7.1 magnitude, I was working at a railroad yard south of Oakland. In the yard there were steel poles with flood lights on top. These poles must be about 100 feet tall. During the earthquake they started to sway. Maybe six feet at the tops. They continued to sway for more than an hour after the earthquake. Must have been properly designed. It was impressive. By the way, I spent that earthquake under a conference room table in the engineering department.
645 posted:Severn posted:One wonders about the operational scenario for these kinds of thing in the event of earthquakes. Are the tracks "isolated"? Are the power systems? Etc... maybe someone knows, it would be interesting.
There already are electrically powered railroads in the Bay Area - BART and San Francisco's MUNI. Both have been running for years and gone thru a few earthquakes as part of the process. No, they're not high speed rail but both systems rely on externally sourced power - BART via third rail and MUNI via overhead trolley wire (plus those underground cables for the cable cars).
The cable for the cable cars carry electric current? That is news to me!
So, when the new train equipment enters service, should we expect to see a "fire sale" of pretty good, one-owner, stainless steel, double deck, locomotive-hauled commuter cars?
Have ridden in those trains in Switzerland. Nice, quiet, easy ride. At peak time, the Coravin station in Geneva sees about 30-35 trains in an hour. After taking a local up to the nearby Secheron station, you can see these trains screech past at 80+mph every three or four minutes.
