Street Car Track Switches

Hi Bobby

  To answer your second question: Yes some electric switches can be activated remotely by the motorman. A contact in the overhead wire will sense whether or not there is a current draw when the wheel/shoe/pan passes through. If the contact senses a load (the motorman has the motors engaged) the switch will throw one way. If it senses no load (the trolley is coasting) the switch will throw the other way.

To answer your first question: Lots and lots

Cheers

Jon

TTC uses radio controlled switches.  In the era of PCC cars overhead contacts were used but given that the TTC now has three lengths of streetcars this is now not possible. On the dash of the streetcar there is a NA button. NA stands for Necessity Action Switch a system that dates back to 1945.  It requires positive action on the part of the operator whereas standard street railway switches are power on or power off allowing occasional unintentional switch throws.

When the NA button is pressed the front antenna emits a signal.  The signal includes the streetcar number. The signal is picked up by a loop buried in the pavement between the running rails.  The loop sends a signal (via wire) to a controller on a wayside post.

The controller includes a memory chip, which records all switch activity: each streetcar number crossing the switch, whether the NA button was depressed or not.  Using a computer the speed of the streetcar can be determined, which direction it was traveling or if the direction changed (i.e. forward then reverse as in doing a wye).  

The controller interprets the signal and then sends a signal (via wire) to the switch engine either to move or to stay in its current position.  NOTE: If you turned at this switch on the last trip, the controller will try to send you on that path. 

A rear antenna constantly emits a release signal.  It is received by an exit loop buried in the pavement between the running rails.  The loop sends a signal (via wire) to the controller on the wayside post. The controller interprets the signal.  Then stores it in the memory chip or board.  The controller sends a signal (via wire) to the switch to unlock it so that it will accept the signal from the next streetcar.

As all switch elements are exposed to the elements, the radio control system is not considered a vital system and switch position must be visually confirmed at a speed where the streetcar can stop before entering the switch.

NA switches are indicated to the operator by a NA --> sign with a small arrow indicating the direction of turnout.

Photo source:  http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4502.shtml

"A close-up of a dashboard of a rebuilt all-electric PCC. The switches are, from left to right: NA activation (unlabeled black button in top left corner. It activates track switches), gong, sander (releases sand for better traction), signal bell, front doors open, M-G set (power system), treadle switch (allows passengers to open back doors by standing on steps), EM reset, headlight, defrost fan, center entrance (opens back doors outright), cab heat, advance lights (green light up top and other non-headlight lights in front), lights (interior), lights (interior, second set)."

In a age of budget cuts automatic switches do not always work.  Then the operator has to get out of the streetcar and manual throw the switch with a switch iron.  All TTC streetcar switches are single point switches where is only one moving blade. Railway switches typically are double point.  

IMPORTANT: Any operator manually changing a turnout must restore the mainline to its original state before proceeding.

In addition to the Necessity Action Powered switches you will find SR or self restoring switches which usually are spring switches on the second leg of a 90 degree turnout.

The TTC streetcar network is in the midst of a major upgrade.  The TTC has ordered 204 new 5 section articulated streetcars which are slowly being delivered.  The fleet currently consists of 15 metre, 24 metre and new 28 metre streetcars.

No indication has been given that double point switches usually used on light rail lines will replace the legacy single point switches.  

The overhead is being changed over to a pantograph compatible overhead.  Tangent wire should have been upgraded to heavier 4/0 wire by the end of 2015. The feeder system has largely been completed with only diversion or special service track to be done  2016-2019. Intersections should be completed by the end of 2018.  As of now scheduled pantograph operation has not begun.

The new 28 metre streetcars draw up to 50% more power than the four axle streetcars of half their length. But this is a reduction.  The small contract area of the trolley shoe and the older wire limits the current draw that can be done. Pantographs will increase the contract area on the wire and the heavier wire will allow greater current draw.

The matter of streetcar track switch controllers had not been settled as the last up date I saw early last year.

Wow! Street car switching technology is complex. Thanks all for your replies.

Maybe a silly question but what is the track gauge of street car lines in the U.S. ?   I always thought it was the same as main line railroads.  But somewhere way back in my memory, I seem to have read that it was 5'-0".  

Dan Padova posted:

Maybe a silly question but what is the track gauge of street car lines in the U.S. ?   I always thought it was the same as main line railroads.  But somewhere way back in my memory, I seem to have read that it was 5'-0".  

I believe there were many applications of odd gauges to fend off standard-gauge railroad efforts to over-run the trolley lines and run their freight trains down the streets. There was a 3'6" system in Los Angeles, but I think it was somewhere in the North-East that the 5' 0" gauge was seen.

Firewood posted:

Dan Padova posted:

Maybe a silly question but what is the track gauge of street car lines in the U.S. ?   I always thought it was the same as main line railroads.  But somewhere way back in my memory, I seem to have read that it was 5'-0".  

I believe there were many applications of odd gauges to fend off standard-gauge railroad efforts to over-run the trolley lines and run their freight trains down the streets. There was a 3'6" system in Los Angeles, but I think it was somewhere in the North-East that the 5' 0" gauge was seen.

Dan: Although many US street car systems used standard railroad gauge (4’ 8½”) many others didn’t.  “Firewood” posted why many were not standard gauge and the gauges used by those other systems varied considerably. 

I’m not aware of a system that used exactly 5’ gauge but several were wider than 5’.  A popular “broad” gauge was 5’ 2½”, called “Pennsylvania Broad Gauge”, that was used by Pittsburgh Railways, West Penn Railways and is still being used by PAT, the successor of Pittsburgh Railways.  In addition that gauge is still used by the New Orleans vintage streetcars and also was used by the now-defunct Cincinnati streetcar system, neither one of which are in Pennsylvania.  Ironically the Philadelphia system in Pennsylvania used a different version of Pennsylvania Broad Gauge which measures ¼” narrower but the Johnstown, PA system used standard gauge!  The former Baltimore system was even wider at 5’ 4½”.  Toronto uses 4' 10⁷⁄₈” gauge which is closer to 5’ than it is to standard gauge. 

As “Firewood” also posted the City of Los Angeles system used a very narrow gauge of 3’ 6” but the Pacific Electric System which also owned PCC’s and served the Los Angeles area used standard gauge. 

Among other surviving systems, both Boston and San Francisco use standard gauge.   

HTH,

Bill

Hello guys

I believe the Camden N .J. and Trenton N.J. Streetcars used 5'0" track Gauge  -- at least I believe that those 2 cities across the Delaware River from Philly used a 5'0" Gauge streetcar track  - that 5'0" Gauge is the SAME gauge as used for O-Gauge (3-rail)  and O-SCALE (2 Rail) track   !!

Regards - Joe F

What gauge did the Third Avenue Railway in New York City use?

Hello Bob

ALL the streetcar lines New York City,  (NY Railways, Third Avenue Railway System, Steinway Lines,  Metropolitan Railways,  BRT / BMT / B&QT, etc) in NY City and the suburbs -  used standard RAILROAD Gauge 4' 8 1/2 " trackage -- as did the Hudson Tubes / Path Rapid Transit,  and all the railroad lines and commuter lines ... as did the IRT and BRT old EL's and the IRT, BMT and IND Subway systems. 

Joe F

Thanks Joe F.

Hello Bobby

One interesting bit of long ancient dead transit history, heh ! 

Some of the first  (I think in 1907 or 1908)  order of the H&M (Hudson & Manhattan Railroad subway -- now called PATH) "black" steel subway cars, were delivered via car float from New Jersey, to West side of Manhattan,  and then thru temporary trackage,  were towed on streetcar tracks over to, and up the Lexington Avenue (I think that was the NY Railways Co) streetcar line one H&M car at a time -- to where the streetcar line crossed the IRT 3rd Avenue EL's "Surface Layup Yards and Shops Complex" tracks between E.98th and E. 99th Streets.  The IRT 3rd Ave EL yards and Shops connective multiple tracks curved off the EL from 3rd Avenue turning from north to west, at 90 degrees to the EL, and headed westward onto the yards and shop complex which ran in between E. 98th Street and E. 99th Street,  from between 3rd Avenue west over to PARK AVENUE (and ending near the NY Central Railroad's 4 track outside mainline ) -- and crossed Lexington Avenue and its two streetcar tracks, at grade.

The IRT had two tracks which ran east to west and vice-versa across Lexington Avenue and connected the Park Avenue Half of the complex, to the 3rd Avenue half of the complex.  Well -- the IRT put in some 'portable" connective tracks and delivered the H&M Cars into the 3rd ave. EL's E.99th St Shops.  The H&M contracted the IRT (Manhattan Railway Division of the IRT) to install the electrical and control gear into the H&M Cars.  The IRT did the same to its own IRT cars when they were delivered new.  The completed H&M cars were then test-run road-tested on the stronger EL structure of the IRT 2nd Avenue EL.  And then delivered to the H&M Railroad back in New Jersey.

My one later possible theory in thought -- but I have not confirmed it - is that the IRT may have used an easier route for later following H&M car deliveries - and perhaps worked a deal with the New Haven RR -- to car float these later H&M cars,  from New Jersey, up to the Harlem River float bridges in the NHRR E.132nd Street freight yards -- and using the inter-connective trackage between the NHRR freight yards and the NHRR "Willis Avenue Station Passenger Terminal" (that station and tracks later used after 1912 by the new NY Westchester & Boston Railway until Dec. 31, 1937 closing of the NYW&B RR)  --  to tow the H&M cars thru that terminal and directly on to the IRT 2 track "EL" trestle thru the NHRR freight yards that connected the NHRR passenger terminal station tracks to the 3rd Avenue EL tracks just off the Bronx side of the EL's Harlem River Bridge.  Then towed down the 3rd Avenue EL line from E.129th Street station, Manhattan, to the E.99th Street Yards and shops !   That seems a more logical delivery concept for 1908 over the slow streetcar track route.

PS:  The NHRR and the Manhattanh Railway Co (aka IRT after 1901)  variously, used that same connective trackage under a joint service agreement, from the 1890s', thru 1905, for running steam hauled EL car type bodied shuttles from the EL's E.129th Street Station, Manhattan, across the Harlem River Bridge and down to the NHRR Willis Ave.  The IRT and NHRR alternated these trains, using their own - and similar appearing - rolling stock equipment and small Forney locomotives.  The NHRR had a small fleet of Open Platform Wood Passenger  trailer cars that were IDENTICAL in body appearance and dimensions, and running gear to the Manhattan Railway Company's 6-4-6 window class EL Gate Trailer Cars.  The NHRR Open end cars had end steps and platform trap doors for low level platforms along the NHRR Commuter Line running along the East Bronx (todays AMTRAK N.E. Corridor to Connecticut and north.

regards  Joe F

Hi everyone:  The first part of your question is  How many different streetcar switches are on a streetcar line?

Ans:  The are two main type of switches in the street or private right away of a streetcar line.  The ones that were used in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio (back in the day) were single point switches.  That means that there was a single moveable point on the curve of the switch that guides the streetcar truck to the right or left.  The opposite part of the switch does not have a moveable point, it is open.  

Today on the New Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar, the switches have double points.  To change the switch, the operator of the streetcar has a pole that he puts into the center of the switch housing and pushes it to move both switch points.  To me, a double point switch is more of a safety factor.

I think the streetcar switches used on one of the largest tram network in Europe (Prague Streetcars) use a double point switch and most of them are electric and activated by the operator in the cab of the streetcar.

Again' as far as  any of the switches in Cincinnati, Ohio today--The New Cincinnati Bell Connector--all of the new switches are manually operated and the only time we will get electrically operated switches is when a second streetcar line is built or if they want to take what few switches they have on the current new streetcar line and change them over to electric motor operated points will be a decision to rebuild the switch by management.

Sincerely yours Ivan Schlan

Hi Bobby...If you watch the Google ...Holyoke Trolley's: The final Days, one of the clips show the conductor getting out of the trolley to change the switch...

Gene