Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Dig This

Our friend Jeron Glander sends us pictures of another busy day at the Museum.   Since I don't live out there, I would miss a lot if I didn't have trusty reporters helping out with the breaking news.


Jeron, Rich Schauer, Bob Olson, and Gerry Dettloff helped get our little blue friend on his way.





At the south end of the property, work is progressing rapidly on the car line extension.

But even more astounding:




Work has started on installing the double-track streetcar line, working west from the Central Avenue crossing.  The street has to be excavated down to a stable layer of soil, on which the gravel roadbed can be compacted, followed by ties, rail, and pavement.  As Jeron points out, the view of the current wye track gives a good idea of what it will look like in cross-section.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was hoping we were actually going to see four sets of diamonds for the CRT extension over the streetcar tracks. Or perhaps simply an extension of the CRT. The extending streetcar tracks would involve a lot of asphalt removal that was recently placed, plus complicated rails in the wye switch area.

Patrick Cunningham, CISM, CDPSE, FAI said...

So how is that going to work (streetcar service) with the trolley bus wires also over the street?

Randall Hicks said...

I don't have the exact details available, but I know it's all been planned out. We will keep you informed as work takes place. For now, though, it's just one of those mysteries well calculated to keep you in.... suspense!!

Ben Rohling said...

There are photos of streetcars sharing the "hot" wire with busses out there...... Can't wait to see this happen..... Thanks for sharing!

Tony Gura said...

As Ben Rohling said, the streetcars and trolley buses both use the same positive wire to collect power. This is done all the time in San Francisco where the F-Market and several Muni trolley bus lines use the same wire. This is the last situation I am aware of this occurring in the country, outside of possibly at museums.

However, the Muni Metro light rail trains are unable to share the same wire with the trolley buses since their pantographs could contact the negative wire and cause a dead short. Most of their turnouts are designed for both trolley poles and pantographs where the pans are depressed below the frog to avoid contacting it.