The weather outside was frightful, but inside, it's so delightful...
Good progress has been made on the 460 roof project, and we're getting close to the end. My sincere thanks to the second shift guys who cleaned and lubed the ball-bearing rotators and installed them in the bases. With those in place, the next step was to insert the poles. I finished attaching the various parts, and then managed to lift the poles onto the roof and insert them into the bases. The main problem is the limited overhead clearance, but that can be worked around (after a few false starts...) Both poles are now in place and bolted tight. They haven't been tensioned yet, of course, but that can wait.
When it warms up, some touchup painting will naturally be required, but otherwise I think they're ready to go.
I also bolted the trolley cables onto the bases.
And I spent some time attaching the horn baffle and protector at the east end. More painting and caulking will be needed as weather permits.
And in other news, Tim continued work on the windows for the 1808.
And John was working on windows and other parts of the 306.
Norm Krentel and Gerry Dettloff worked on analyzing the 306's wiring. This is a perplexing task because of all the changes that were made since the car left the Fox River line in 1935, mostly by Shaker Heights. There's very little definite information available, so the required reverse engineering is difficult. Here's a sample of a diagram made back about 1992 when the first IRM restoration started.
And then you're faced with things like this:
Getting a picture of them at work was difficult. But here they are under the car trying to ring out the circuits. Not much fun.
But they won't give up. Watch this space for results!
At least there’s one shaker heights / fox river car within 40 miles to compare to. O Anderson
ReplyDeleteThe car that we are comparing the 306 to is our own 415 . It's still in the original configuration. Gerry D
DeleteOf course, but the point is that all of the surviving cars were modified in the same way at Shaker, and the exact configuration pre-1935 is hard to know.
ReplyDeleteSo, a strange question. When the conductor put the poles up (or down) when transitioning from or two the third rail, did the engineer need to change switches in the control cabinet? Or was the power "live" to the controls no matter what position the poles were in? Someone has recently posted a video (film) of the pole being put up while in transit. It appears the car slowed for this transition, but it's hard to tell. Thanks, always wondered.
ReplyDeleteI've also wondered about cars that were both 3rd rail and trolley poles. Is the 3rd rail shoe live when the pole(s) is/are up?
ReplyDeleteI'll leave CA&E and CRT/CTA to someone else more immediately knowledgeable on the details, but on NSL cars, it's either/or. There is a knife switch in the electrical cabinet to select 3rd rail or overhead wire, appropriately routing power from said source.
ReplyDelete-Zach
As with most things, the CA&E wasn't consistent about how this was handled, either. On the CA&E's wood cars (at least, the homegrown ones - the ex-NSL cars may have worked as Zach describes), the poles are always live, and there is a knife switch in the #1 end electrical cabinet that makes the third rail shoes live and is either open or closed. On our cars, we've removed (and stored) the blade for that switch, so the third rail shoes are permanently dead without having to disconnect any wires.
ReplyDeleteThe CA&E's steel cars, however, worked the same way as the NSL cars, with a knife switch that made either the poles or third rail shoes live depending on which way it was thrown.
On the 450's, however, the electrical cabinets were later modified so that the trolley poles are always live. I don't know why. And this was accomplished with large copper bars, so I'm sure it was done at Wheaton and not Cleveland.
ReplyDeleteOn any car, it was extremely important not to pull the transfer switch while motor current was being drawn. The resulting arc could be disastrous.
On the older Chicago elevated cars, there is a knife switch in the cabinet at the #1 end of the car which determines whether the overhead wire or the third rail supplies power to the car. Because of this, the trolley poles and third-rail shoes could not be connected together. However, the answer is not quite that simple. In the later years of the 4000's running in Evanston-Wilmette service, poles were only on the #2 ends of the cars, with a cable running at roof level between the two semi-permanently coupled cars. The 600 volt power from the poles was connected to the third rail shoes, but only on the odd-numbered car of the pair. The shoes on the even-numbered car were disconnected. This was done to avoid the situation of the two cars bridging the gap between two sections of the third rail distribution system. Because the number of crew people had been drastically reduced due to the ability of one conductor to operate all doors on the train, the throwing of many knife switches became impractical. On newer "L" cars like the 5000's and 6000's (and on the pan or pantograph equipped cars), changeover of power source was automatic.
ReplyDeleteJust a little addendum to this subject..... Randy, you're correct about the disastrous consequences of attempting to throw the knife switch while it is under traction load. Several dramatic fires which resulted from this unfortunate practice helped to hasten the removal of the last wooden "L" cars in Chicago in the late 1950's. My brother, heading to high school in Evanston, witnessed the sad results of one of these fires near the Jarvis station.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I remember looking in the power cabinets when climbing through Wheaton yards in 1962, but really didn’t understand what I was seeing. The recent posting of seeing a film of a conductor putting the pole up while underway I guess makes me assume the knife switch was thrown while coasting. Anyway, thanks to the knowledgeable folks who always help out.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember hearing or reading the procedure used on the North Shore... When approaching the transition between wire and trolley rail, the motorman would shut off. Each trainman was responsible for both the pole and knife switch in his car, and then would stand ready to relay the signal. When he was done, the man on the last car would give two on the communicating signal. When he heard that, when he was also done, the next man would relay it forward. When it got to the first car the motorman knew all the knife switches were closed and it was safe to take power again.
ReplyDeleteThat certainly sounds right, although it also sounds like it would take a long time. On the CA&E a train under wire would typically have only one or two poles up, and they had electric buzzers for communicating, so it would be a lot easier. On the safety issue, it would be necessary for each trainman to sense whether the train was motoring before opening a knife switch. With a little experience, that should be pretty obvious.
ReplyDeleteHow did the North Shore handle the changeover on an MD train when the cabs were separated? What if the lead car had the switch opposite the motorman? I can’t imagine a six car train having six trolley hops.
ReplyDeleteRandy Stahl
That's an excellent question, Randy. Ugh. I really don't know how those stupid suicide cabs could have been legal in the first place.
ReplyDelete