Prototypical 3-rail Track

[ben10ben]

I thought that you all might find this interesting

On my recent trip to France, nearly every major and even some minor towns had several stretches of street torn up for the installation of a new electric tramway. Nearly all of France's electricity comes from nuclear energy, and with gas at about 1.30 euros a liter(or about $6.50 a gallon), electric mass transit systems are attractive alternatives.

The only town we encountered with any of the system operating was the medium-sized town of Bordeaux. It was a pleasant suprise to see on this operating system, though, that the format used looked a lot like K-line's new Super Streets track system, using three rails embedded in a cobblestone street.

Here are some pictures that I took of it





Please excuse the poor image quality. These were shot on 35mm slides, and at the present my only means of digitizing them is to take a picture of the projection. I really need to invest in a film scanner.

[webenda]

ben10ben,

Very interesting. Did you see any rail cars? It looks like the electrical pick-up extends through a slot in the road.

The photos are totally adequate for web posting, in fact, I love the golden tone. Thank you for sharing.

[Dr.Fu-Manchu]

The Doctor is In !!! It looks like cable car trackage, The center area is where a cable grip is placed to grab a moving cable. Speed is about 9mph. As I live in the S.F. Bay Area, I have seen cable car track up close.
Till My Next Missive, I Remain The Humble, Yet Strangly Evil Doctor !!![}:)]

[spankybird]

Ben - nice pics

[Anonymous]

Fillum?? You use a fillum camera? How quaint!

Seriously, the excellent photos instantly reminded me of the old District of Corruption trolley system that was scrapped in 1960. It used a vertical spade blade that entered the slot and held a shoe that contacted the hot power rail about 3 feet below street level. Outside the District limits the trolleys used the conventional overhead wire.

There has been recent talk about digging up the last remaining track in Georgetown. Sure hope it gets into the Smithsonian.

Tony

[ben10ben]

Thanks for the responses. I did get one of the train, but wasn't able to get it to capture as nicely on the digital camera as the others did. Here it is, though



The center rail is in fact solid. It didn't turn out so well on the digital version, however a close examination of the slide will show this. The center rail has two raised ridges with a low area in between them that appears in the above photos to be a slot. The difference is, in fact, not more than a half an inch, but the above photos magnify it. I suppose that it serves to keep the pickup roller/slider on the center rail as opposed to on the sidewalks.

[lionelsoni]

The center rail is just that. The trick is that it is divided into short sections which are energized only when a car is on them. See http://www.lrta.org/art0212.html .

[FJ and G]

Nice photos. DC used to have that type of track b/c overhead was banned

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing these cool pictures with us! Tell us more about your trip to France. Did you see any other trains?

[lionelsoni]

The Washington system used a conduit below the street. See http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_32.html

[1688torpedo]

Hello Ben ! Nice Pictures of the Track embedded in the road.It sure does resemble K-Lines Superstreets though.................Keith

[ben10ben]

Sask,
I did see more trains, but wasn't able to get pictures.

Much to my pleasant suprise, many of the roads that we took ran along side rail lines. I don't recall seeing any freight trains in operation, but freight cars were a common sight. I wasn't able to get much closer than a bus moving along at 60mph, but, the best I could tell, they certainly were smaller than our American cars. Many also appeared to have buffers in the English style. Most lines were equipped with overhead wire, although I did see a few that weren't. I also did see a number of high speed and slow passenger trains.

Our original plans called for riding an overnight train from Paris to Nice. Unfortunately, no other school signed up for this tour with the tour company, and our small group of 10 people had to choose another option.

At the beginning of our two days in Paris, we purchased 10 metro tickets each, and used all of them. The metro can take you to within walking distance of pretty much every attraction in the city, so was very convenient to use. The line that went to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, though, rode on tires kept in place by steel rails. Those trains were very, very rough compared to the steel-on-steel of the more traditional metros.