In Calgary each electric bus (trolley) had a red plastic stick about the size of an automobile windshield frost scraper sweeper. It had a grooved hook on one end that the driver fastened above the winder on the back of the bus and the other end had a handle like a child's beach shovel. He would pull down on this and that would pull the pole down and then he would have to jiggle/slide it up the cable to pull the pole down further. These trolley poles had a tendency to always come off at the same spots, low spots or bumps in the road, and the drivers always got the poles back on the lines quickly. Simple and effective.
AgentKid
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
narig01 1. Pole just out there if you need to pull the pole down crew is given a long pole with a hook.
1. Pole just out there if you need to pull the pole down crew is given a long pole with a hook.
I remember seeing the operator of street cars using a pole to move trolley pole to the down position. Those were on double ended {older cars}, of the Johnstown Traction Co., in Johnstown, Pa. They would pull the pole down and engage the other at the far end of the car when switching directions. JTC was abandoned in 1960.
Quentin
Oh yes quick fix for stuck catchers, HAMMER MODULATION
Rgds IGN
On trolley poles, 4 ways of getting the pole.
Best example I can think of in this category Blackpool had a batch of trams shaped like boats(Blackpool Boats) The car I saw was at the (now) Western Rail Museum at Rio Vista, Ca. We used a long pole to move pole eventually it had a rope.
2. Pole with a rope. example I can think of is SF Municipal Ry 578. Rope was just hung on a hook. If pole dewired the hook would catch the rope.
3. Catcher. If the pole is dewired the pole will spring up and the mechanism will stop the rope from going any further up.
4.Retriever. If the pole is dewired the pole is pulled back down to the roof of the vehicle. Most electric busses (trolley busses) use this I thing.
Generally Retrivievers were used in operations that traveled over 30 MPH. Retrievers prevented damage to the overhead wire by trolley poles dewirements at speed by pulling the pole down to the roof and keeping the from striking the overhead.
If I'm not making much sense it's 230am & I've been up all day.
Goodnite IGN
Also worth considering are the twin poles on trackless trollies, which have additional pivots near the shoe so that the poles maintain contact while the bus moves from traffic lane to the curb lane and back.
Some streetcars had trolley catches, where too-fast pole movement would simply stop the pole from moving higher, stop the rope from continuing to exit the "trolley-catcher", while others, including I believe all high speed interurbans that used poles like the North Shore, had the "trolley-retrievers" that you mentioned and that actually pulled the pole back down. Woe to anyone having a hand on the rope when that happened! When changing ends on double-end streetcars or interurban cars, one had to be very careful not to pull out the rope too fast on cars equipped with retrievers and not catchers. In New York City, all pole-equipped streetcars had catchers and not retrievers. My first receiving caution about retrievers was when I was at the Illionois Railway museum and was a volunteer conductor on two-man cars there that used retrievers. So, when I returned east and occasionally had a spell with North Shore 709 at Branford, I was prepared.
CShaveRRIf the pole does come off the wire (I've seen it happen), it will shoot straight up into the air, at least as far as the cable attaching it to the rear of the car will allow (that's what you have to use to pull it back down!).
If the pole does come off the wire (I've seen it happen), it will shoot straight up into the air, at least as far as the cable attaching it to the rear of the car will allow (that's what you have to use to pull it back down!).
Trolley retrievers are supposed to take care of that. The retriever has a mechanism similar to a window shade, when the rope lets out too fast, a wind up spring is supposed to pull the trolley pole down.
If the pole does come off the wire (I've seen it happen), it will shoot straight up into the air, at least as far as the cable attaching it to the rear of the car will allow (that's what you have to use to pull it back down!). It's the spring tensioning that keeps it up against the wire.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
....Absolutely, picture a street car making a 90 degree turn from one city street to another and the length of the car body has to swing in a wide arc requiring the pole to swivel at it's base to follow the overhead wire.
tree68 For higher speeds, pantagraphs come into use.
For higher speeds, pantagraphs come into use.
Actually, trolley poles were used on some high speed interurbans, Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee, for example.
The pole was spring loaded to force upward pressure on the pole and could swivel at the base to compensate for the motion of the car(s).
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
Some use a grooved shoe, some use a wheel.
Google for images of a trolley pole. I couldn't pull off the best image of a shoe.
Here's Wikipedias's take: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_pole
The relatively low speeds of a trolley car, along with the length of the pole, provide enough flexibility to handle the lateral movement.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
I purchased the Illinois Terminal Annual Calendar last week, and I gave it a good look.
I noticed something that I am still trying to figure out about overhead electric. The pole that connects the Motor to the overhead electrical line is about as wide as the overhead electrical line--two, maybe three inches.
How in the heck does something that narrow stay in contact with a wire that narrow on a train moving at speed? Trains rock from the base, so the overhead swing of that pole connected to the wire some 15 feet in the air has got to be a foot or more. I assume the sides of the pole are flanged on each side, but given the amount of sway that could be expected at that heigth, I am surprised that would work.
Gabe
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