Street car switchs

[Anonymous]

I have traveled on Toronto's Street cars often and wondered how the driver controls the switchs. I know in the past they were controled with a steel bar poking out the bottom of the car. I saw in Melbourne, Australia what looked like a signal light telling the driver the way the switch was pointed.
Thanks alot

[cabforward]

model r.r had an article back in the '60s that did this in great detail.. i wish i had it now.. in the u.s., and some parts of europe, 'turns' are controlled by elec., when the car is at a particular spot near the turn (turn-out, switch), the 'motorman' can move the turn by applying current as if to move the car forward.. depending on how the turn is to be moved, the change can be made with the current on or off (car inching ahead or still); when the car is in the right position for changing the turn, the elec. controller is used to apply current, if the turn is made with current on; if the opposite, the elec. controller will be off when the spot is reached.. when the motorman is at the proper spot with current on or off, the turn is changed; the motorman applies more power to accelerate the car thru the turn and on his way..

to simplify design of the switch mechanism and maintenance, devices would have only one movable 'tongue', which is the moving part of the rail.. this design is used by city transit systems and railroads at street level..transit systems would use the above method to change turns in the streets; r.rs. would use hand-throws, as moving a string of cars might cause the turn to change on its own..

'single-tongue' throws required the rail to have a 'wheel path' or groove to insure both sides of the axle worked together.. the groove would guide the wheel opposite the switch tongue in the direction of the turn, the wheel on the side of the tongue would be moved as the tongue indicated..

where no wheel path was available as described above, the usual design would apply..

turns made with elec. would stay as they were made until a car approached that needed to turn it back.. motormen had to insure they had a good view of the turn, as the front of the car was at the beginning of the device.. they would peek over the front of the car with a hand on the controller.. the car might be stopped or inching ahead, and the motorman would be watching the turn to see when the change was made.. often the mechanism would be loud enough for someone to hear standing at the window, if backgrond noise was not great.. but the motorman had to see what was happening, and would eyeball the device until the change was made.. once in a while, the car would miss its mark (procedure having been completed without a change being made).. the motorman would have to reverse the car a couple of feet and start the approach again..

for the rest of it, you would talk to someone who did it or a living..

[cabforward]

one more thing: my descriptions come from new orleans streetcars, home of the st. charles line, the oldest electric transit route in u.s.. also, these units do carry two long metal poles with chiseled points, to operate manual switches, and perhaps switches which have lost power.. the motorman positions the car at the switch, holds out the pole over the switch and lowers the pole into a receptacle for turning the switch.. the pole is turned (i dont recall how much), the switch is aligned, and the motorman retrieves the pole.. afer the car is moved, i dont recall if the switch was restored.. in the '50s, the cars were 2-man operations.. the cond. stayed in the rear.. if the switch did need re-aligning, he would jump out and handle it.. the cars are 1-man operations now, and i haven't ridden the system lately to see or inquire about the procedure.. for more info, search with keyword norta..

[BR60103]

Toronto, of course, does things a bit differently.
The old method, until the LRVs arrived, involved a contactor on the trolley wire and a contact on the side of the trolley shoe. The contactor was a piece of metal about 2" by 12" and hung beside the wire where the shoe would touch it. There were two types of powered switches.
"Self-Restoring" would turn back to normal when the trolley pole went through the contact. The switch would have to be turned manually for the diverging route.
"Necessity Action" involved a button on the dash of the car (labelled "NA"). If the button was pushed, the switch would be thrown for the diverging route. If the button was not pushed, it would be set for the normal route.This was somehow tied in with a contact on the shoe.
There are signs hung from the span wires indicating which switches are SR or NA. There were extra contactors when multiple unit trains were run that counted the cars before the switch could be turned again. All the switches could be turned by hand using a "switch iron", the large crow-bar thing that hangs in each car.
When they introduced the articulated street cars, the trolley poles were no longer a standard distance from the front, so they went to a radio control, but kept the same types of switches.
Powered switches were used sparingly, generally where there was frequent use as where routes diverged or at car barns or intermediate turnbacks.
--David