Being considered by MUNI
From The Inside Track, published by the Market Street Rasilway Association\
Go to www.streetcar.org for more informastion.
Can't keep a good PCC down!
In the blog is the following:
Extending the J-line downtown on the surface cannot be done with the LRVs, which use pantographs on their roofs to collect electric power from the overhead wires. These would foul the overhead on Market, which is set up for use with trolley poles, as Muni’s vintage streetcars have, as do its trolley buses.
If this is because the Trolley Buses currently use the same hot wire (part of a pair) as the streetcars, I understand the statement but I seem to recall that at one time there used to be four sets of tracks on Market St. So there could be a separate pair of wires for the "trackless" trolleys and a wire for tracked trolleys that can be used with poles or pantographs.
Currently on Market St in San Francisco there are 4 sets of wires for trolleybuses. 2 sets for each direction.
The streetcars use positive side of the inside set for power with a pole. It is a complex set of wires.
I cannot remember where but there was a location that had PAN equipped LRVs that had a trolly pole added so they could operate on compound overhead wires. Lower pan and manually raise trolly pole.
IIRC, the San Diego Electric Railway had the La Jolla line cars (and perhaps others) equipped with both pans and poles.
Several of the AC interurbans also had pans and poles, with the pans for high voltage AC and the poles or DC or low voltage AC.
Respacing the inner pairs of Market Street trolleybus wires would seem a simple solution to allow pantograph operation of the rail cars--- until one realizes the added complexity, resulting uniqueness, and greater expense of the switches at junctions.
Erik_Mag Several of the AC interurbans also had pans and poles, with the pans for high voltage AC and the poles or DC or low voltage AC.
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