I have seen a slide of a New York Central 3rd Rail elctric engine. On the roff, it has something that looks like a very small Pantograph. Is it one? How and when was it used?
Micha
Just read about that somewhere - might have even been here in the forum or in Trains.
It is a little pantograph - used in places where the track arrangement would not allow for more or less continuous third rail. The puzzle trackage at a terminal would be a case in point.
tree68 – right you are. Particularly Grand Central. There are long gaps (relatively speaking) in the third rail at the various puzzle switches and it is SO embarrasing to not have quite enough speed to get across them… not a problem with MU sets, which is why you don’t see them on MUs.
My understanding is that, as a Brooklynite might say, they were (like so many add-ons to fix something!), they were a pain in the tu***o maintain.
The same arrangement was used in the Detroit River Tunnel electrification.
New Haven’s EP5’s were equipped with seven (count 'em) power pickups: 4 truck mounted third-rail shoes, 2 high-voltage conventional pantographs and one mini-pantograph for GCT.
they also always had to be used to get across all grade crossings. it would be fatal to have either cars or people come in contact with a live third rail. any place that there had to be a break in the third rail you will find a short section of overhead cantenary.
It’s a rare grade crossing that’s equipped with overhead pick-up in a third-rail electrification. The only one of which I’m aware is one grade crossing over a four-lane divided highway on the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin (now abandoned). A station stop adjoined the grade crossing so overhead trolley wire was installed to prevent cars being stranded in the dead zone. The Chicago Transit Authority has several grade crossings on the Ravenswood (Brown) and Douglas Park (Blue) lines, all in third-rail territory and not equipped with overhead wire.
If you like the pantograph, you’ll love the operation on the P&W (featured in the last Classic Trains mag). For situations where the car might get stranded between third rails (such as crossovers) there was a little compartment in each car above the motorman labeled “Paddles”. Not for rowing. It had two metal paddles that looked like ping pong paddles with a heavy duty jumper cable between them. One person would hold the paddle on a pick up shoe and another person would hold the other paddle on the third rail and “jump start” the car to get it to where the third rail shoe would pick up again. Sounds like lotsa fun. Never saw it done, probably a good reason why 8-).
Dave H.
Good grief, man! You do it – I’m going nowhere near that third rail![xx(]
You are all very correct, and the NYC FL-9 diesel-electric-electric units had such a small pantograph for just such a purpose in the tunnels leading th Grand Central Station in NYC (I used to ride behind these unique units to work when I lived out in NYC area). Jim
On the CTA and other operators these are called stingers. On CTA, they are kept in storage bins trackside near third-rail gaps that could cause trouble. The operating rules give explicit instruction as to how they are to be used.
When I was on a tour of the Toronto subway shops, I asked about a little yellow metal bit that stuck out from the truck, on the wood bar that carried the shoe. It had a hole in it.
This was used with cables that hung from the ceiling and had a probe that filled in the hole. They were used for powering the cars in the shops as there were no third rails in the shop building.
If you look at Lionel electric locos from the 30s, you will see what look like undersized pantographs on them.
If they never failed Amtrak needs them that will Make Dave Gunn Happy