Quite right about the definitions, but problem is, once a word’s meaning gets nailed down it doesn’t keeping it from growing larger or morphing into something different . . . tho’ usually similar. I can’t speak for Canadians, but I have never heard U.S. citizens refer to a streetcar line as a “tram.” I have, however, heard the term “aerial tramway” used to denote what much if not most of Europe would call a “funicular” or a similar-sounding loan word in languages other than English. I think that term has been used to apply to the mountain-climbing type as well as the amusement-park stradding type of transportation.
In Las Vegas in mid-2005, we noticed that the people-movers shuttling lateral distances from some resorts to some others (Treasure I
Can you speak for TVland? I remember the 1st episode of James at 15, 1978. James had just moved from Oregon to Boston, got lost in the Park St subway station. I think they had a mixture of PCC’s and Boeing SLRV’s (Standard Light Rail Vehicles) in the scene. One of the passersby said “I just missed my tram”.
I’ve only heard proper Bostonians refer to that mode of transit as “streetcah” unless they name the line by street, as in “Commonwealth.” Probably the MBTA (the “T”) has more formal nomenclature, but IIRC “tram” isn’t among the terms.
Was the writer of that show born in the British Isles?
noticed today that Baltimore Light Rail has 6 wheel axles and 3 sets of them on the train. 1 axel set in front-1 in the middle acticulated section and 1 in back…as opposed to Cleveland Italian Breda Cars that have 4 wheel axels…Get rid of the middle articulated axel set and reduce it down to 4 wheels per unit and you lose some weight,
Perhaps one of the systems uses low-to-the-ground cars and one doesn’t? And if so, perhaps the demands of keeping things low-to-the-ground requires that the trucks stay put in their traditional place at the end of cars or, if semi-articulated, the Breda cars have to dispense with the intermediate trucks to allow smooth passenger crossing between cars?
I don’t have the right to say that one design is more advanced than the other, but does anyone know which system (Cleveland – is it Airport or Shaker Heights??) or Baltimore (line to BWI I’m assuming) has the newer cars?
When I first started thinking about modern LRT design, I feared that the whole world was being “Siemens-ized.” But now it seems (to my fevered little brain anyway) that there are a variety of design concepts and load-bearing solutions coming out of different firms in different countries all the time.
Frankly, I think you are mistaken. The Shaker Heights Breda truck arrangement and the Boston Kinky-Sharo 8 truck arrangement are both the same. Both are single articulated, two car bodies with a center articulation joint above of center truck. On both designs the center truck is without motors and the end trucks each have two motors. (Just possibly the Breda motor truck has only one mono-motor with gears at both ends driving two axles, but this would be the only exception.) Boston also has low-floor Bredas, (their newest cars, just finally debugged after a too-long problem period) and the center truck is unusual with stub axles to accomodate the low floor, but this has become fairly typical for low-floor cars. The Shaker cars and the older Kinky-Sharo cars are not low floor but require using steps to board from sidewalk level.
If I am following you correctly, then the articulation (not motive power) is like a two-unit RoadRailer, axle-arrangement at each end and the same in the middle. Total of three. - a.s.
The roadrailer arrangement is more peculiar to the roadrailer. A better analogy are the early articulated streamliners and the Electroliner. The four-wheel trucks near the ends of the cars aren’t any different than any normal fourwheel power truck (unless the Shaker Breda uses the monomoter, which is like a model railroad and like a PCC motor, arranged longitudinally instead of parallel to the axle(s) and driving through something like a bevel or worm gear, except that the monomotor has this on both ends of the shaft driving two axles. This was widely applied on French electric locomotives and on all the original German competitor to the PCC, the classic Duwag. Possibly the Shaker cars use it, because it was used on some Breda articulated LRV’s in Europe.) The middle truck, even on high-floor cars, is different, since it is usually attached to the articulation joint with only limited and controlled pivoting. Very few high-floor articulated cars powered the middle truck, usually it was without motors. Most low-floor cars, including the Boston Breda model, are “70% low-floor” with high-floor end sections, including the operator’s position, front doors, and the area over the power trucks. The middle truck on the low floor cars have four stub axles, one for each wheel, allowing the low-floor aisle to continue through the articulation joints between wheels. The frame member with the pivot bearing and shaft is then low to the ground and connecting the double frames on each side. A very tricky design, but it does work. It is possible to power the center truck. One option is to use a small monomotor on each side, four small longitudinal motors, or simply use wheel motors by Germany’s Magnet Motor, Alstom, Energy Storage Systems of Derby, England. In the wheel motor, the coils or magnets in the circumferance, inside the wheel rim, take the place of the conv
The P.C.C. I thought was of the finest trams (streetcars) ever to be made. Never had the chance to ride one, but I ride streetcars made after it, the Czheck “Tatra” T4R and T4D (theT4* is the 4th version, T1 it was the streetcar made after P.C.C.). Man, one of the finest streetcars ever to be made in Eastern-Europe. The T4R in Bucharest, when they where bought in the '70’s could reach 80-90 km/s (50-56 mph). Some of them still run fast. Pitty that streetcars are gone from most U.S.A. cityes. The people can’t see now those wounderfoul P.C.C.'s, streetcars very advance for theyr times. [V]
P.C.C. cars haven’t disappeared entirely. In Philadelphia, a SEPTA line uses a reconditioned PCC car (it has airconditioning) that is authentic on the outside. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, “vintage” streetcars run a loop from the train station downtown. I believe they are all or mostly P.C.C.'s.
Surely the readers here can think of other situations in which P.C.C.'s in North America still run in regular service . . . ?
SF Municipal Ry did not buy any MU PCC’s. However they did buy second hand some of the St Louis IT PCC’s. Muni never ran them in multiple and at some point removed the couplers for other reasons.
FYI . One other item Muni was not a participant of the PCC commision & initially did not hav
The various PCC patents were assigned to the Transit Research Corp. An operator did not have to be a member of the ERPCC to purchase PCC cars but did have to pay royalties to TRC for the cars they did purchase.
The two major builders of PCC cars (Pullman-Standard & St. Louis Car) had to build their cars to conform with various PCC designs and patents. Brill would bid on PCC business but based its bids on non-conforming designs so their bids would be rejected out of hand.
Again, PCC operation in North America outside trolley museuams:
San Francisco, largest operation, F line Market Street from Castro to Ferry Terminal and then Embarkadaro to Fisherman;s Warf. Other equipment usually Milan Peter Witt cars. Occasionally a Blackpool, England “boat” (open gondola) or tyical vintage San Francisco cars.
Boston, Mattapan - Ashmont high-speed line. Museum quality restoration (1946-era paint and lettering and logo), great ride and scenery. A light rail extension of the Rel-Line heavy rapid transit over an old ex-New Haven branch. All PCC operation. Pullman-built cars. Cars to be air-conditioned without significant visual changes.
Philadelphia. Route 15 Garrard Avenue. Air condiitoned with visual change having roof monitors like the existing Boston cars. Sometimes a bus or a modern Kawaski LRV shows up, however. So wait another 15 minutes.
Waukegan. Downtown loop. Uses three cars at most.
All four operations are very well worth riding and photographing
Getting back to the word “tram”, this word is applied to the giant suspended cable car running between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island in NYC. Very different usage from the British Isles use of the word; a “tramway” over there refers to any street trackage, no matter if streetcars (the only vehicles actually called “trams”) or large trains typical of a general railroad network runs on them. Germany uses the term Straßenbahn for light rail in general, with some hybrid systems like the “tram-train” (e.g. Karlsruhe) and other light rail that has characteristics of heavy-rail subways being called Stadtbahnen (a term with no legal definition, like “interurban” in the US).
“Metro” has been exported by French consultants, and is used in some places in Canada. Germany calls them U-bahnen; I think we all know what they’re called in England.