Just some curiosity here. I notice on other transit systems that streetcars generally travel much faster through switches than in Toronto...do they have a different set-up? I have experienced being routed onto the wrong track several times in my transit life: once on MUNI and twice on BART (while the trains were being computer-driven nonetheless) and once on NJ Transit. The former was a rather long backing up process to fix the issue. On the TTC, can the drivers see the electronic settings for the switches on their control panel?
There is absolutely no feedback/transmission external to the switch itself. The system is designed entirely on the interpretation by the operator of the physical switch blade itself. In the past, this has not been an issue in Toronto, nor any of the other cities that used streetcars running on-street, as generally the speeds are such that a derailment is not a particularly dangerous event. (Boston in fact changed its switch mechanisms not due to problems with the switches themselves, but rather with due to problems with some of the equipment running on them.)
In the case of MUNI, BART and NJT, those are systems operating with signalling systems, and thus there are protocols involved should anything happen that requires reversing the equipment over a switch. I've had the same happen twice on GO, and both times resulted in a 5+ minute delay due to the regulations involved.
On the TTC, there are protocols that have been developed with regards to running through a switch incorrectly, but from a safety and regulatory standpoint it is much easier to deal with - with the aid of a spotter, the operator could reverse the streetcar clear of the switch, manually change it, and continue on his or her merry way. (Of course, with the current protocols, that is not strictly allowed in Toronto, but it was until relatively recently.)
Thanks Dan, that's fantastic. I assume:
X = Yaw
Y = Pitch
Z = Roll
Correct.
When you say active damping, do you mean like actual servo-driven linear actuators?
To be honest, I'm not sure of their exact nature - they may be closer to hydraulic or pneumatic dampeners - but they are controlled by the onboard computer system. Such devices and systems are now commonly used in articulated buses as well.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.