DC Streetcars Arrive at The Port of Baltimore

These cars are similarly designed to MBTA's Green Line Type 8s which were built by Breda

I wonder why the Bordeaux surface third-rail system hasn't come up -- or has it? It's been in service several years and, as far as I know, there have been no disasters.

The Bordeaux system that was mentioned is one of the properties that does use the Alstom Innorail system. Their setup is a combination of cantenary wire (outside the city center) and then uses the conduit system (inside the city center).

Will they implement a traffic light system that benefits the streetcar. The light rail in Baltimore where it street runs has to wait in traffic at every light and it is very annoying and inefficient.

So will they be installing a traffic system that when a streetcar is approaching perpendicular crossings will get red lights so it can pass through w/o waiting at lights?

This would be good...

Davis

"strench707"
Will they implement a traffic light system that benefits the streetcar. The light rail in Baltimore where it street runs has to wait in traffic at every light and it is very annoying and inefficient.

So will they be installing a traffic system that when a streetcar is approaching perpendicular crossings will get red lights so it can pass through w/o waiting at lights?

I don’t know if DCDOT has chosen to implementing traffic signal preemption. One would have to look through the documents on DCDOT's web site to find out.

I went over the bridge this past Sunday (01 03 2010) to get pictures of the streetcar track construction in Anacostia and along H Street and Bening Road. (Pictures to follow in a later post.) What I can tell you is, DCDOT has no plans to run multiple car trains as the loading platforms are only long enough for one car.

strench707 wrote:Will they implement a traffic light system that benefits the streetcar. The light rail in Baltimore where it street runs has to wait in traffic at every light and it is very annoying and inefficient.

Actually the MTA Light Rail (Baltimore and suburbs) does have signal preemption for street running in B'more. It was installed in 2007. I think most light rail systems don't have it however.

JackRussell wrote:We are starting to see some community opposition to the streetcars. They don't like the overhead wires:

http://images.greatergreaterwashington. ... 0wires.pdf
http://www.thehillishome.com/2009/12/ch ... ead-wires/

The argument seems to be purely one of aesthetics. These people are going on and on about how alternative methods of propulsion are needed that don't use overhead wires. In fact they call using overhead wires 'antiquated', but any other methods of getting power to the streetcar would almost seem to be experiments in various cities around the world.

Some of the folks are talking about pie-in-the-sky hydrogen fuel cells.

It seems awfully late to be fussing about this given that they already have some of the rolling stock on hand already.

Wow, where was this opposition before DC spent brazillians of dollars buying light rail cars, and laying rails?


Here's my solution:


rental tow behind diesel generator. Listen to it Purr. Lets see how quicly the neighbors are willing to overlook some trolley wire.

Changeout those tires for some flanged wheels, and you can rent the whole apparatus out to MARC for late night and weekend service.

Many greetings from the Czech Republic,

as a streetcar mechanic which worked also on the WMATA streetcars I have to comment some posts written here before :

Alstom third rail system - yes, it is nice, but is not ideal. I asked some streetcar friends who knows French language (me not) ant they asked some French streetcar fans and they somebody whno knows something about and he told (so be sure theese informations are really unofficial, not verified and not from the source):
- there is no snow in Bordeaux. When it comes once per year for 1/2 day all city is paralysed and no one see as a problem there is no streetcar running, because there are also no cars running, no buses running...
- when there is rain longer than 1 day sometimes streetcar simply not run. Well, let's walk a little bit...
- imagine this : divide the third rail to one meter long sections. Each section needs one contactor for voltage connection (when there is a streetcar), one for grounding (when there is no streetcar it must be grounded), one sensor for detection "there is something big over me" and one for detection "yes, it really is a streetcar, not a garbage pickup". Only when both sensors says "yes" (double detections = safety) contactors may do "click - click". So for one mile you need 2x1600 contactors, 2x1600 sensors, 2x1600 high voltage wires and at least 2x3x1600 low voltage wires for sensors. Maybe you have to buy a house each few blocks for all the contactors and realys and build real tunnels for all the wires.
I dont want to say "Alstom is bad" - it is not about the producer, it is about the princip. Yes, you can create third rail system like this, bud be ready to pay a lot, lot, lot of money.

Other variants :

Batteries - it is not a bad idea, but make a simple calculation (values are my unofficial judgment only from some test we did before many years on some cars) :
- you need only to run very slowly on flat track 1/4 mile = 1/2t of batteries
- uphill 1% = 10% more for each % of uphill
- 1 minute of full HVAC = another 1/2t of batteries (you can be sure HVAC needs 3x more energy than heating only)
- about the same time you use the batteries you need to charge them (or make a nice explosion of battery cells if you try to charge faster and use much higher current than normally). If someone has an idea the car will run 5 minutes between the stops and then will be charged during 1/2 minute on the stop he has to ask in nearest car sevice for basic training in theory of batteries.

Supercaps :
good = charged in few seconds
bad = 2x more square and weight than batteries, ????x higher price per same capacity

hydrogen cells = are we creating streetcars or it is any NASA project? And the costs... grrrrrrrrrr.

Overhead = forbidden

So find the optimal solution

If you have any other streetcar questions just ask me here, i will come again sometime.