by Sir Ray
So I had a dream the other day, and among other things there was a 'remote observation scene' watching several people running across an urban area - including running across a street with 4 tracks embedded in the street.
OK, back in reality, on a US-centric basis, I could only think of a few places (past and present) with 2 thru tracks embedded in the street:
1) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA (only 2 blocks of Embercardero W) - Bing View - this had 3 tracks at one time it seems, although one track seems to have been disconnected for years.
2) (Kind of weak) - the most northern block of N American St. in Philadelphia, PA - Bing View (shame this branch didn't seem to pan out, it would have been interesting to see it in action).
3) (Kind of long ago) - 10th/11th Avenue in Manhattan, NY, before the West Side improvements - time to call out the Shorpy archive - looks like those are 2 NYC "Steam Railroad" tracks, and one trolley track. If so, Jack London Square is still the winner w/ 3 tracks at one time...
And, then I hit a roadblock - I could find a decent number of single track street running examples. I know that in many areas (e.g. American St mentioned above, 1st Ave Brooklyn, NY - NYNJ) there's sidings/spurs that parallel the 'main' line for a short distance, so there's 2/3 tracks in the street at that point, but I'm asking about maximum thru tracks embedded in the street, and used for 'Heavy Rail' (not street-cars or LRT - unless they were shared w/ heavy rail frieght or passenger).
OK, back in reality, on a US-centric basis, I could only think of a few places (past and present) with 2 thru tracks embedded in the street:
1) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA (only 2 blocks of Embercardero W) - Bing View - this had 3 tracks at one time it seems, although one track seems to have been disconnected for years.
2) (Kind of weak) - the most northern block of N American St. in Philadelphia, PA - Bing View (shame this branch didn't seem to pan out, it would have been interesting to see it in action).
3) (Kind of long ago) - 10th/11th Avenue in Manhattan, NY, before the West Side improvements - time to call out the Shorpy archive - looks like those are 2 NYC "Steam Railroad" tracks, and one trolley track. If so, Jack London Square is still the winner w/ 3 tracks at one time...
And, then I hit a roadblock - I could find a decent number of single track street running examples. I know that in many areas (e.g. American St mentioned above, 1st Ave Brooklyn, NY - NYNJ) there's sidings/spurs that parallel the 'main' line for a short distance, so there's 2/3 tracks in the street at that point, but I'm asking about maximum thru tracks embedded in the street, and used for 'Heavy Rail' (not street-cars or LRT - unless they were shared w/ heavy rail frieght or passenger).