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| Re: Pantograph for Trackless Trolley vs. Light Rail or MU (486660) | |||
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Re: Pantograph for Trackless Trolley vs. Light Rail or MU |
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Posted by Robert King on Thu Sep 6 13:28:01 2007, in response to Pantograph for Trackless Trolley vs. Light Rail or MU, posted by RonInBayside on Thu Sep 6 09:18:17 2007. I grew up with both streetcars and trolley coaches, and used the latter every day as the system was abandoned so I can shed some light on why pantographs aren't used on trolley buses:A pantographs on trolley buses wouldn't work because as soon as the bus steered a bit off dead centre, the pantograph would short out both wires! Also bear in mind that a trolley coach would need two pantographs, one for each wire. I think the best place to see why pantographs wouldn't work with trolley coaches would be San Francisco because they have both, and the LRVs have pantoraphs. If you find a picture of a streetcar crossing a trolley coach line, you can see how a pantograph would short out the two trolley coach wires if placed on the bus. The reason why poles are used is because they're narrow - they won't slide around and short out both wires - and because they swing to follow the wire's position relative to wherever the driver steers the bus. Pantographs would just slide out from underneath the wires at best, or one would slide beneath both and short circuit the whole thing in the worst case. -Robert King |
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