Some drivers are clearly a lot smarter than others, maybe with a bit of luck thrown in as well.
Once I was coming into Clarendon Street South Melbourne off the light rail and something made me stop just before entering the street, and of course the section insulator was right above.
I got the conductress to hold down the safety pedal and brake release button while I got out with the point bar and managed to move the tram forwards a few inches onto the live wire. Although slightly downhill, it was at the start of the curve so the tram could not run freely.
A knuckle or two may have been skinned slightly but I got out of it and nobody knew. If for nothing else, conductors sometimes were of use.
Regards
On 14 Jan 2019, at 1:48 pm, Steven Altham steventrams53@...> wrote:
In reply to Richard insulators sometimes are in awkward places when I approached insulators I checked where pantograph was so I never got stuck on one
> On Sun, 13 Jan. 2019, 8:53 pm 'Richard Youl' via TramsDownUnder tramsdownunder@... wrote:
> From a friend in the know:
>
> “Only 35° here tomorrow, and the 82 and 78 trams are replaced by buses, route 30 trams pulled off entirely and 12 diverted to run via Latrobe Street to make a service there. 35° is not extreme heat, but I expect it has been done so that the service for the Australian Open won't suffer. Malvern used to get DOCs to do tennis specials. Now they just use less but larger trams.
>
> Regarding insulators, and you can quote me on this, some evil person who designs the overhead wiring deliberately places insulators to maximise inconvenience to tram drivers. Some places where you can pull up a trailing T light can't be used by anyone but very experienced drivers as the road tram loop is right where you cannot stop. [Im not sure what this means myself]
>
> You may or may not know a new substation has been built at St Kilda Junction and a new very obvious power cable run from there along Dandenong Road. A new no-power insulator was installed just a short distance from the Junction in Queens Way, but best news, both insulators at Chapel Street were changed to no-loss-of-power, as was the one just after turning into Wattletree Road. All in both directions.
>
> With B class, insulators that break power stop both the fans and compressor every time, but only for a matter of seconds, rather than minutes.
>
> Z Class tram driver air cons are rarely affected by power loss. As you once said when I mentioned about them continuing to run after being switched off, it is probably about capacitors.
>
> D class, well, they are usually OK through normal power off insulators but Kooyong Railway Crossing and the City Link bridge over Glenferrie Road and other bridges knock them out and they take up to five minutes to come back on. Very bad when it is very hot.”
>
> Regards,
>
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