At 07:17 PM 2/09/2008, you wrote:

> Poles have their good points.

> They are cheap and reliable. Dewirements were rare,except at

> rarely used shunts, and when they happened, they rarely pulled

> the overhead down.

I recollect an occasion back in the distant past when returning from Watson's Bay (Sydney system) with coupled O-class cars (it was a tour, handing over one car to go to the USA), when we had a pole come off the overhead at speed.

It immediately sprung upwards and came into violent contact with a support cross-wire. Because of the speed the coupled set was doing, the pole was catapulted down on to the roof of the O-car, and if my memory serves me correctly, may have put a hole in it.

No damage to the trolley pole ... it was replaced on to the contact wire and we carried on out way!

Hunslet.