TAN: Blackpool (was Re: Melbourne, Christchurch)

--- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "IS Edit" <isedit@g...> wrote:

228 would have a very low centre of gravity which means less roll

tendency

for the body.

With less roll tendency you can tune steel spring suspensions for

better

ride by making them more supple and you can also have higher spring
deflection. That's why you see anti-sway bars under heavy vehicles

with

parabolic springs. That takes care of body roll and so you are only
concerned then with vertical oscillation.

What kind of springs does the Boat have?

Why two motors? Don't tell me it has "Maximum Traction" trucks under

it.

RT Murphy

----- Original Message -----
From: <groompg@e...>
To: <TramsDownUnder@y...>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 6:31 AM
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] TAN: Blackpool (was Re: Melbourne,

Christchurch)

. . . I don't know how well these English electric trucks rode
when new.

They rode badly when I first knew them in the late 1950s

although some

were better than others. On good street track they were OK, but

not on

the Promenade and sleeper tracks which have a more resilient
foundation. . . .

Thanks.

The 228 rides pretty well on MUNI track, although one is quite
aware of wheel noise on special work (perhaps because of no
roof or windows?). The main problem with "the boat " seems to
be the tempermental controllers, especially when starting on a
hill. Two motors aren't ideal in SF either, but I've been

surprised

by its hill-climbing abilities, with an experienced motorman.

Did Blackpool modernize the propulsion in the Boats later on?
Once under way, the 228 rolls along quite nicely, thank you.





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None of the English Electric-trucked Blackpool cars was anything other
than 2-motor, but they are equal-wheel trucks. Two motors matched the
British passion for economy in everything; there were very few
four-motor double-truck cars in the UK until the 1930s, and there were
some terrible howls of anguish in Glasgow Corporation (which still
generated its own power then) after its 152 four-motor "Coronation"
cars of 1937-1941 sent the Tramways Department power bill sky-high.

One of the reasons (but by no means the only reason) for the short
life of Blackpool's "Corornation" or "Spiv" cars of 1952-54 (304-328)
was their current consumption--again four-motor cars in an otherwise
2-motor fleet.The Corporation howled at the power bill, made even more
horrendous by the fact these otherwise lovely cars were horribly
overweight and were center-entrance and so not amenmable to being made
one-man operated.

Forgive me for saying so, but surely this Blackpool esoterica might
better be addressed on a site that's not devoted to NZ/OZ? How about
the real Blackpool experts at the Fylde Tramway Society (tramway.
com/fts)? Or on the other Yahoo traction or tramway history groups?

Andrew D. Young


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