Re: 180 off track

IS Edit
Tuesday, February 26, 2002 9:11 PM

Brent,

The whole Melbourne Tramways System(s) is set in mass concrete and screams like a banshee at the best of times. It is bloody awful on turns and special work, especially when a W class tram with non resilient wheels goes by (the last class of Ws had resilient wheels but they put those trucks out in the back paddock rather than maintain the rubber blocks. So oiling the curves is the least of the worries as far as noise goes.

I was told when I was an M&MTB motorman that they had costed greasing the turns and it was cheaper to accept slightly faster wear and just replace the rail.

Also, there is a safety problem. Trams don't brake well on curves. I presume it has something to do with decreased grip between wheels and track. And, of course, with most trams sanders don't work on curves because they just dump onto the ground. In San Francisco where I drove PCC cars, I also noticed that track brakes did not work well on sharp curves. In Bendigo and in San Francisco, when there was too much grease on curves, it oozed up onto the rail head and then you had virtually no traction. So the problem is not an easy one.

Perhaps water is a better way to go. But I always thought heavy rail locos squirted water onto the rail to reduce heat on curves due to the intense pressure.

Perhaps water with just a touch of some water soluble lubricant (dishwashing liquid?) would be the go as it would be less likely to build up and could be washed away periodically by rain.

I understand that the sander spouts on some of the newest trams actually follow the wheel track when the bogie swings. That's all well and good tactically but makes me wonder about the effects on both rail and wheel flange as the lateral force of the curve would make for a real grind.

Bob Murphy

----- Original Message -----

From: Brent Efford

To: [email protected]

Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 7:39 AM

Subject: RE: [TramsDownUnder] 180 off track

This introduces another topic - what is the policy on track/flange greasing today? On all my visits to Melbourne I have observed the curving noise being quite high in many places. Is any greasing carried out at all? There is car-mounted flange greasing equipment available for light rail vehicles - it only has to be fitted to a few LRVs to suffice for the whole system. Does anyone know whether such equipment is fitted to either of the new Melbourne types?

I visited Sydney in Nov 97, only a few months after SLR started. The noise of the Variotrams turning from Hay St up to Central Station was very loud - enough, I feared, to discredit the whole concept. On a return visit in August 1999 I found the noise had largely disappeared - had something been done about it, or had the track simply worn in? I also noticed in 97 that water was enough to lubricate effectively - on wet days the squeal disappeared (suggesting a simple system to flood the groove with water would be sufficient). Can anyone comment?

On the Christchurch Tramway, which is a one-way circuit around a few inner-city blocks, manual track greasing is carried out diligently, and there is no squeal, even on the four sharp right-angle turns on the route. Controlling unpleasant noise is seen as vital for public support for the tramway.

Cheers,

Brent Efford
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