interurban/streetcar switch control

[gwgardner]

I am using GreatNortherner's tramtrak trackrule. I note that there are no switchstands laid down at turnouts. I will PM GreatNortherner in case he doesn't see this, to see if he can describe how the switches were intended to be operated, with his trackrule, and in real life, but thought I'd ask here in the forum also.

I found this:


In towns, single-point switches could be used, as on street railways, but these were safe only at low speeds. The conductor of a car generally handled the switches, but the motorman had to do the job on a one-man car. Sometimes in towns the switch could be changed using a long bar without leaving the platform. This was long before the days of switches that could be electrically operated from the motorman's position. Interurbans could seldom afford a switch tender, but in busy terminals one might be assigned to direct cars in or out.

on the website:
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/trolley.htm

So using the 'g' or 'shift g' keys in Train Simulator is similar to the motorman operating the switches from inside the cab, or even with the long pole.

Anyone else have info on this? Thanks for any help or advice

[GreatNortherner]

Hi Gary,

to see if he can describe how the switches were intended to be operated, with his trackrule, and in real life, but thought I'd ask here in the forum also.

Hmm... in all honesty, I think I plainly forgot to build a switch machine for those tracks, with them being sunk into the tarmac/concrete, it never occured to me that there still should be *some* visible switch machine.

I can only speek for the tram tracks that I have seen here in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In most cases it looks like a switch motor is housed in a metal case between the two rail heads, at the root of the switch. Here's a good example of what I mean:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:BV_Weiche.jpg
I'm pretty sure that today most cities have some kind of centralized traffic control on their tram systems, so that the switches are all set automatically depending on which line/destination the approaching tram transmits. There are also buttons on the cab dashboard that the driver can press to remote control the switches.

Notice also the little slot in the case of the switch machine, just under the letter "O" in "Bochumer", a metal rod can be inserted there to throw the switch manually.

When I was a boy, back in socialist days here in East Germany, maintenance wasn't so good on my home town's tram system and the drivers had to get out quite often and set the switch manually when the remote control failed. That was even more inconvenient than on some of the historic (pre-WW2) trams that I have seen, which don't have any remote control system, but at least allowed the driver to open the front window, lean out of it and throw the switch without having to leave the car. (Here's a picture of one of the old timers, with the switch lever clearly visible on the front of the driver's window: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Tra ... resden.jpg )

That's all I can think of right now, hope it helps.

Cheers
Michael

[gwgardner]

Thanks for the reply. My route is set in 1925, so that second pic exactly fits. I'm going to look for that rod on the old pics I've found.

It's interesting to me that by the time I was aware, in the late '50s, all the Interurban in the DFW area was gone, whereas as late as the mid '40s there were like 80 interurban runs a day between Dallas and Denton (30 miles one way). My dad and Grandmother told of riding the interrurban often between Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth, and that was gone too by the time I was around. I'm just modeling a fraction of the interurban in Fort Worth, downtown and to the stockyards.

It was perhaps a fortuitous happenstance that you didn't add switchstands to your trackrule.