On 18/06/2020 14:22, Tim Streater wrote:
On 18 Jun 2020 at 13:13:42 BST, bert wrote:

In article , Tim Streater
writes
On 17 Jun 2020 at 22:38:09 BST, Max Demian wrote:

On 17/06/2020 17:35, Tim Streater wrote:
On 17 Jun 2020 at 17:20:15 BST, Max Demian wrote:

On 17/06/2020 13:31, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/06/2020 13:06, Andy Burns wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:

How trams justify the outlay I don't know.

Levy something else?

My transport professional friend indicated that all public transport is
really a *political* decision and cash goes to the gimmes if they can
virtue signal their way to subsidies and grants. Almost none of it is
profitable.

It's jobs for labour voters, subsidised by taxpayers. So call 'studies'
are simply biased to indicate the answer someone after money wants them
to go.

When I asked him what the biggest single improvement for least money
could be made to the railway networkÂ* he replied 'get rid of all level
crossings'. Dangerous, interfere with road traffic and slow trains down
sometimes.

Blocking off the road, or the rail?

Smartarse. You add extra bridges.

Hardly cheap, as they will have to add long ramps or cuttings so the
road can go over or under the rail. And, if in a town (which is often
the case), demolish the row of shops or houses that lines the road.

The Swiss managed it. I remember a level crossing on the way to CERN from
home, when I worked there. Replaced by a bridge. Mind you, all such costings
tend to be state secrets and no one questions it.

So that's one. I am sure Network rail could find one on ECML that could
be replaced by a bridge. Now what about the rest?

The Swiss did all those, too. It was their policy.

It is network rails policy too when not being overridden by boys playing
with Europe wide train sets.



--
You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a
kind word alone.

Al Capone

A rope would need to be very slack to allow for the sideways movement of the
trolley poles when maneovering.

Jeff Layman wrote:

Anyone know if the poles were slightly telescopic or how they were
connected to the turntable on the bus roof? The poles were always
parallel, and to keep to that they had to be able to move separately
from each other.

No, the poles are a fixed length. There is lots of info on this
page:

http://www.trolleybus.co.uk/history1.htm

and the top of this page has some old Brecknell Willis
blueprints.

http://www.trolleybus.co.uk/history2.htm

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

bert wrote:

Mass use of driverless cars are some way off

That's ok, it'll mean they can be fusion-powered by the time they arrive
:-P

John wrote

A rope would need to be very slack to allow for the sideways
movement of the trolley poles when maneovering.

Ours were completely slack and only used to
pull the pole down and hook it under the thing
that kept it on the roof when not being used.

On Fri, 19 Jun 2020 09:06:40 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH troll****

On 18/06/2020 12:28, AnthonyL wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 18:45:50 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 16/06/20 18:02, John wrote:
I live in Derby - had Trolley Buses until 1967.

Just wondering:

1. Did they have any form of heating?

Not that I remember, but then I don't remember them /not/ having one
either. That was in London in the 50s and early 60s.



I'm doubting it but the few things had heating in the '50's. They
were a luxury add-on or a d-i-y accessory for cars.



A heater was a £12(?) 'optional extra' on the notchback
Anglia 105E in 1962.

Rusted rear spring hangers after about 5 years in warm,
humid coastside areas were 'mandatory'. :-(

On 18/06/2020 06:10, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/06/2020 17:20, Max Demian wrote:
On 17/06/2020 13:31, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 17/06/2020 13:06, Andy Burns wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:

How trams justify the outlay I don't know.

Levy something else?

My transport professional friend indicated that all public transport
is really a *political* decision and cash goes to the gimmes if they
can virtue signal their way to subsidies and grants. Almost none of
it is profitable.

It's jobs for labour voters, subsidised by taxpayers. So call
'studies' are simply biased to indicate the answer someone after
money wants them to go.

When I asked him what the biggest single improvement for least money
could be made to the railway networkÂ* he replied 'get rid of all
level crossings'. Dangerous, interfere with road traffic and slow
trains down sometimes.

Blocking off the road, or the rail?

There are other options, ****wit



Like keeping the ****wits in their reliant robins off the roads.

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 09:02:03 UTC+1, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 17/06/20 19:10, Tim Streater wrote:
On 17 Jun 2020 at 18:55:38 BST, Andy Burns wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's

Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.

That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

actually I think TimS said each bus wanting to get past would lower its
poles, but harry said the broken down bus would lower its poles so all
others could get past.

You are right, and is probably what would happen. But, in any case, there
would be the flexibility to drive on the battery past any sort of blockage or
even a take a short detour if there were roadworks. Just reconnect later.

I think it depended on exactly where and how the "blocking" trolleybus
broke down. If it was out in the road, more-or-less under the wires or
even to the right of them, then it is possible other trolleys couldn't
pass and keep their poles on the wires. I can certainly remember being
on a trolleybus which came up behind a broken-down vehicle and the poles
had to be disconnected to allow the trolleybus to move on battery power
past the obstruction.

Anyone know if the poles were slightly telescopic or how they were
connected to the turntable on the bus roof? The poles were always
parallel, and to keep to that they had to be able to move separately
from each other.

One other thing. In London there were so many routes that occasionally
at junctions some went straight on while others turned left or right. I
seem to remember the bus conductors had to get off just before the
junction and pull a handle on a pole which switched the wires over to
the wanted route (like railway points). I think they returned
automatically to straight ahead after the bus passed. I assume there any
modern trolley systems which do this automatically if routes diverge
from a common line. Are there any which do this?

In Huddersfield, some were manual and others moved automatically
There was a little box with lights on indicating how they were set.
Could be manually overridden.

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 09:02:03 UTC+1, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 17/06/20 19:10, Tim Streater wrote:
On 17 Jun 2020 at 18:55:38 BST, Andy Burns wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's

Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.

That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

actually I think TimS said each bus wanting to get past would lower its
poles, but harry said the broken down bus would lower its poles so all
others could get past.

You are right, and is probably what would happen. But, in any case, there
would be the flexibility to drive on the battery past any sort of blockage or
even a take a short detour if there were roadworks. Just reconnect later.

I think it depended on exactly where and how the "blocking" trolleybus
broke down. If it was out in the road, more-or-less under the wires or
even to the right of them, then it is possible other trolleys couldn't
pass and keep their poles on the wires. I can certainly remember being
on a trolleybus which came up behind a broken-down vehicle and the poles
had to be disconnected to allow the trolleybus to move on battery power
past the obstruction.

Anyone know if the poles were slightly telescopic or how they were
connected to the turntable on the bus roof? The poles were always
parallel, and to keep to that they had to be able to move separately
from each other.

One other thing. In London there were so many routes that occasionally
at junctions some went straight on while others turned left or right. I
seem to remember the bus conductors had to get off just before the
junction and pull a handle on a pole which switched the wires over to
the wanted route (like railway points). I think they returned
automatically to straight ahead after the bus passed. I assume there any
modern trolley systems which do this automatically if routes diverge
from a common line. Are there any which do this?



The poles were very long. A buss could easily drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?

Could be for heat in winter.

They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 09:14:46 UTC+1, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 17/06/20 12:33, harry wrote:
On Tuesday, 16 June 2020 18:03:00 UTC+1, John wrote:
I live in Derby - had Trolley Buses until 1967.

Just wondering:

1. Did they have any form of heating?

2. Were there any electrical dangers when a trolley ple came off the wires.
Thinking no return path.

I lived in Huddersfield
As they had no door, heating would be pointless.

Petrol-engined buses in London were heated - at least they were
downstairs - and they also had open platforms at the back.


Well there was free heat in an ICE bus.

harry wrote:
On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?
Could be for heat in winter.

They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.

Ours had doors. And in winter, it got plenty cold. You needed
the heat.

I don't think I ever saw ours broken down though. The poles would
come off the lines regularly, but it only takes a minute or two to
put them back. Whereas the modern diesel ones, you see them
being towed all the time. There was less to go wrong with
the electrics.

Paul

In article ,
Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?
Could be for heat in winter.

They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.

Ours had doors. And in winter, it got plenty cold. You needed
the heat.

Trmas of that era, being double ended, had open platforms at both ends. No
heating.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

charles wrote:
In article ,
Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?
Could be for heat in winter.
They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.

Ours had doors. And in winter, it got plenty cold. You needed
the heat.

Trmas of that era, being double ended, had open platforms at both ends. No
heating.

If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Toronto has a pretty long history with various forms of this.
I thought they may have had one that was more open at one time,
but don't see a picture here of such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system

In the maintenance shop, they even have a blacksmith, with a
hearth, an anvil, and he makes tools and parts (things that would
be hard to replace otherwise). He might be retired by now,
but was probably training up someone to follow in his footsteps.
There was a video of this on the news here a few years back.

And you can kinda see how they ended up with a blacksmith. At
one time, their cars were hauled by horses. The blacksmith back
then probably made horseshoes :-) The question would be, whether
they tried to run that system in winter. The traction on the
road might not be the best. The picture is from 1890.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toront...h_street.jp g

Of course a person could dress warmly enough for that, but
it wouldn't exactly be convenient. There would always be someone
to whine about the experience.

Paul

On 16/06/2020 18:02, John wrote:
I live in Derby - had Trolley Buses until 1967.

Just wondering:

1. Did they have any form of heating?

2. Were there any electrical dangers when a trolley ple came off the wires.
Thinking no return path.


There's actually a Trolleybus Museum in Sandtoft, North Lincolnshire.

Might be worth a day out, when it re-opens after lockdown?

http://sandtoft.org/


--
Best Wishes
Simon (Dark Angel)
http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On Saturday, 20 June 2020 19:56:00 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
charles wrote:
In article ,
Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?
Could be for heat in winter.
They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.

Ours had doors. And in winter, it got plenty cold. You needed
the heat.

Trmas of that era, being double ended, had open platforms at both ends. No
heating.

If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Toronto has a pretty long history with various forms of this.
I thought they may have had one that was more open at one time,
but don't see a picture here of such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system

In the maintenance shop, they even have a blacksmith, with a
hearth, an anvil, and he makes tools and parts (things that would
be hard to replace otherwise). He might be retired by now,
but was probably training up someone to follow in his footsteps.
There was a video of this on the news here a few years back.

And you can kinda see how they ended up with a blacksmith. At
one time, their cars were hauled by horses. The blacksmith back
then probably made horseshoes :-) The question would be, whether
they tried to run that system in winter. The traction on the
road might not be the best. The picture is from 1890.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toront...h_street.jp g

Of course a person could dress warmly enough for that, but
it wouldn't exactly be convenient. There would always be someone
to whine about the experience.


Trolley buses don't have rails.

harry wrote:
On Saturday, 20 June 2020 19:56:00 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
charles wrote:
In article ,
Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Thursday, 18 June 2020 10:35:59 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
harry wrote:
On Wednesday, 17 June 2020 18:48:59 UTC+1, Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's
Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.
That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

No he didn't. What's the point of reconnecting a broken down bus?
Could be for heat in winter.
They had no doors so there was no heat. It would have been pointless.
Ours had doors. And in winter, it got plenty cold. You needed
the heat.
Trmas of that era, being double ended, had open platforms at both ends. No
heating.
If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Toronto has a pretty long history with various forms of this.
I thought they may have had one that was more open at one time,
but don't see a picture here of such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system

In the maintenance shop, they even have a blacksmith, with a
hearth, an anvil, and he makes tools and parts (things that would
be hard to replace otherwise). He might be retired by now,
but was probably training up someone to follow in his footsteps.
There was a video of this on the news here a few years back.

And you can kinda see how they ended up with a blacksmith. At
one time, their cars were hauled by horses. The blacksmith back
then probably made horseshoes :-) The question would be, whether
they tried to run that system in winter. The traction on the
road might not be the best. The picture is from 1890.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toront...h_street.jp g

Of course a person could dress warmly enough for that, but
it wouldn't exactly be convenient. There would always be someone
to whine about the experience.


Trolley buses don't have rails.

The Toronto collection is good, just to see how often they
went with an open concept. And only the horse drawn one
looked open. The others are all enclosed.

Our (not-in-Toronto) trolleys did not travel on rails and
they had rubber tires. And had two overhead pickups for
electric power. And as far as I know, had electric heating.
You could not keep a windshield clear in winter, without
some heat.

And the electric motor would make a smell, like the
smell of porridge, when the operator "floored" the
thing on a street with a slope. The bus had no problem
with such a slope, but a smell would waft up through
the floorboards, indicating something was getting
warm :-) Perhaps that smell was selenium rectifiers ?

Paul

On Sat, 20 Jun 2020 07:22:34 -0700 (PDT), harry
wrote:

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 09:02:03 UTC+1, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 17/06/20 19:10, Tim Streater wrote:
On 17 Jun 2020 at 18:55:38 BST, Andy Burns wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 04:50:23 -0700, harry wrote:

Always seemed a bad idea, to me, that they scrapped them. Electric
buses with no range limitation. IIRC, they had an onboard battery,
which would certainly have been enough to get one trolly past
another,
if the one in front had broken down. Just lower and park the poles,
drive past, and re-connect them. Something trams (which seem to be
everyone's

Drivel.
If a bus broke down, they just unhooked it's poles. Following buses just
drove past.

That's what he just said, ****-fer-brains.

actually I think TimS said each bus wanting to get past would lower its
poles, but harry said the broken down bus would lower its poles so all
others could get past.

You are right, and is probably what would happen. But, in any case, there
would be the flexibility to drive on the battery past any sort of blockage or
even a take a short detour if there were roadworks. Just reconnect later.

I think it depended on exactly where and how the "blocking" trolleybus
broke down. If it was out in the road, more-or-less under the wires or
even to the right of them, then it is possible other trolleys couldn't
pass and keep their poles on the wires. I can certainly remember being
on a trolleybus which came up behind a broken-down vehicle and the poles
had to be disconnected to allow the trolleybus to move on battery power
past the obstruction.

Anyone know if the poles were slightly telescopic or how they were
connected to the turntable on the bus roof? The poles were always
parallel, and to keep to that they had to be able to move separately
from each other.

One other thing. In London there were so many routes that occasionally
at junctions some went straight on while others turned left or right. I
seem to remember the bus conductors had to get off just before the
junction and pull a handle on a pole which switched the wires over to
the wanted route (like railway points). I think they returned
automatically to straight ahead after the bus passed. I assume there any
modern trolley systems which do this automatically if routes diverge
from a common line. Are there any which do this?



The poles were very long. A buss could easily drive on the "wrong" side of the road.


Do some trigonometry.

--
AnthonyL

Why do scientists need to BELIEVE in anything?

Simon T wrote in
:

On 16/06/2020 18:02, John wrote:
I live in Derby - had Trolley Buses until 1967.

Just wondering:

1. Did they have any form of heating?

2. Were there any electrical dangers when a trolley ple came off the
wires. Thinking no return path.


There's actually a Trolleybus Museum in Sandtoft, North Lincolnshire.

Might be worth a day out, when it re-opens after lockdown?

http://sandtoft.org/



Will do.

On 21/06/20 10:43, Paul wrote:

And the electric motor would make a smell, like the
smell of porridge, when the operator "floored" the
thing on a street with a slope. The bus had no problem
with such a slope, but a smell would waft up through
the floorboards, indicating something was getting
warm :-) Perhaps that smell was selenium rectifiers ?

Do you know if the supply was AC or DC, and if the supply was AC, why
were the motors DC? That wouldn't make much sense, as there have been
decent, powerful, AC motors around for years.

And the smell would not have been from faulty selenium rectifiers. They
have an extremely unpleasant smell, something like garlic going off.

--

Jeff

On 21/06/2020 17:04, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 21/06/20 10:43, Paul wrote:

And the electric motor would make a smell, like the
smell of porridge, when the operator "floored" the
thing on a street with a slope. The bus had no problem
with such a slope, but a smell would waft up through
the floorboards, indicating something was getting
warm :-) Perhaps that smell was selenium rectifiers ?

Do you know if the supply was AC or DC, and if the supply was AC, why
were the motors DC? That wouldn't make much sense, as there have been
decent, powerful, AC motors around for years.

And the smell would not have been from faulty selenium rectifiers. They
have an extremely unpleasant smell, something like garlic going off.

Pretty sure early electric transport was DC - 630V usually. The smell is
either hot enamelled copper wire or the crude resistors they used to
limit starting current.




--
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have
guns, why should we let them have ideas?

Josef Stalin

On 20/06/2020 19:55, Paul wrote:
If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Do you have an outside electric point to plug a sump-heater into ?.

If so, and they are common, Canada could be well-placed for plug-in
electric cars ??

Andrew wrote:
On 20/06/2020 19:55, Paul wrote:
If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Do you have an outside electric point to plug a sump-heater into ?.

If so, and they are common, Canada could be well-placed for plug-in
electric cars ??

My former employer, the parking lot at work had just about every
parking spot with an electrical outlet for sump-heater.

The employees didn't abuse them.

They were all removed, the next time the lot needed paving :-)

We're talking about a lot with room for 700 cars or so.

*******

Since the invention of decent oil for cars, the sump-heater
is less necessary. My current car is the first one without
a sump heater installed. The last couple of years, the low
temp was -26C. (There was one day which was a bit colder,
but you just wait it out until it passes. There were a few more
-26C days.)

Where my sister lives, gets colder than that. And she tells
stories about what it takes to get a car started. There's not
much room in the car, because she is a great believer in
emergency supplies. If you need a deep-fried Mars bar, there's
probably one in the glove box.

Whereas in my car, there's just about nothing for emergencies.
A jack, a tire iron, and a spare tire I've never looked at :-)

Paul

On Sunday, 21 June 2020 17:04:30 UTC+1, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 21/06/20 10:43, Paul wrote:

And the electric motor would make a smell, like the
smell of porridge, when the operator "floored" the
thing on a street with a slope. The bus had no problem
with such a slope, but a smell would waft up through
the floorboards, indicating something was getting
warm :-) Perhaps that smell was selenium rectifiers ?

Do you know if the supply was AC or DC, and if the supply was AC, why
were the motors DC? That wouldn't make much sense, as there have been
decent, powerful, AC motors around for years.

And the smell would not have been from faulty selenium rectifiers. They
have an extremely unpleasant smell, something like garlic going off.


The smell is ozone from the sparking at the brushes.
Electrical substations on the route had mercury in glass rectifers that provided the DC from a 12 phase AC transformer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-arc_valve

Variable speed AC motors back then were expensive, unreliable and unsuited to traction

https://www.electrical4u.com/schrage...schrage-motor/

On 22/06/2020 01:01, Paul wrote:
Andrew wrote:
On 20/06/2020 19:55, Paul wrote:
If you did that here, the victims would be frozen to their seats :-)

Do you have an outside electric point to plug a sump-heater into ?.

If so, and they are common, Canada could be well-placed for plug-in
electric cars ??

My former employer, the parking lot at work had just about every
parking spot with an electrical outlet for sump-heater.

The employees didn't abuse them.

They were all removed, the next time the lot needed paving :-)

We're talking about a lot with room for 700 cars or so.

*******

Since the invention of decent oil for cars, the sump-heater
is less necessary. My current car is the first one without
a sump heater installed. The last couple of years, the low
temp was -26C. (There was one day which was a bit colder,
but you just wait it out until it passes. There were a few more
-26C days.)

Where my sister lives, gets colder than that. And she tells
stories about what it takes to get a car started. There's not
much room in the car, because she is a great believer in
emergency supplies. If you need a deep-fried Mars bar, there's
probably one in the glove box.

Does she live in Scotland ? :-)

Whereas in my car, there's just about nothing for emergencies.
A jack, a tire iron, and a spare tire I've never looked at :-)

Â*Â* Paul

Andrew wrote:
On 22/06/2020 01:01, Paul wrote:

Where my sister lives, gets colder than that. And she tells
stories about what it takes to get a car started. There's not
much room in the car, because she is a great believer in
emergency supplies. If you need a deep-fried Mars bar, there's
probably one in the glove box.

Does she live in Scotland ? :-)

It's northern Alberta Canada.

https://www.travelalberta.com/ca/pla...ather-climate/

"They can drop as low as -30 to -40°C for short periods of time."

She starts cross country skiing in late September.
There's enough snow by then, for a track.

Paul

On Monday, 22 June 2020 16:13:23 UTC+1, Paul wrote:
Andrew wrote:
On 22/06/2020 01:01, Paul wrote:

Where my sister lives, gets colder than that. And she tells
stories about what it takes to get a car started. There's not
much room in the car, because she is a great believer in
emergency supplies. If you need a deep-fried Mars bar, there's
probably one in the glove box.

Does she live in Scotland ? :-)

It's northern Alberta Canada.

https://www.travelalberta.com/ca/pla...ather-climate/

"They can drop as low as -30 to -40°C for short periods of time."

She starts cross country skiing in late September.
There's enough snow by then, for a track.



Icing was a big problem on the overhead trolleybus wire ISTR