Muni rider 31AXtaordinaire just dropped this in our inbox:
I boarded a 21 headed to the Richmond, and noticed a logjam of F streetcars extending about two blocks around the vicinity of Powell St. As my Fulton & 6th Ave.-bound chariot trundled along Market, it didn’t take long to discover the culprit.
Wow, that’s one broken-ass pantograph trolley pole. Where does Muni go shopping for spare parts, anyway?
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Written by 31AXtaordinaire
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Just in the interests of accuracy, that is a trolley pole, not a pantograph.
If that bus had a pantograph, it would short out the overhead wires instantly.
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jeff Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Good to know. I’m no expert on these matters. But people I take to be experts have commonly referred to them as pantographs. But, yes, good to know.
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tehdely Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Yeah, trolley buses use dual poles for dual wires: one is power, one is ground. Streetcars are grounded through the contact their wheels make with the rails, but trolleybuses do not have that luxury due to being rubber-tired.
This is, btw, the reason that they can’t run LRVs out of the Sunset Tunnel onto Market St. Their pantographs would make contact with the power and ground wires and complete the circuit.
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Previous comment is correct about a pole versus a pantograph.
I had a great conversation with one of the trolley bus drivers awhile back:
Me: Hey, what is the pole up there called, the thing that carries the electricity?
Driver: The thing up there that carries the power?
Me: Yeah, does it have some kind of special name?
Driver: That pole-like thing up there?
Me: Yeah.
Driver: Oh, those are just called poles.
:)
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great, i guess this means another 20% hike in fares. not funny. not funny at all.
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