Tracks in the Sky: Overhead Lines Then and Now

Tracks in the Sky: Overhead Lines Then and Now
By Jeremy Menzies

After telling you about the Track Department through the years, this month we take a look back at the Overhead Line Department. The focus of this group is to maintain our “tracks in the sky” which provide electric power to the LRVs, historic streetcars and trolley buses that are critical to keeping San Francisco moving.

A black and white image of an old railway tower truck with a man in the driver seat, two men standing on the truck bed, and one man standing behind the truck

SF Municipal Railway Tower Truck No. 1 on Van Ness Avenue circa 1917.

The earliest overhead transit power lines were built for San Francisco’s first electric streetcar line, which opened in 1892. As more electric streetcar lines came into service over the years, the electric grid above them expanded into a complex network requiring more power and more maintenance. Within 20 years, electric streetcars provided nearly all transit in the city.

A black and white image of a bus with people working on overhead wires, one of them climbing a ladder

A complicated overhead line operation at Bryant and Alameda, 1951. The building on the right- built as a power generating plant in 1893 -was home to the Overhead Lines department until just a few years ago.

In the late 1940s, many of the city’s streetcar lines were replaced by electric trolley buses. While they were able to tap into the existing power supply system, these buses made it necessary to expand the overhead line system further. Unlike streetcars, trolley buses need two wires to run, so all the new trolley routes required new overhead equipment. A black and white photo of a man doing repair work in a workshop

Lineman Ralph Greco making repairs to a section of trolley overhead inside the shop in 1985.

In addition to wires, the department maintains and repairs all the auxiliary equipment that allows streetcars, LRVs and trolley buses to intersect and make turns, including switches, crossings and breakers.

A fallen tree on top of a bus with emergency workers and trucks on the street

An Overhead Line Dept. team clears trolley coach wires downed by a fallen tree on Sutter and Stockton Streets during winter storms in January 2023.

Emergency response has always been another important and difficult part of the job. Without a power line, trolley buses and subway trains are stopped dead in their tracks. So a speedy response is essential.

Workers on a truck in a subway station with a large roll of wiring

Crews installing new wire in the Market Street Subway at Castro Station during a Fix It Week shutdown in 2022.

Over the years, the department has improved equipment and practices, but inspecting and maintaining the lines remains at the core of its work. Preventative maintenance like stringing new sections of wire in problem areas have played a critical role in improving system reliability.

So we look to the Overhead Line team to make sure the equipment above keeps everything rolling on the tracks and the streets.

Published June 02, 2023 at 02:20AM
https://ift.tt/VnsOCg1

Comments

Mumbai rains: Heavy waterlogging in Dadar, low-lying areas; route at Hindmata, Parel diverted https://ift.tt/30TQ9RI

Parts of Mumbai continued to receive downpour since early Monday. According to the details, transport and buses in several low-lying areas in the city were diverted, as some areas witnessed heavy waterlogging due to rains. Routes at Hindmata and Parel were also diverted. The BMC authorities had put barricades on roads and had blocked commuters due to heavy rains and waterlogging. Market areas in Dadar were waterlogged which posed a challenge for the locals.

Delhi: 27-year-old doctor dies of COVID-19 after month-long struggle https://ift.tt/39s6hOe

After a month-long struggle, a 27-year-old doctor has succumbed to the deadly novel coronavirus at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in New Delhi. Joginder Chaudhary had been battling the infection since June 28 after he was tested positive a day earlier.

New top story from Time: Caster Semenya Is Barred From Her Best Race. But She Won’t Give Up On Tokyo.

https://ift.tt/2R9s9c0 Caster Semenya’s fight continues. In February, the South African runner filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, for the right to run in the Tokyo Olympics in her preferred event: the 800-m, a race in which Semenya is the two-time defending Olympic champ. In 2018 World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field, ruled that female athletes with differences of sex development, competing in races from 400 m to the mile, must reduce natural testosterone levels through medical intervention in order to run in those races. Semenya, who was born a woman and is legally recognized as a woman, has said that from around 2010 to 2015 she took birth control pills to lower her testosterone: she said she suffered from side effects like fevers and experience abdominal pain, among other symptoms. She has since refused to take any more medication to comply with the World Athletics rules. Semenya took her case to the Court of Arbitration for...

New top story from Time: As COVID-19 Surges in South Dakota, Medical Groups Urge Masks Despite Gov. Kristi Noem’s Skepticism

https://ift.tt/2JadCcd (SIOUX FALLS, S.D.) — South Dakota’s largest medical organizations on Tuesday launched a joint effort to promote mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the state suffers through one of the nation’s worst outbreaks, a move that countered Gov. Kristi Noem’s position of casting doubt on the efficacy of wearing face coverings in public. As the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 have multiplied in recent weeks, the Republican governor has tried to downplay the severity of the virus , highlighting that most people don’t die from COVID-19. Noem, who has staked out a reputation on refusing to issue any mandates to stem the virus’ spread, has repeatedly countered recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear masks in public settings. Shortly after the Department of Health reported that the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 broke records for the third straight day on Tuesday, peop...

5 things that make Perseverance NASA's strongest and smartest Mars rover yet https://ift.tt/3hIkHN6

After eight successful Mars landings, NASA is all set for another mission with its newest rover. The spacecraft Perseverance — set for liftoff this week — is NASA’s brawniest and brainiest Martian rover yet. It sports the latest landing tech, plus the most cameras and microphones ever assembled to capture the sights and sounds of Mars. Its super-sanitized sample return tubes — for rocks that could hold evidence of past Martian life — are the cleanest items ever bound for space. A helicopter is even tagging along for an otherworldly test flight.

FOX NEWS: Crossword Puzzle of the Week: July 28 Take Fox News' Crossword Puzzle of the Week and test your knowledge of the Olympics.

Crossword Puzzle of the Week: July 28 Take Fox News' Crossword Puzzle of the Week and test your knowledge of the Olympics. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3zJBKaB

New top story from Time: A Woman of Color Cannot Save Your Workplace Culture

https://ift.tt/39GFaQC “The ideal candidate would be a woman of color.” I’ve been hearing this from several hiring managers lately, and something about it wasn’t sitting well. On the one hand, workplaces are finally confronting the lack of diversity in their ranks and getting explicit and intentional about what they need to do. On the other: WTF? For decades, white managers ascended, wrote mission statements without centering equity, built teams off existing networks—and now they are ready to be inclusive? The phenomenon isn’t new. Researchers call the expectations on women of color, specifically Black women, “ superwoman schema ”; others dub it an extension of “ strong Black woman syndrome .” We cheer and tweet the heroics of women of color (from caregiving within their families to the loftier, say, saving of democracy by getting out the vote) without mentioning the toll this burden takes. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The idea of women of color now saving the modern...

New top story from Time: Why India’s Most Populous State Just Passed a Law Inspired by an Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theory

https://ift.tt/3pZtgYR India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh , introduced a law outlawing so-called “Love Jihad” on Tuesday, the first of at least five states led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that are considering new legislation targeting interfaith relationships in the world’s largest democracy. Love Jihad is a baseless conspiracy theory that Muslim men are attempting to surreptitiously shift India’s demographic balance by converting Hindu women to Islam through marriage. The narrative has been pushed by Hindu nationalist groups close to India’s ruling BJP since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was first elected in 2014. Since Modi came to power, his government has introduced several other measures that target India’s minority Muslim community. The conspiracy has received renewed attention after a Hindu woman in Haryana was murdered in October by a Muslim man who, her family said, had pressured her to convert and marry him. The new law was ...

21-year-old student jumps to death from 22nd floor of Ghaziabad highrise https://ift.tt/302bKs6

A 21-year-old man died after allegedly jumping from the 22nd floor of a residential condominium in Indirapuram locality in Ghaziabad on Monday, police said. According to police, the victim was under depression. However, no suicide note was recovered from the spot. Police said that the incident happened at one of the residential towers of Saya Zenith, a high-rise society in Ahinsa Khand II of Indirapuram. The family of the man was present at home when the incident occurred.

Covid-19 stressing you out? 8 ways you can sleep better https://ift.tt/2CNNFN2

No matter who and where you are, your circadian rhythm (the basic sleep-wake cycle or body clock) is the internal process that determines your physical, mental and behavioral changes throughout the day and night. Sleep is a critical part of this circadian rhythm and any disruption in the sleep cycle can affect your overall health. While getting sufficient sleep every night is important, many have reported difficulty in achieving it during the pandemic. A study published in 'Current Biology' in June 2020 revealed that even though people working from home during the pandemic are likely to be getting more sleep time, their sleep quality is often poor and disrupted.

My precise view

Search This Blog