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

MTA Board of Directors Welcomes Lydia So

MTA Board of Directors Welcomes Lydia So By Stephen Chun Lydia So, a championed public servant, advocate for the AAPI community and an accomplished urban planner, designer and architect, has joined the SFMTA’s Board of Directors. She was appointed in June 2023 and sworn in by Mayor London Breed on Aug. 23, 2023, at Central Subway’s Chinatown Rose Pak Station, in line with her personal connection with the Chinatown community. So was born in Hong Kong and is fluent in Chinese (Cantonese). She is the founder of the architecture firm SOLYD Architecture, Management and Design. She is a former Historic Preservation Commissioner for the San Francisco Planning Department where she voted in favor of the Potrero Yard Modernization Project that is expected to bring hundreds of housing units to our city while maintaining the functions of the SFMTA. She was the first Chinese American Historic Preservation Commissioner, implemented the Planning Department’s Racial and Social Equity policy and

1 crore COVID-19 cases worldwide; death toll crosses 5 lakh https://ift.tt/2NCSU3C

The world has now seen over 1 crore cases of COVID-19, the illness which started spreading in the very beginning of the year and has now killed over 5 lakh people worldwide. As per latest figures, the world has seen 10,080,224 coronavirus cases including 501,262 deaths. Over 5 million people have also recovered after contracting the virus. from IndiaTV: Google News Feed https://ift.tt/3i81jtT

New top story from Time: The Ballroom Scene Has Long Offered Radical Freedoms For Black and Brown Queer People. Today, That Matters More Than Ever

https://ift.tt/2O8qsKr Marginalized by prejudice, violence, housing insecurity, and HIV infection rates among other burdens, Black and brown transgender and gender-nonconforming people face particular challenges in establishing secure, nourishing communities—both within LGBTQ spaces and in society at large. One response to these stigmas has been the formation of self-sustaining social networks and cultural groups, such as the ballroom scene, a formidable social movement and creative collective for LGBT people of color. Amid what has been called a new golden age for Black culture and storytelling , a particular “Renaissance” in queer Black art and cultural representation is clear. Ballroom culture is now widely seen and celebrated (and appropriated) in the mainstream—across fashion campaigns, music videos, social media and in TV shows like Pose , Legendary , and RuPaul’s Drag Race . And i n this moment, ballroom and voguing as the body politic has much to teach the world abou

FOX NEWS: 9-year-old kid finds $5k in cash while cleaning used car Sometimes, it literally pays to clean your car.

9-year-old kid finds $5k in cash while cleaning used car Sometimes, it literally pays to clean your car. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3fTmQpQ

FOX NEWS: California couple gets married at 'most beautiful' Taco Bell: 'It was the best of both worlds' Analicia Garcia, 24, and Kyle Howser, 25, from Sacramento, California, got married on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and had their reception at the famous Pacifica, California, Taco Bell.

California couple gets married at 'most beautiful' Taco Bell: 'It was the best of both worlds' Analicia Garcia, 24, and Kyle Howser, 25, from Sacramento, California, got married on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and had their reception at the famous Pacifica, California, Taco Bell. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3BKWsrb

FOX NEWS: 19-year-old shelter cat adopted after his birthday party goes viral: 'Open your heart' A senior shelter cat named Sammy was quickly adopted after going viral on TikTok.

19-year-old shelter cat adopted after his birthday party goes viral: 'Open your heart' A senior shelter cat named Sammy was quickly adopted after going viral on TikTok. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3xXcnkE

New top story from Time: ‘Some Seeds Are Being Planted.’ How Yasuke Paves a New Path for Black Creators in Anime

https://ift.tt/2PCZdsF It was around 13 years ago when LeSean Thomas first learned of Yasuke. At that time, Thomas came across the 1968 Japanese children’s book Kuro-suke by Kurusu Yoshio and saw illustrations of the real-life African warrior who arrived in 16th century Japan and served under Oda Nobunaga—a greatly influential feudal lord who is widely regarded as the first unifier of the country. “It kind of felt like a secret treasure,” Thomas said. He found it particularly fascinating that the story of Yasuke, largely considered to be the first foreign-born samurai, was told in a Japanese work. “I just thought it was really cool that there was someone in Japan who was validating this because a s a concept in the West at that time, it was kind of viewed as a self-insert culturally to put a Black man with someone who was one of the unifiers of Japan,” Thomas told TIME in a recent Zoom interview. “Even at the time I didn’t believe it.” That disbelief has since faded, a

Nitish Kumar will ditch BJP to join RJD after poll results: Chirag Paswan https://ift.tt/3kByTcP

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party Janata Dal (United) have done preparations to ditch the BJP and join Rashtriya Dal Party (RJD) after the poll results are out, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan said on Wednesday. Firing a fresh salvo at Kumar, Chirag Paswan said he has done preparations to leave the BJP and go with the RJD after the elections.

New top story from Time: How a Long History of Intertwined Racism and Misogyny Leaves Asian Women in America Vulnerable to Violence

https://ift.tt/3dLVkcS In the weeks since eight people, six of whom were Asian women , were killed in a mass shooting at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area, the conversations prompted by the event have continued—as has the fear felt by many Asian and Asian American women, for whom the violence in Georgia felt intimately familiar. The mass shooting followed a year of increased anti-Asian violence and racist attacks , which advocates say has been fueled by xenophobic rhetoric about the COVID-19 pandemic. Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting database created at the start of the pandemic as a way to chart the attacks, received 3,795 reports of anti-Asian discrimination between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021; of those attacks, women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more often than men. However, in a press conference following the shooting spree, Captain Jay Baker, a spokesperson for the Cherokee County, Ga., sheriff’s office, said that the suspect, a white man, claim

Delhi Metro services hit due to farmers protest; entry, exit gates at 6 stations closed https://ift.tt/3dSxmN0

In view of “Delhi chalo”, a massive protest march by farmers from Punjab, Haryana and other parts of India, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday announced the closure of entry & exit gates at six metro stations on the Green Line. The Delhi Metro authorities had earlier announced that services from neighbouring cities will remain suspended on Friday

My precise view

Search This Blog