TTC CLRV/ALRV updates and discussion

[smallspy]

On 5/11/2019 at 9:41 AM, Ed T. said:

This is still kind of odd, because if anything, the Flexity deliveries are going more slowly than expected, while the legacy fleet is being scrapped fairly briskly. Isn't it part of fleet planning to make sure you have places to store all your streetcars? I don't think the fleet plan was to have to bustitute three point five routes due to a streetcar shortage; and if the plan was to have enough streetcars to run all routes, then where were they going to be stored?

It only doesn't make sense until you realize that there is construction going on at both Roncy and Russell. (I agree, it does seem like spectacularly bad planning, but I'm not getting paid to make these decisions, either.) As well, the older cars are not getting scrapped quite that quickly - maybe only 2 or 3 cars per week are leaving the premises.

 

 

On 5/11/2019 at 1:06 PM, dowlingm said:

A more extensive rebuild of the A fleet with a new accessible centre panto module might have been successful, but then the city bean counters would have demanded a reduction of the F order which might have left us in a worse situation down the road.

Why does any new module need to be also set up for a pantograph? The roof structure is designed to handle one already.

 

The TTC did look at this idea briefly in the late 1990s, but they dismissed it pretty quickly. Adding a lift to the CLRVs was seen as somehow more practical, although that idea too was eventually rejected.

 

Dan

[bus_7246]

6 hours ago, smallspy said:

It only doesn't make sense until you realize that there is construction going on at both Roncy and Russell. (I agree, it does seem like spectacularly bad planning, but I'm not getting paid to make these decisions, either.) As well, the older cars are not getting scrapped quite that quickly - maybe only 2 or 3 cars per week are leaving the premises.

 

 

Why does any new module need to be also set up for a pantograph? The roof structure is designed to handle one already.

 

The TTC did look at this idea briefly in the late 1990s, but they dismissed it pretty quickly. Adding a lift to the CLRVs was seen as somehow more practical, although that idea too was eventually rejected.

 

Dan

I’m at Russell at the moment, and there hasn’t been any notice of construction on the property or in the yard. The overhead that was cut on tracks 19 through 21 was for safety to lift the scrap cars onto the flatbeds for the scrapping company without hitting the overhead wire

[CLRV4002]

Was watching CP24 breakfast and saw this in the background. Rollsign says it’s in service. Checked the tracker and 4207 is down Queen but not signed into 501, but it seems to be in service near Bathurst currently 

[Mar_AC_23]

27 minutes ago, CLRV4002 said:

Was watching CP24 breakfast and saw this in the background. Rollsign says it’s in service. Checked the tracker and 4207 is down Queen but not signed into 501, but it seems to be in service near Bathurst currently 

4207 is currently at Sunnyside Loop.

[smallspy]

12 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

I’m at Russell at the moment, and there hasn’t been any notice of construction on the property or in the yard. The overhead that was cut on tracks 19 through 21 was for safety to lift the scrap cars onto the flatbeds for the scrapping company without hitting the overhead wire

They were doing overhead work a couple of weeks ago that necessitated shuffling cars around for a week or two, remember?

 

As well, the mods necessary to handle the Flexities there are supposed to start this fall, as I recall.

Dan

[MK78]

1 minute ago, smallspy said:

As well, the mods necessary to handle the Flexities there are supposed to start this fall, as I recall.

Flexity cars have gone thru Russell already, unless you mean inside the actual shop?

[bus_7246]

49 minutes ago, smallspy said:

They were doing overhead work a couple of weeks ago that necessitated shuffling cars around for a week or two, remember?

 

As well, the mods necessary to handle the Flexities there are supposed to start this fall, as I recall.

Dan

I frequent Russell as an operator out of there. The shuffling was to unbury dead cars for scrap (notice how all the cars moved were mobile...?). No overhead mods have been done yet, and the forklifts from the scrapping company are still parked on 20 & 21 tracks

[CLRV4002]

2 hours ago, Shemar said:

4207 is currently at Sunnyside Loop.

Heading back eastbound now, likely back to Russell

4221 is tracking again too so I’d say look out for 4221 and 4207 as possible rush hour trippers in the coming days 

On another note, the tracking data seems to have been cleared or something as many cars which haven’t tracked in days are now not tracking, including 4001 & 4002 

Edited May 13, 2019 by CLRV4002

[81-717]

Spotted the front half of an ALRV heading north on the DVP south of Lawrence about 10 mins ago (unfortunately didn't get the number)

[jor]

1 hour ago, D. Jacenkovic said:

Spotted the front half of an ALRV heading north on the DVP south of Lawrence about 10 mins ago (unfortunately didn't get the number)

I am trying to figure out if it was one of the refurbished ALRVs or one of the unrefurbished ALRVs. If it was a refurbished oe, I think it may have been 4243 because this one stopped tracking.

[CLRV4002]

10 minutes ago, jor said:

I am trying to figure out if it was one of the refurbished ALRVs or one of the unrefurbished ALRVs. If it was a refurbished oe, I think it may have been 4243 because this one stopped tracking.

It's an issue with the trackers as anything that hasn't tracked in a few days is not tracking anymore. This includes 4228, 4243 and CLRVs 4001 & 4002, among others. 

[dowlingm]

22 hours ago, smallspy said:

Why does any new module need to be also set up for a pantograph? The roof structure is designed to handle one already.

I agree, but having it in the new module would minimise the amount of change required to the existing modules and maximise the degree of testing that could be done prior to module delivery. It may be, on the other hand, that having it in the rear module might be more convenient because of the power distribution being already set up for the pole at the rear and thus non-trivial to insert a mid-car source.

[smallspy]

3 hours ago, bus_7246 said:

I frequent Russell as an operator out of there. The shuffling was to unbury dead cars for scrap (notice how all the cars moved were mobile...?). No overhead mods have been done yet, and the forklifts from the scrapping company are still parked on 20 & 21 tracks

No overhead mods to support the Flexities were done as far as I know, but they did do some sort of staged overhead work in the yard several weeks ago which required taking 3 tracks out of service at a time for a couple of days. I've never gotten any confirmation as to what exactly the work was for or entailed.

 

Dan

[bus_7246]

16 minutes ago, smallspy said:

No overhead mods to support the Flexities were done as far as I know, but they did do some sort of staged overhead work in the yard several weeks ago which required taking 3 tracks out of service at a time for a couple of days. I've never gotten any confirmation as to what exactly the work was for or entailed.

 

Dan

This is what they’re doing in the area with the cut overhead. Since the overhead hangs low, joint health and safety made arrangements for the scrapping crew to safely conduct their work without endangering workers if the lines were still intact, and a hoisted car would hit the overhead (ie. the video of 4000 being scrapped in 2017)

[Ultimate]

1 hour ago, jor said:

I am trying to figure out if it was one of the refurbished ALRVs or one of the unrefurbished ALRVs. If it was a refurbished oe, I think it may have been 4243 because this one stopped tracking.

4251 would be the number of that car

[Wayside Observer]

7 hours ago, D. Jacenkovic said:

Spotted the front half of an ALRV heading north on the DVP south of Lawrence about 10 mins ago (unfortunately didn't get the number)

 

4 hours ago, Ultimate said:

4251 would be the number of that car

I guess that makes it the AL section that's been hauled off with the RV part either already gone or soon to follow.

It's hard to believe that what was the newest streetcar in the fleet until fairly recently has been scrapped.

[bus_7246]

4210 & 4251 were hauled away today

[bus_7246]

9 hours ago, CLRV4002 said:

On another note, the tracking data seems to have been cleared or something as many cars which haven’t tracked in days are now not tracking, including 4001 & 4002 

Both cars are getting work done up at Harvey

[CLRV4002]

20 minutes ago, bus_7246 said:

Both cars are getting work done up at Harvey

Do you know if this work involves repairs and maintenance as opppsed to stripping and retiring ? 

[bus_7246]

7 minutes ago, CLRV4002 said:

Do you know if this work involves repairs and maintenance as opppsed to stripping and retiring ? 

I can confirm that they are both there for repairs

[CLRV4002]

4207 out again this morning and 4221 is out now too. They’re not signed in to the 501 but this was the case with 4207 yesterday and I believe they are AM rush trippers 

[T3G]

24 minutes ago, CLRV4002 said:

4207 out again this morning and 4221 is out now too. They’re not signed in to the 501 but this was the case with 4207 yesterday and I believe they are AM rush trippers 

Seems strange that both cars would be not signed in, unless one of these AM trippers have not yet had trip data uploaded onto NextBus yet. But I presume this is good news for the fleet either way.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos of 4210 & 4251 in days gone by.

Toronto Transit Commission 4210 - 01 by Andrew P., on Flickr

Toronto Transit Commission 4251 - 02 by Andrew P., on Flickr

[bus_7246]

5 hours ago, CLRV4002 said:

4207 out again this morning and 4221 is out now too. They’re not signed in to the 501 but this was the case with 4207 yesterday and I believe they are AM rush trippers 

They are tripper runs. 4207 was in service westbound at Spadina

 

Edit: the reason why they weren’t noticed on a tracker is because they were RAD cars this morning

[jor]

Officially, the first two ALRVs in service since about 4 months

[TTC T6H-5307N 2252]

None on the PM rush