Vancouver Trolleybus Discussion

[Phillip]

17 hours ago, 9924 said:

I can't see sh!t out of that back window lol!  I always adjusted my side view mirror a bit higher so I can see the poles, worked great on the 60fters.  

I was holiday blocking one sheet, did the 5/6 clockwise for a full 3 weeks straight and then did the 17 the next week.  Took me a week to just to remember to coast and not power the switch at the bottom of Cambie/Nelson.

With 41st/Dunbar, quite a few of the 7s lost their poles a few weeks ago coming through the intersection SB for some reason.  Then one 7 took out some wire making the turn from 41st onto Dunbar around the same time, but wasn't the same wire where people were loosing their poles.

41 ave and Dunbar st sounds like crap going through the overhead, several 41 drivers asked me for advice for not dewiring, I only go 10 km/h both EB and WB. Also the WB power switch, when an NIS trolley turning WB to SB into the loop powers that switch, but dewires before clearing that switch screws the 41 going straight.

The EB power switch at Granville St sometimes doesn't reset on the left wire, so a 41 going straight the left pole will make friends with the right pole before dewiring. 

I dewired on both locations several times, I did my part and reported it.

[Mark Walton]

Sounds like some of those drivers may not be graduates of the "Angus McIntyre Finishing School For Trolley Coach Operators". According to a recent FB post: "It's where the trainees go after they graduate. They *think* they know how to drive a trolley, but they really need to take the McIntyre/(Derek) Cheung/(Kevin) Nash course to be properly and truly ready to drive like champs. They will never power through an insulator again."

[Phillip]

I see a lot of drivers who dewire in the intersection and clear the intersection before stopping. That's dangerous practice, if a pole gets stuck with the wires it could pull something down. I come to a complete stop wherever I am and I first go outside and look at my poles to ensure they are down before moving the bus out of the way.

Most pedestrians and traffic are impatient and are not nice to the bus so I don't mind inconveniencing them and block them

[Vancouvers Trolleys]

How many trolleys be there on the 16 route at peak times?

[Michael Marriott]

Some changes to the overhead are coming on Marine Dr due to the ongoing watermain work.  This stretch of overhead is held up by bracket arms, which do not reach over the entire roadway.  So, new span wires and hangers have been installed from Manitoba to Yukon (so far) to allow the wires to be moved for construction.

[8010]

2 hours ago, Michael Marriott said:

Some changes to the overhead are coming on Marine Dr due to the ongoing watermain work.  This stretch of overhead is held up by bracket arms, which do not reach over the entire roadway.  So, new span wires and hangers have been installed from Manitoba to Yukon (so far) to allow the wires to be moved for construction.

They’re also moving the 3’s stop on WB SE Marine Dr @ Main St about 80 feet West from the current stop on Monday. The 100 will still serve the existing stop so I wonder if they’re removing the 65th Ave @ Main St stop since all the 3s go to Maine Drive Station now.

[Phillip]

9 hours ago, 8010 said:

They’re also moving the 3’s stop on WB SE Marine Dr @ Main St about 80 feet West from the current stop on Monday. The 100 will still serve the existing stop so I wonder if they’re removing the 65th Ave @ Main St stop since all the 3s go to Maine Drive Station now.

They are rerouting the SB 3's to turn right from SB Main st to WB Marine Dr, They will not loop around 65 ave, Sophia st and Marine dr. It's only a temporary reroute for construction. 

[GORDOOM]

7 hours ago, Phillip said:

They are rerouting the SB 3's to turn right from SB Main st to WB Marine Dr[.]

Which turn drivers will need to be trained to take very wide, so as not to dewire and/or damage overhead.

[Phillip]

5 hours ago, GORDOOM said:

Which turn drivers will need to be trained to take very wide, so as not to dewire and/or damage overhead.

Yep, also position the bus in the number 2 lane so they do not go over the curb and hit the pole, I've seen an artic trolley do that on that turn already. 

[Millennium2002]

I heard that turn is terrible for the joints of the artic buses... so am surprised that they're going ahead with this...

[8010]

Something seems to be up with the crossover when turning left from Marine onto Main, every bus I’ve been on has had to switch to EPU after going through the crossover until they arrive at the stop.

Edit: I don’t think it’s the crossover, it seems to happen just past the new insulators they put up.

[8010]

On 3/26/2021 at 10:10 PM, Michael Marriott said:

Some changes to the overhead are coming on Marine Dr due to the ongoing watermain work.  This stretch of overhead is held up by bracket arms, which do not reach over the entire roadway.  So, new span wires and hangers have been installed from Manitoba to Yukon (so far) to allow the wires to be moved for construction.

New wires are up.

[8010]

The 3 is back to trolleys after a long weekend of diesels.

[Vancouvers Trolleys]

1 hour ago, 8010 said:

The 3 is back to trolleys after a long weekend of diesels.

And hybrids?

[Pops1719]

3 hours ago, Vancouvers Trolleys said:

And hybrids?

Obviously. When people refer do diesels on trolley routes, they mean a bus that runs on diesel, and that includes the hybrids as they use diesel.

[8010]

On 3/30/2021 at 5:46 AM, 8010 said:

Something seems to be up with the crossover when turning left from Marine onto Main, every bus I’ve been on has had to switch to EPU after going through the crossover until they arrive at the stop.

Edit: I don’t think it’s the crossover, it seems to happen just past the new insulators they put up.

I’ve figured it out. The new insulators they put up have some kind of red wire going across them, since these are present on the left-turn wires, the wires that point towards Fraser, and the WB wires, I assume they’re some kind of power-killing insulators to avoid any potential issues with the construction crews. My issue with them however is the left-turn wires because if the driver isn’t going fast enough then the trolley is going to block up WB traffic until they switch over to EPU. Can’t they just go on EPU prior to turning left since they seem to accelerate through the insulators just fine due to the fact that the poles aren’t drawing any power?

[M. Parsons]

On 4/9/2021 at 1:32 PM, 8010 said:

I’ve figured it out. The new insulators they put up have some kind of red wire going across them, since these are present on the left-turn wires, the wires that point towards Fraser, and the WB wires, I assume they’re some kind of power-killing insulators to avoid any potential issues with the construction crews. My issue with them however is the left-turn wires because if the driver isn’t going fast enough then the trolley is going to block up WB traffic until they switch over to EPU. Can’t they just go on EPU prior to turning left since they seem to accelerate through the insulators just fine due to the fact that the poles aren’t drawing any power?

Do you have photos? 

It almost sounds like you're talking about about jumper wires that carry power through a section insulator. If it's in relation to construction, what can happen is a set of section insulators is installed, jumpers used to power the isolated section. If the wire needs to be de-energized, they pull the jumpers and then don't need to take down the whole circuit.

The other thing it could be is a grounding cable. Usually connected to at least the positive and negative wires, but possibly another metal object (traction pole), they are used as a safety factor in wire that has been de-energized. If the wire is energized inadvertently, either at the substation, a local switch in the feeder network, or by installing jumpers in an section insulator, the grounding cable shorts out the circuit, trips the substation, and therefore prevents the circuit from being energized when it's not meant to be. 

[Michael Marriott]

At Main and Marine a portion of the intersection is de-energized for the watermain/sewer work going on in the area.  Typically what the overhead crew does when they want to de-energize part of the circuit for construction is they will put the jumper wire between the positive and ground wires on the de-energized side of the temporary insulators.

Not the intersection under discussion, but a similar setup on Broadway from 2009.  The overhead to the right of the photo has power, then the temporary insulator has the jumper cable on the de-energized side so if that section is somehow powered it will immediately short circuit.

Grounding cables are generally not used for these situations, since the buses usually pass through the dead section on EPU but with the poles still up.

[8010]

16 hours ago, Michael Marriott said:

At Main and Marine a portion of the intersection is de-energized for the watermain/sewer work going on in the area.  Typically what the overhead crew does when they want to de-energize part of the circuit for construction is they will put the jumper wire between the positive and ground wires on the de-energized side of the temporary insulators.

Not the intersection under discussion, but a similar setup on Broadway from 2009.  The overhead to the right of the photo has power, then the temporary insulator has the jumper cable on the de-energized side so if that section is somehow powered it will immediately short circuit.

Grounding cables are generally not used for these situations, since the buses usually pass through the dead section on EPU but with the poles still up.

Yeah that’s similar to what they look like on Main & Marine. If I remember I’ll try to get some pics in a bit and confirm it.

[8010]

[Vancouvers Trolleys]

29 minutes ago, 8010 said:

Never seen these before.

[M. Parsons]

1 hour ago, 8010 said:

Heh. That's exactly a combination of what I was describing. Jumper wires being used to ground the circuit. Makes sense if you are keeping poles up. Never was an option in Edmonton.

[martin607]

New Flyer have at last produced new catalogue pages for the Xcelsior trolleybus. One interesting point is they have increased the size of the battery to 71kWh, giving 22 miles off-wire range for the XT 40 and over 15 miles for the XT60 - plenty of range for, say, a trolley R4 to get from 41st to UBC and back. I get the feeling that NFI want to have the widest electric bus choice available: pure battery, fuel cell and battery-trolley. They must have done some engineering to accommodate the much larger batteries.

Trolleybus fleet renewal in Vancouver isn't due till the second half of the decade, but a trial batch to demonstrate the concept of the battery-trolleybus with In Motion Charging would be interesting.  

 

https://www.newflyer.com/site-content/uploads/2021/07/Xcelsior-Trolley-Brochure-2021.pdf

[Community Shuttle]

Take this with a grain of salt but I heard from one source that the order of Nova LFSe+s was cancelled and a new order of trolleys was placed. If true, I guess the heat waves made them reconsider because every current trolley has the potential to become an oven on wheels.

[Phillip]

11 hours ago, Community Shuttle said:

every current trolley has the potential to become an oven on wheels.

I had a trolley on a Monday during the extreme heatwave at the end of June when it reached 40C. I brought a thermometer to record the temp, it reached 45C in the driver seat. 

Everything was hot, my water bottle, everything in my backpack.