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Thread summary:

Worried about petroleum and fossil fuels, issues on electrified railroads, age of oil over, AMTRAK’s electric trains, high speed rail system, light rail phenomenon

View Poll Results: Rail Fan Questionaire
Do you HATE trains and trolleys and refuse to ride in them? 0 0%
Do you DISLIKE trains and trolleys but will ride in them? 2 5.41%
Do you LIKE trains and trolleys and wish to ride in them? 8 21.62%
Do you LOVE trains and trolleys and wish to ride in them RIGHT NOW? 27 72.97%
Voters: 37. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 02-13-2011, 10:22 PM
 
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Wow...Unprotected third rail has been banned in California since 1946, due to a kid that fried himself on the Sacramento Northern's right-of-way near Rio Linda (according to an old-timer I knew, for a fun time in Rio Linda, kids would throw a metal bar on the third rail to watch the sparks fly.) The only way to do it is with fenced-off separated grade right-of-way, like BART. Other than that, it's all overhead wire.
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Old 02-13-2011, 10:40 PM
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Location: Western Massachusetts
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Originally Posted by wburg View Post
Wow...Unprotected third rail has been banned in California since 1946, due to a kid that fried himself on the Sacramento Northern's right-of-way near Rio Linda (according to an old-timer I knew, for a fun time in Rio Linda, kids would throw a metal bar on the third rail to watch the sparks fly.) The only way to do it is with fenced-off separated grade right-of-way, like BART. Other than that, it's all overhead wire.
There's plenty of third rail in the NY metro area. They even extended it in the 80s and might add some again.

An interesting train line is the train from NYC to New Haven, CT. Near the NY-CT border the power source switches from third rail to overhead, so the train carry connections for both sources and switch between moving at speed.

If the third rail gets ice and snow, you can watch interesting sparks and fires from your train window. If it's really bad, electric service shuts down, snarling lots of people's commute.
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Old 02-13-2011, 11:00 PM
 
Location: On the Rails in Northern NJ
12,380 posts, read 26,763,290 times
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Originally Posted by nei View Post
There's plenty of third rail in the NY metro area. They even extended it in the 80s and might add some again.

An interesting train line is the train from NYC to New Haven, CT. Near the NY-CT border the power source switches from third rail to overhead, so the train carry connections for both sources and switch between moving at speed.

If the third rail gets ice and snow, you can watch interesting sparks and fires from your train window. If it's really bad, electric service shuts down, snarling lots of people's commute.
Switches near Pelham,NY , Amtrak uses overhead hench the reason. There are plans to restore a few LIRR and MNRR lines and electrify another 788 miles or the rest of the LIRR system and the rest of Hudson line. As well as the future West Shore line...
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Old 02-15-2011, 06:55 PM
 
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3rd rail probably is the best choice for grade-seperated rapid transit, but it wouldn't work well for surface level transit (like light rail, trolleybuses, and streetcars) when it runs on the street. I don't think I have to tell you why...
Metro North and LIRR can have commuter rail with 3rd rail electrification at crossings due to the momentum of the trains between the gaps. On the slower sections (like around stations), there probably aren't many gaps due to the complete grade separation. Plus, it's a lot cheaper and easier just to have one electrical system in place if the commuter rail tracks are also used by intercity trains.
Light Rail really actually has a pretty board spectrum of operating styles. Trains can either run in the streets with just their own lane, run on an unused rail corridor, or even have their own elevated structures and tunnels. It's pretty versatile and fits most city's transit needs, which might be why it is so popular.
Some LRT systems have a urban rail focus (Houston, Norfolk, San Fransisco), many are like commuter rail (Dallas, Portland, Denver), some are almost like rapid transit due to elevated or underground sections (Seattle (which is more like a metro than LRT), Denver, some sections in Dallas).

Blah. I don't feel like talking now.
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