Destination

At present the streetcar terminates along Lake Union at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Not much of a "destination" but ultimately it may be extended to the University of Washington.

Special Work Part 3: Streetcar at Intersection

Here is a streetcar negotiating the Fairview/Mercer intersection. Some would call the web of overhead "visual pollution". I love it. To me it says "civilization". Here is a city using clean electricity to power its transit vehicles.

Please take note of the "extra-special work", the "cats cradle" design in the overhead. Seattle's Route 70 is decorated with extra-special work throughout its route, which may make it unique among trolley bus routes in the world.

For some reason the higher-resolution image does not come up when the above link is clicked, so I have posted it here.

Special work Part 2: closeup

Here is a closeup of the device used to separate the streetcar and trolley bus wires. The streetcar wire runs from left to right in the picture, and is held below the device by a series of metal "skids" - the pantograph bounces along these skids and makes fireworks as the streetcar progresses through the crossover. The trolleybus wires go from the upper left to the lower right in the picture, and are mounted within the notches of the crossover device. In person the device appears to be made of a white ceramic material.

Special work part 1

The big challenge is where the wires of the trolley buses cross the streetcar wires. I observed three such crossovers in the overhead wiring: at Westlake/7th, Westlake/Denny, and Mercer/Fairview. How to keep the two systems apart while avoiding a short circuit and still permit the current collectors to do their job as the vehicle negotiates the crossing? This is accomplished in different ways by the various transit systems throughout the world that have both streetcars and trolley buses. Here is Seattle's solution: a ceramic block with cutouts for the electric trolley bus wires. The trolley bus poles stay attached to the wires through the cutouts. The streetcar pantograph is pushed below the trolley bus wires by a series of metal skids which I presume are not electrically "live". This produces a great shower of sparks as the streetcar traverses the crossover. I need to film a movie of this and post it. I did not observe a trolley bus traversing a crossover, but it is apparent that the bus would need to be aligned directly under the apparatus or the poles would be in danger of hitting the ceramic block and disengaging their wires.

Here are two pictures of the special work at Mercer and Fairview. The route 70 wire intersects the streetcar wire at an oblique angle, not 90 degrees.

Overhead: Streetcar pantograph

The overhead is fascinating. The streetcar travels on the same roads that accommodate electric trolley  buses. The streetcar uses a pantograph (shown) while the trolley buses use poles with "shoes" that fit over the lower part of the wire. 

How to keep the two systems apart without causing short circuits? The accompanying photo shows a streetcar under wire on Fairview Avenue. Note the double wires parallel to the single streetcar wire. These are for the Route 70 electric trolley bus.

New and old tracks

In the northern end of its route, the streetcar tracks parallel some other abandoned tracks which I presume are freight train tracks. Though it would be poetic if they were old tracks from the Seattle Transit streetcars of the last century.

Free fare

The fare is free until the end of the year, so the streetcars were crowded with people of all ages. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. I especially noticed groups of teenagers who really enjoyed the ride even though the streetcar does not go to an interesting destination.

Seattle Streetcar - First Ride

On Sunday 16 December I too my first ride on the new Seattle Streetcar. It was a particularly gloomy day even for Seattle, but I took pictures. I started at the Westlake terminus downtown.

Introduction

This is a journal of my photographs and observations of electric transit in Seattle, which consists mostly of electric trolley buses (the second largest such network in the USA), but also of a new streetcar line, a heritage monorail line, and other electric rail to come. Seattle is blessed to have 100% carbon-neutral electricity and it is makes sense to run transit electrically. Still, most transit vehicles in Seattle are (cough) diesel buses, which are environmentally questionable and which will be ignored here. I am particularly fascinated by the electrical transit infrastructure - the poles, wires, and rails which facilitate the movement of the transit vehicles along their routes.