The Subway Power House

[glasgowken]

They aren't equally spaced, here's a diagram with show the distances in feet, with the gradient and depth, along the line.

Cick below.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v379/ ... ayplan.jpg


The gripper mechanism. A wheel was turned to grip & release smoothly. and a lever released the cable quickly when the train passed over the point where the cable entered the tunnel at Scotland St. It took a good bit of skill & judgement, to operate. The cables ran at a constant 13 MPH, and both were the same length, 11650 yards, any difference due to tunnel length was taken up on the cable drums at the power house.



Strangely enough the original idea was to have all trains spaced along the cable and permanently attached. The cable would then stop & start when the trains were aligned with each station. That idea was turned down by the House of Commons at the Bill stage. You can imagine the problems with slack, and trying to keep the trains in line with the stations. That plan would have also required the stations to be equally spaced.

(Maybe this thread should be merged with the main Subway thread ?)

[viceroy]

Ah, so the lever was for quick release at the crossover and then gripping once the crossover was cleared. I wondered about that. Where would the wheel be for operating the gripper in the picture? The gripper in the Transport Museum has the wheel fitted at one end making it look as if the mechanism should be mounted vertically, not horizontally. I've examined it several times but cannot really figure this out, not being all that mechanically inclined.

[glasgowken]

The gripper was fitted on the front bogie, I think the wheel was fitted directly to the Transport Museum example for demonstration only.
This plan shows the hook up (although it's not too clear).

http://glasgowtransport.co.uk/ug_car_plan1.jpg

[Schiehallion]

The question is: How much longer would the rope have been on the outer circle compared to the inner? Over to you Math heads

To find the circumference you multiply the radius by 6.28 (2 x pi).

So if you 'increase' the radius from the inner circle to the outer circle then whatever the extra distance from the middle of the inner rail to the middle of the outer rail is multiplied by 6.28.

So if the distance was say 6 feet then you'd need 37.68 feet of extra cable (6 x 6.28 ).

Circles are totally mintit man, pure quality as the weans would say. We know a wider circle needs more distance, look at the staggered starts on an athletic track. But watch this, if you laid a rope along the ground all around the equator it would be 24,800 miles long. So if someone said how much extra rope would you need if the rope was say 2 foot above the ground going all around the Earth. You'd reckon with a much bigger circle it would be a fair amount?

Using the formula above (circumference = 2 x radius x pi) the extra rope needed is only 12.56 feet since we have only increased the Earth's radius by 2 foot.

The mental world of circles eh? And to think I'm usually out on a Friday night.

[HollowHorn]

And to think I'm usually out on a Friday night.

Out of what, exactly

[glasgowken]

I won't argue with that explanation. It takes me all day to work out the price of a pint of milk, and a loaf.

[glasgowken]

I noticed the power house is boarded up now, i'll try and get a couple photos on Monday.

[Buzby]

Two observations - I was taken on a tour of the original electric system prior to its major remodelling and loss of Copeland Road/ Merkland St etc - the maintenance driver stopped the train between West Street and Shields road so we could look at the cable chanber which went off on the left (drivers) side of each tunnel to allow the cable to enter and leave the cable run above.

The point he made gave me considerable respect for the drivers (or 'grippers') was because there was a 6 foot gap at this point on both the inner and outer circles, and the gripper had to be completely disengaged from the cable while at speed, to coast past the gap and then re-acquire the cable on the far side for the journey on to Shields Road or West Street.

What complicated matters further, was that the cable ALSO had a join, and the grippers had to look out for the red painted section of the cable which warned them that the spliced join was shortly to arrive, and they were not to make any attempt to grip the cable here as it weakened the join. I was told some old hands could work a full shift and knew instinctively within a minute or so of then the join would be upon them, even though it moves faster (relative to their progress round the circle).

Things came to a head when passing the cable run, as they had to drop off the cable to let it rise vertically, and while coasting to the pick-up spot that the incoming cable was bathed in red - the jointed section! With no station reise of fall to smooth out the cable acquisition this was where much of the damage was done, and if the cable snapped it could take up to an hour to repair then re-tension the run.

Heady stuff!

[OLDFART]

Scotland Street nope not the museum, anybody got any pics of the old subway building next to it? my understanding it used to house winch & steam plant that pulled trollies.

[AlanM]

An aerial shot:

[glasgowken]

I've got a few photos but i'm having problem with my image viewer. I'll add them asap.

[Schiehallion]

Here Ken, every time I see this in the shops I think of you. You played it yet? Even downloaded the demo version?

http://www.avanquest.com/UK/play/simula ... lator.html

[glasgowken]

Yes, i've got that. I downloaded the demo then got a patch

[OLDFART]

thats what it looks like now. did really know history. Managed to spend few hours inside but not sorted pics yet

ps Ken photos not showing

[Blueboy]

Two observations - I was taken on a tour of the original electric system prior to its major remodelling and loss of Copeland Road/ Merkland St etc - the maintenance driver stopped the train between West Street and Shields road so we could look at the cable chanber which went off on the left (drivers) side of each tunnel to allow the cable to enter and leave the cable run above.

The point he made gave me considerable respect for the drivers (or 'grippers') was because there was a 6 foot gap at this point on both the inner and outer circles, and the gripper had to be completely disengaged from the cable while at speed, to coast past the gap and then re-acquire the cable on the far side for the journey on to Shields Road or West Street.

What complicated matters further, was that the cable ALSO had a join, and the grippers had to look out for the red painted section of the cable which warned them that the spliced join was shortly to arrive, and they were not to make any attempt to grip the cable here as it weakened the join. I was told some old hands could work a full shift and knew instinctively within a minute or so of then the join would be upon them, even though it moves faster (relative to their progress round the circle).

Things came to a head when passing the cable run, as they had to drop off the cable to let it rise vertically, and while coasting to the pick-up spot that the incoming cable was bathed in red - the jointed section! With no station reise of fall to smooth out the cable acquisition this was where much of the damage was done, and if the cable snapped it could take up to an hour to repair then re-tension the run.

Heady stuff!

Buzby, thanks. That was very interesting.

BB