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SouthEnd Projects

atlrvr

By atlrvr
in Charlotte

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Raintree21 Town

Raintree21

Posted
Posted

I think it will just be on display only, unless they bring it out for special events, but it can't be on the tracks if the LRT is running, like dubone said, because of safety concerns. The structur of it is not strong enough to withstand a hit by a LRT train.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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It was a volunteer effort, for which they did raise funds at a grassroots level. They then ran it on the old tracks for a while. Then, it got to be something the city saw as a way to boost redevelopment of SouthEnd, so they spend ~$20m on those copper roofed stations and caternary. That was before LRT was thought up. The success of the trolley (and the promise of the trolley) in spurring development is part of what caused them to look at light rail. I think it was an evolution from the ideas that started to pop into people's heads ('Why not just run the trolley to 485?').

That is my take on it, but I was in and out of Charlotte at that early stage, so some of it is fuzzy and might have had a slightly different order.

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dubone Megalopolis

dubone

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If an antique car is too dangerous on a very carefully timed and monitored LRT track, it is certainly too dangerous to be in mixed traffic. I think its only hope for running on a line would be a highly unlikely pioneer run between 7th and NoDa on the future NE line extension. If the city could plop down some track and caternary in advance of that line. But that is almost certainly not going to happen.

I know that CTI discussed using the car for another line, but again, it is simply not likely due to cost and sort of starting from square one for the second time. I think we need to face it that the antique car is now a museum piece, despite the effort to restore it to functioning.

As for running the replica cars on the streetcar lines, there is nothing that would prevent that, however the tracks do not connect with the Blue line tracks, so it would be impractical, as the vehicle maintenance facility couldn't be used for those cars.

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MZT Burg

MZT

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I can't say the replica cars fell all that safe either, with so much wood and metal surfaces in them. Even the Gold Rush is probably not very safe in an accident. Seems to me they are splitting hairs.

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orulz City

orulz

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I think the problem isn't the actual safety of car 85; it's just the fact that its safety is very difficult to prove. I don't know if FTA requires collision testing, but in that case it would be impossible, as 85 is one-of-a-kind. More likely, an engineering analysis of the structure would be enough, but even in that case it would be expensive and invasive - they'd probably have to disassemble it to make a detailed computer model of the structure, sample the steel to determine its composition and thus its physical characteristics, estimate the strength of the 80-year old welds, rivets, nuts, bolts, etc.

I wouldn't be too surprised if Gomaco had to crash-test one of their replica trolleys before it could be approved for operation on a FTA-controlled light-rail line. Even if they didn't have to crash-test one, they still certainly have detailed computer models of the entire structure and comprehensive knowledge of the materials used and their strengths, making a simulated collision much easier to carry out.

But still, those gomaco trolleys are more like vintage trolleys than you may realize. The whine of the motor and gears sounds exactly like an old trolley's traction motor (rather than the high-tech hum of a modern LRV), the suspension jerks the same as old streetcars do when they accelerate (as opposed to the smooth-as-glass ride of a modern LRV), and I think someone told me they actually use trucks that came from disassembled old streetcars.

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