ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Pheidippides]

   

[Viewfromthe42]

That TPSS somehow reminds me of scenes in the original Jurassic Park of the Velociraptor compound.

[timc]

That TPSS somehow reminds me of scenes in the original Jurassic Park of the Velociraptor compound.

That's interesting, because it looks like that TPSS is approximately where the dinosaur is during Wonders of Winter.

[timio]

New format for the construction updates this week. Haven't yet decided if it's easier to understand.

[Canard]

Ehhh, I'm not a big fan.

Back from a 2-week road trip, and couldn't want to hop on my bike tonight and explore some of the line!

   
Borden is just looking fantastic, I think, with the green along the line.

   
Track switch for freight in Waterloo Town Square.

   
TPSS installed in Waterloo Park!

   
Crews working on the OCS/Catenary system at the Seagram/Laurier/Waterloo Park station.

[Canard]

   
Sorry, but this makes me furious.  As a proud Canadian, Engineer and very vocal supporter of SI, this drives me insane.  We're not American - this should 100% be in metric...

   
Crews were also working along the spur through University of Waterloo. Looks like they're preparing to install the deck plates for the pedestrian crossings.

   
I couldn't quite figure out what this little guy is for. Anyone have any ideas?

   
At Columbia, there are now twelve crossing signal poles installed. This is just insane. All I can figure (and I really hope I'm wrong) is that Transport Canada must want separate ones for LRT vs. Freight. If that's the case... that's just nuts! I can easily see now why it was rumoured that Erb/Caroline is going to have 16 separate crossing arms going off every 4 minutes when a train goes through. Edit - Warren Schnurr on the facebook group pointed out that there were existing crossing signals there, and those will likely be removed when the new ones are activated. Google Street View confirms that there were pre-existing crossing lamps here! I rarely am up this way so I had no idea.

[KevinL]

On the Imperial - unit sign: I know Metric should be the standard, but keep in mind that this sign is for the benefit and safety of the workers on site - who to this day work better in feet and inches. I would hate to see an incident occur because someone tripped up on their mental math.

[Canard]

So it can have both, with imperial below Metric. We've been metric for 50+ years. It's time to ween off the teat.

[Canard]

On the Imperial - unit sign: I know Metric should be the standard, but keep in mind that this sign is for the benefit and safety of the workers on site - who to this day work better in feet and inches. I would hate to see an incident occur because someone tripped up on their mental math.

The height sign faces the traffic flow at the crossing, so I would argue it's actually more for the public, than workers. All bridge height signs (heck, all signs, period) in Canada, are metric. Because we're metric. Like every other country in the world, except Liberia, Burma, and the USA.

To counter-argue: all of the alignment drawings are in metric. The numbers you see on the side of the actual rails? Distance from the endpoint of the line, in metres. Next batch of numbers on the rails? Radius of curvature. In metres. Rails made in US manufacturing facility.

In Real Estate they still make comparisons in price per sq.ft. or per acre along with m2 and hectares, lot size 60' x 100' etc. Property surveys are all now in just metric measurements, but a lot of (most) people still get their calculators out to convert to acres and square feet. In a house or condominium, they still say that you have 9 foot or 10 foot ceilings. When they are talking ceiling heights, I don't think that I have ever heard it referred to in metric numbers.

Just because a lot of people are reluctant to change, doesn't make it right.

I work in engineering and manufacturing, and trust me, I know all about working fluently in both systems of measure - I just have to. 3/4 of our customer base is in the US. And even then, half of our US customers work in SI because they know it's better and it just makes more sense. All our raw material comes in imperial, so as a designer working in metric you have to be clever about where to skim and shave material to get back to non-crappy numbers all the time because of this disease unit working its way in like a cancer.

Using Imperial in normal parlance in Canada is like going into a building in Quebec and expecting people who are bilingual to use English as the primary language. It's incredibly offensive.

[timio]

I couldn't quite figure out what this little guy is for. Anyone have any ideas?

Not quite a pallet car, but with a little imagination and some old fashioned gumption...

[Canard]

   
Conestoga Mall Platform.

   
Looking down at the OMSF from Northfield.

   
Status of the Northfield bridge across the highway.

   
Northfield Station platform, and a new kind of fence pole (square) going up - I suspect a higher "finish" was asked for, here.

   
Detail of the "internal" counterweight catenary pole, up at the OMSF.

[Canard]

   
Lots of concrete ties await placement inside the OMSF yard.

   
While I was there, crews were stringing out the long lengths of ribbon rail, waiting to place them into final position.

   
Curves below a certain radius aren't just accommodated for on-site by bending ribbon rail, but rather, are pre-curved precisely with a roller bender, and welded together on-site.  Here's a stack of those curved pieces.

   
Pulling the rails.

   

[Canard]

   
Keeping things from getting too dusty.

   
OMSF Overview.

   
Detail of the switchwork which will branch trains off of the main line into the OMSF.

   
Tracks curving off into the main OMSF hall.

   
One final shot of the OMSF yard track.

[Canard]

...and finally, some video of rail pulling along the line at the OMSF:

[tomh009]

Back from a week of work travel, and I am happy to see that the rails (and most of the rebar) are now in place all along Charles, from Ontario to Borden.

Near Queen, toward Benton:
   

Near Benton, toward Eby:
   

Near Cedar, toward Madison:
   

Near Kent, toward Stirling: