ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

I don’t mean the whole block turns to water, although that would be a cool effect in a video game. Imagine a lump of ice on the track being run over by a train. To the extent the whole lump doesn’t just go flying off but actually gets run over, what will happen to it? It’s not going to divert the train upward from its path measurably; instead any ice trapped under the wheel will either be reduced to a fine powder or, I suspect, actually turn into a liquid. I just remembered that the reason skates work is because the weight of the person using them turns a tiny amount of the ice under the blade into liquid, so the weight of a train will definitely have that effect on any ice stuck under the wheels.

Thanks, very interesting. Makes me ask all sorts of questions. I wonder how much ice you need, does it need to be in a flangeway or could ballasted track get iced up, what effect does the speed of the train have, …

So you’ve demonstrated that under the right (wrong) circumstances ice can interfere with the train. It still seems clear that a small amount will get crushed. Imagine a quarter-shaped piece of ice, compared to what would happen to a quarter-shaped piece of metal, … like a quarter.

And then back to the retarder, it’s not so much about direct crushing as it is how much the ice would increase the force required to move the retarder. Are we even sure the retarder slots aren’t drained? I notice there is a drain grate running across the tracks just before the retarder. So I wish we could get an expert answer to the question.

[KevinL]

I'm guessing that Portland derailment came down to ice filling the flangeway. If ice is only on the rail, the weight of the train on the wheel will crush/melt it out of significance.

As for how/if that would affect these buffers, that's above my pay grade.

[jwilliamson]

Regarding the "special gauge", the trains will have a narrower loading gauge than freight trains, right? Is it possible he thinks a wide loading gauge would allow for more space inside? That certainly sounds reasonable to me.

Or he might just be clueless.

[KevinL]

Our trains have standard gauge, with no deviation. This allows freight trains to share the track on the Waterloo Spur with few issues.

[Canard]

...more importantly, there was just simply no reason to pick a non-standard gauge.

[ijmorlan]

Regarding the "special gauge", the trains will have a narrower loading gauge than freight trains, right?  Is it possible he thinks a wide loading gauge would allow for more space inside? That certainly sounds reasonable to me.

Or he might just be clueless.

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand the difference between loading gauge, track gauge, wire gauge, and shotgun gauge. But I think you’re right that the LRV loading gauge is smaller than a typical freight loading gauge. That’s why gauntlet track is needed at the stations.

[jamincan]

The gauntlet track is needed at stations to allow the freight trains to have clearance from the platform edges. ION uses standard gauge. The TTC, on the other hand, does use a wider gauge on its streetcar and subway network; perhaps he mistakenly believes it's the standard?

[Bob_McBob]

He's been at it since day one.

https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/...is-biased/

[ijmorlan]

The gauntlet track is needed at stations to allow the freight trains to have clearance from the platform edges. ION uses standard gauge. The TTC, on the other hand, does use a wider gauge on its streetcar and subway network; perhaps he mistakenly believes it's the standard?

That’s what I said — ION has a smaller loading gauge than freight. The track gauge is of course standard gauge, same as freight.

As to his understanding of the gauge, I’d like to see what would happen if you first engaged him in a discussion of what the rail gauges were, then kidnapped him and forced him to stand in the Waterloo Town Square parking lot where the freight and LRT lines are connected together with a switch. Then force him to count the seats on a bus and on an LRV, and also measure the size of seats on a bus, LRV, and Calgary LRV.

The cognitive dissonance would probably be fatal.

[Canard]

Interesting article about Denver’s extensions:

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/26/rtd...ommission/

I had no idea they were having so many technical issues with crossings. 18 months of delay because of crossing arms is alarming. I wonder how much testing, timing and signing-off will need to be done here - especially since our system is the first modern LRT system in Canada?

[KevinL]

Their problems seem to relate to an unproven wireless technology on their signals. To my knowledge ours use tried-and-true wired systems, yes?

[Canard]

No idea. Could be!

[Canard]

1/2 - Sunday, October 29, 2017

A couple of notes from today;

• Chain link fence has gone up on Hayward, between the sidewalk and the tracks.  I think this is a requirement here because Transport Canada says its a "railway" and not Light Rail, because of the ballasted tracks and so on (and ATC, I suppose).  Very unfortunate, as it's hideous and makes me want to die.
  
• Fences are coming to Block Line, too - the posts are all up at the North side of the station.
  
• The little orange light was blinking at Borden station today, on the OCS pole!  Does that mean the power is on?  It was blinking on for about 0.1 second, off for about 0.6-0.7 seconds (ie, a littel faster than 1 Hz, maybe 1.4 Hz or so).
  

   
Driver's Facilities deficiency work seems to be complete at Fairway.

   
Love that logo!

   
I hadn't expected to see the landscaping completed, here - isn't this where the two giant birds are going?  Or is this a case of "we have to let GrandLinq finish off their thing as per the Project Agreement, before we come in and change stuff"?

[Canard]

2/2 - Sunday, October 29, 2017

   
Another shipment from Germany!

   

   
I hadn't really thought about it until today, but the design at the end of the tracks is totally different here from Conestoga.

At Conestoga, the tracks end at a giant "D"-shaped concrete flowerbed, which I had always assumed was sort of a "last resort" crash protection in case a train overran the bumping posts. Here, there's nothing like that - the bumping posts would just push right off the end of the rails. It's also interesting that the platform concrete slopes down flush with the track here, which means people are going to cut across the ends of the tracks, instead of walking around.

   
I love you so much, DIN 1451.  I love you so much that I spec you on all the Lamacoids on the machinery I design!

[ijmorlan]

1/2 - Sunday, October 29, 2017

A couple of notes from today;

• Chain link fence has gone up on Hayward, between the sidewalk and the tracks.  I think this is a requirement here because Transport Canada says its a "railway" and not Light Rail, because of the ballasted tracks and so on (and ATC, I suppose).  Very unfortunate, as it's hideous and makes me want to die.
  
• Fences are coming to Block Line, too - the posts are all up at the North side of the station.
  
• The little orange light was blinking at Borden station today, on the OCS pole!  Does that mean the power is on?  It was blinking on for about 0.1 second, off for about 0.6-0.7 seconds (ie, a littel faster than 1 Hz, maybe 1.4 Hz or so).
  

By fences at Block Line, do you mean near the Block Line station?

Also Hayward is weird — although they put in fences, last time I drove by (yesterday), I thought I saw that the parking lot entrances still have no crossing arms. So fences are “needed”, but not any sort of crossing protection? How does that make sense? Especially since just up the road at the intersection with Courtland there are crossing arms on the pedestrian crossing, the same one that connects to the sidewalk that is separated from the tracks by a fence.

Interesting news about the blinking light. I’ll have to take a look for similar lights up here in Waterloo.