ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[trainspotter139]

2/2 - Wednesday, January 24, 2018


Trundling down the spur, between Albert McCormic Arena and the crossing at Bearinger Road.


Heading back up North, under the Weber St. Bridge.


...and into the yard, through the forrest of catpoles.  Until next time, my friend!

Video:

The pedestrian on the opposite side of the Old Albert crossing was an wonderful sight... bet they didn't think they'd get to see it moving on its own.

[Bob_McBob]

Is all that squealing because the tracks are not in use regularly?

[trainspotter139]

Is all that squealing because the tracks are not in use regularly?

A lot of it is the physics of metal on metal friction. They'll always squeal a little bit.

[SammyOES]

I heard someone claim yesterday that some of the testing "issues"* they've been hitting is that there's rust on various wires/tracks that builds up without trains running regularly. Seemed plausible to me, but no idea if its true.

* If true, I assume these "issues" would just be anticipated and something they knew they'd have to work through.

[Canard]

They need a big version of this:

[chutten]

They need a big version of this:

I don't know what that is.

[KevinT]

They need a big version of this:

I don't know what that is.

Looks to me like a rail buffing car for HO scale model railroads.

[Bob_McBob]

Looks like Ottawa is definitely going to miss their May 24 LRT handover date.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...ll-be-done

[Canard]

I posted that in the Ottawa LRT thread. They’re still laying track!!

Yes, it’s an HO rail cleaning car - sorry, though that was obvious!

[chutten]

Yes, it’s an HO rail cleaning car - sorry, though that was obvious!

Never underestimate the amount of context required :)

It looked like some weird electrical getup that I thought maybe was electroplating the rails or something. I couldn't figure out if the big blocks were just weights, or some sort of ferromagnetic material for a coil...  and until I knew it was HO, I didn't know to look it up to learn that it runs by passing current from one rail to the next so having clean rails is a specific concern.

I'm not a rail enthusiast (though you all are making a darn good effort of turning me into one through sheer enthusiasm), so there's a lot of context I need to read up on any time something specific comes up.

[Spokes]

Thanks for the testing video! Very exciting stuff!

[trainspotter139]

From @rideion on Instagram (Jan 25, 2018)
Getting vehicle #503 ready for testing #rideION #wrLRT #testmode

[ijmorlan]

From @rideion on Instagram (Jan 25, 2018)
Getting vehicle #503 ready for testing #rideION #wrLRT #testmode

Thanks for the photo. Here’s video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCyXsHC-lQ4

[Canard]

Uh... ok

[Canard]