MATA Service Disruption

[Haretip]

Apparently one of the operators failed to properly reverse the streetcar before departing the Citiplace Station and took out one of the overhead crossarms at Blackburn and Lemmon on Friday. MATA's Superintendent of Shops and Equipment fell while working on the power distribution system and broke his leg. As of 3:20pm on Saturday it looks like the repairs are almost complete and the line should be reopening soon.

[RobertB]

Apparently one of the operators failed to properly reverse the streetcar before departing the Citiplace Station and took out one of the overhead crossarms at Blackburn and Lemmon on Friday. MATA's Superintendent of Shops and Equipment fell while working on the power distribution system and broke his leg. As of 3:20pm on Saturday it looks like the repairs are almost complete and the line should be reopening soon.
I always wondered what would happen if the [insert the correct name for the power-receiving-thingie here] weren't retracted and was pushed down the line instead of pulled along it. Or was it just not quite latched in its holder, and sprung up like a jack-in-the-box?

And more importantly -- both to the superintendent himself and the poor fellow who indirectly caused the break -- how's the leg?

[Haretip]

The "power-receiving-thingie" is called.... wait for it... wait for it.... a TROLLEY. The TROLLEY is the pole up on top of the STREETCAR. If you leave the front trolley up, at some point it is almost guaranteed that it will jump off the wire, get caught in the crosswires and assume the shape of a pretzel.

The trolley is designed to "troll" behing the streetcar. Damaging the front trolley was a common occurence for new operators and I myself did it twice in one week when I was a new motorman back in 1991. To prevent this from happening nowadays, a circuit has been added whereby the motors will not receive electricity when the front pole is in the upright position.

Sounds like it would be impossible to have this kind of accident anymore, right? Well, unfortunately, from time to time operation of the streetcar with the front trolley up (aka: front-poling) is necessary for switching maneuvers and other unusual circumstances. So, that same lockout circuit that prevents "front-poling" has a bypass timer. You can reach up in the motorman's cab, twist a timer knob and temporarily allow the car to run off the front trolley. So, to have caused the incident that occurred, the operator manually over-rode the safety device.

An accident review board was convened yesterday evening for the suspended operator and I do not know the results.

I have not spoken to the Super but I assume he is convalescing.