Passenger Trains > a couple of BART & MTA questions...

After looking at modorny\'s Millbrae post below and noticing how odd that broad gauge track looks, I began to wonder why they selected that bizarre gauge in the first place. Can anyone provide any insight?

Also, on another transit related note, I rode LA\'s Red Line subway this week and noticed the train operators are sitting on the wrong side! I can\'t think of a single piece of heavy or light rail equipment in North America that\'s operated from the fireman\'s (or left) side. Any idea why the MTA configured them this way?

-andrew

aheld wrote:

> After looking at modorny\'s Millbrae post below and noticing
> how odd that broad gauge track looks, I began to wonder why
> they selected that bizarre gauge in the first place. Can
> anyone provide any insight?

Someone\'s megalomania? That\'s all I could put it down to, personally, since there\'s no real rational decision (private operators in the past could put it down to making the railroad unattractive to takeovers by competitors, but not a transit system). Besides, not every rail system still in operation in the US has standard gauge, e.g. Philadelphia, whose streetcars and subways have a 5\'2½" gauge.
>
> Also, on another transit related note, I rode LA\'s Red Line
> subway this week and noticed the train operators are sitting on
> the wrong side! I can\'t think of a single piece of heavy or
> light rail equipment in North America that\'s operated from the
> fireman\'s (or left) side. Any idea why the MTA configured them
> this way?

Plenty of LRT is operated from the so-called fireman\'s side, e.g. PCC cars, Pittsburgh PA LRT, and others besides; this simply may have been a carryover from when operators collected fares as opposed to using POP systems.

As far as heavy-rail, don\'t forget about the CNW, who also operated all their trains on the left-hand track. I\'ve even heard that the first PRR/PC "Silverliner" MUs had the engineer\'s seat on the fireman\'s side, the logic thereof being that the front door of the MU could then be used to load passengers (useless at a center island platform, though).

Some people have actually said the wide gage on BART was to avoid having the SP take over the system. Laugh that one off.

It is more likely due to engineering considerations and passenger comfort. I appreciate the wider cars on BART and wish the rest of the railroad world had a wider gage.

The MTA drive sits on that side so that he can observe the opening and closing of the doors. Thus, hoping to prevent someone from getting caught in the doors.


Harold

http://www.phcomputing.com

Re BART:

THe 5\'6" gauge was chosen because BART was originally planned to serve Marin County (via the Golden Gate Bridge) and they wanted to have a broad gauge and low-profile cars to ensure stability over the windy bridge. At least, that\'s the story. Apparently no one involved realized the extra cost involved in a non-standard gauge. All the track, ties, and specialwork had to be custom-designed, as did the work equipment (where else is there a broad-gauge tamper in the U.S?). Didn\'t have anything to do with SP.

As for putting the operator on the left side, has anybody ridden PATCO lately? Operators have been on the left side since 1969, a deliberate decision since all their platforms are "island" platforms, and this way the operator (single man operation) is adjacent to the platform.

The original promotor of BART knew nothing about engineering, but he did know flack. He insisted that everything about BART be "Space Age" in order to impress the yokels. This resulted in a lot of early work having to be redone since railroad suppliers were locked out. The original cars were manufactured by Rohr, an aircraft subassembly maker. The signal system likewise was made by a company with no rail experience, which is why for years, whenever it rained, BART ran in "Impeded mode." All the underground power cable had to be replaced because the gophers ate through the insulation. The name should have been changed to SNAFU.

The SHRT & RTA in Cleveland have always been "left-handed" ....thought they all did it that way, to do platfome loading.

Left side it is.

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