Sparks are pretty...

We had some work going on at the depot today - moving towards pantograph compatible overhead wiring in the shed. While the Bendigo tram network is panto compatible, the depot shed is not, which means all panto-fitted trams need to have a trolley pole attached as well. Roads 1-3 at the depot are also panto compatible - apart from the bloody doorframe! argh!

As we are fitting one of our regular service trams (number 34) with a panto, it's basically time to get the shed doorways fixed. While this has been in the works for a while, we're nearly there, so road 4 was fixed up for panto running. The overhead wiring was lowered so that the carbon pickup pans won't interfere with the structure above... except for the 2 or so metres around the door. That will come a bit later.

I was conducting today, so I got to see the work at its various stages, and on one particular trip, the power was shut down so as to get the depot overhead reactivated. We got back to the depot about 15 mins later, and got to watch the scrubber tram running up and down the new work, sparking like... a... bad analogy. Fireworks. There.
Actually, it looked like a welder. Probably as bright too, I had to look away a few times.

It reminded me of my model trams throwing sparks when the wire's shitty and dirty - which is exactly what was making the wire spark (go figure). The burn marks were even visible on the panto for the scrubber tram, which I thought was funny.

Coming soon (hopefully) : fitting the overhead wire through the doors for panto running, before someone forgets to pop the panto down and breaks something very expensive. Seen another driver get way too close to doing it, know others that are petrified of doing it, and come too close to it myself!

Here's a pic of what you don't want your tram to look like:























Broken'd.

Credits to VicSig for the original image.