Montage du jour : La rue Sherbrooke près de Décarie

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1. The seven heavy wires on the poles to the left are feeder cables supplying current to the Montreal Tramways trolley wires above the centre of the track.

   The Trolley Wire which fed each streetcar can be seen above the Automobile.

   To keep costs and weight down, the trolley wire was of a lighter gauge that could handle only so many streetcars operating beneath it before voltage would fall off affecting operation of all streetcars on that wire section.

   Each section of wire was separated from the adjacent sections by an insulated section breaker, and each section was fed from one of the heavy wires to the left.

   ( If a section was damaged by a tall truck or other reason, cars could be operated to the end of that section.

   In Vancouver, if there is a short-distance problem with the Trolley Bus wires, a tow truck will be dragooned into service and push the busses to where the wire is ‘live’ again. )

   Motormen were supposed to reduce their controller settings to prevent a huge arc on the wire when the trolley pole pulley crossed from one section to the next.

   Sometimes he forgot, or didn’t care, and a big flash and a ‘crack’ would result, scaring pedestrians and horses, especially at night.

   The motors would pause for a fraction of a second, and the interior lights blink off and on.

   There was a sign hung at right angles to the tracks with red circles at each end which stated ‘Section Breaker’ upon it to advise Motormen to use care with the current.

   In these views, which are looking West from Decarie, behind camera to Girouard, which was a major streetcar junction point, with lines radiating to connect with other streetcars to all points of Montreal.

   ( The Decarie Expressway now passes beneath Sherbrooke two blocks ahead. )

   The power generation and distribution network is one of the MAJOR costs of operating a streetcar system.

   ALL the trackwork has to be ‘bonded’ to provide a low resistance ‘return’ for the electric current from the streetcars and station lighting, OR the current will migrate thru the soil and travel back to the power house on lead cables of telephone, and on gas and water pipes, leading to their corrosion by electrolysis.