Vacuum Tubes and 110 / 115 / 117 / 120 / 125 volts

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Well, Real Information (TM)

A Muni supervisor tells me-
Typically, no more than three or four cars would actually be holding on to the cable at any given moment, but it’s capable of hauling more.
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Basically, plenty of HP to go around but not plenty of cars or operators (or need most of the time). IIRC most of the time they're running on 10+ minute headways.
 
grich said:
One day, my boss started daisy-chaining "dead" 9V's from the battery recycle bin. ...
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On a similar note, one of my "favorite" hacks is a trouble light for subway workers, c.1905 or so.

Five lamp bases attached to a tuba foe¹, five 120-volt lightbulbs connected in series, and two jumper cables so it could be attached to a rail and to the 600-volt third rail. Apologies, no YouTube video showing it in use.

(¹ It might have been a tuba sex; the picture I saw was rather low-resolution)
 
drcampbell said:
On a similar note, one of my "favorite" hacks is a trouble light for subway workers, c.1905 or so.

Five lamp bases attached to a tuba foe¹, five 120-volt lightbulbs connected in series, and two jumper cables so it could be attached to a rail and to the 600-volt third rail. Apologies, no YouTube video showing it in use.

(¹ It might have been a tuba sex; the picture I saw was rather low-resolution)
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I've heard that when subway workers need to weld something they use the 3rd rail as their power source...
 
OldBroadcastTech said:
In a previous life I worked for a Motorola 2-way shop.

My boss had an iron-clad rule that batteries being given to a customer be in factory or we-provided cardboard packaging........no 'bare batteries' were ever to be handed to a customer.

The reason was that a police officer in a nearby city took one out of its package and put it in his jacket pocket along with his car keys......this was a portable radio battery, 15 volts 600 mAh NiCad.

He was lucky....the keys were between the battery and his rib cage, so he got off 'easy'....three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a shirt and jacket....if the battery had been toward his body he probably would have died from Cadmium poisoning.
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NiCd batteries have quite a low internal impedance. It wouldn't surprise me if that 600-mA•hr battery could deliver 60A amps into a short circuit.
 
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