TRAMS

Were you to have visited San Francisco in the 1930s you would have not seen the Golden Gate Bridge.There might have been a random swimmer in the Straights making a bid for freedom from Alcatraz, but by and large in those days, people preferred ferries (or staying put) to paddling accross. Yet the city was not devoid of appeal. A geezer had this notion of devising a loop of cable, (and not an insignificant one at that) to run underground under the main streets of the city.

At this point you should be aware that my original and no doubt vastly superior rendition about trams was lost to the ether, and this second attempt does not find me in the same loquacious frame of mind, (in fact I'm pretty grumpy,and hacked off that the connection went down.

The good news is that since then another day has passed in which we visited the tramways museum,, and my understanding of the system is boringly better.

In fairness, he had a vested interest in doing this, as he owned a company that manufactured wire rope, and was clearly looking to create a demand.

This would also explain why he designed tramcars that could be clamped by means of a primitive clutch on to the cable. Once clamped on, the car was dragged round by the cable which was powered by a colossal electric motor at the tram barn (now museum) at a staggering 95 mph.. Those with rudimentary engineering knowledge are already ahead of the game. In order to avoid bumping in to things, or effect a stop, the clutch (grip) had to be slipped causing significant wear on the cable, necessitating a replacement to be provided every 4 months, which was probably about as fast as he could make them (the cables). Being a bright bloke and aware of the steep gradients involved he was aware that passengers may find the downhill speed excessive. (Those of you who watched Steve McQueen in Bullit will get the picture) To that end he built in a braking system, which (as the cable was shared by a number of trams on the same route and remotely operated at the previously mentioned speed see stop press) could only operate by releasing the grip on the cable and then preventing the inevitable freewheel that ensued by applying sizeable pads to the rails. Given that the surface area of contact was limited by the width of the rails and space available under the car, and hardwood with its dodgy coefficient of friction was his choice of brakeshoe, he made up for the imbalance with improbably long levers and very large men with bulging biceps to operate them (Gripmen). This was probably just as well as the potential energy of a ten ton tram freewheeling unrestricted was quite likely to exceed the speed of the cable. The Gripmen are awesome figures and their sense of humour undoubtedly emanates from previous close shaves when they discovered that adrenaline was actually brown.

What is truly amazing about this system is that not only did it catch on, but people liked it so much that despite its mechanical idiosyncracies,they were prepared to cram themselves on board and hang off the sides in the expectation of being smeared against other less animate objects.In the true style of the San Franciscan public this mode of transport is the yardstick by which all others are judged. You can travel by amphibious duck, two wheeled gyro operated personal transportation systems (These are not bikes, though they are popular too), little yellow GPS controlled noddy cars (that are designed to cause gripmen to fulminate.) The wackier the system the more populr it seems to be. Dick Dastardly and Prof Pat Pending would love this place. Any how. We love the trams. Despite the long waits they are the essential element of a trip here. you will see pictures a plenty of trams.