ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Markster]

There is light at the end of the Queen/Charles tunnel!

They've laid a lot of the communication ducts, and soon it will be time to fill in the hole and tamp the earth, and then finally curbs, the station platform, and then finally the rails and road!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Underground utility work at Queen/Charles looks almost complete! Finally fill/curbs/tracks/etc can begin. <a href="https://t.co/oBRD4GEq8O">pic.twitter.com/oBRD4GEq8O</a></p>&mdash; Mark Jackson-Brown (@Markster3000) <a href="https://twitter.com/Markster3000/status/736715094374162432">May 29, 2016</a></blockquote>

[Canard]

Today, I toured the TTC's brand new Leslie Barns facility, which is home to their new fleet of Bombardier FLEXITY Outlook LFLRV's. I've posted some photos in the Toronto Transit Projects thread.

[tomh009]

First, I have seen in various articles that the maximum penalty Bombardier is liable for is $3.3 million. My question is, is that per LRV or total for all 14? Capping it $3.3 million total seems like a pretty modest incentive. I think based on the revised, revised, schedule they would owe nearly $5 million without a cap:

Your calculation assumes that the penalties kick in the day after the originally projected delivery date.  We haven't seen the contract, so we don't know whether this is actually the case.

[Canard]

Can I nerd out and talk about fixed-bogie articulation for a moment?

   

This is a bogie, or "truck" from Toronto's new fleet of FLEXITY Outlook LRV's - substantially similar enough to our trains (FLEXITY Freedom) for sake of discussion. It's the frame that holds the wheels and motors - one motor per axle. You can see the motor and gear reducer on the left for the axle in the foreground; the motor for the rear axle is on the right, rotated 180 degrees. The disc brake assembly is on the far side of the near axle.

I was very happy to finally get to see a bogie out on its own like this, because I finally answered some of my own questions about how exactly the articulation is accomplished between modules on the FLEXITY series of trams.

These trains are a configuration known as "fixed bogie". Unlike the older Toronto fleet (called CLRV and ALRV's), where each bogie can turn under the car, these bogies are "fixed" with respect to the car (or module) that they are attached to. On the 5-module trains, modules A, C and E have bogies, and modules B and D are suspended between them.

So, the orientation in free space of module A, C and E is defined by the position of the bogie, which is tangent to the line drawn between the two axles on each bogie (ok, ever so slightly inboard, if you want to get picky!). The modules in between fall in line since they have an articulation point (hinge) fore and aft.

So that's fine for horizontal curves, and everything works great - but, in real life, you also have to deal with vertical curves, and even compound curves with twisting (roll), too. Think of the transition of Southbound track through Charles/Benton - this is a particularly aggressive section of track.

I have learned through watching the operation of the new TTC LRV's that the train is actually configured as such: Module A-B-C have only yaw between them, and module D-E can yaw, and then there's a full 3-axis articulation between C and D. So it's as if they've taken a 3-module train and put a 2-module trailer on it.

Again, this is all great... But any roll has to be taken up - and that's where my discovery yesterday was made. The modules sit on the bogies on four coil springs, which you can see in this photo. Just outside of them are four metal discs with a urethane element behind them - In the automation industry, we'd call this configuration a moment compensator. Essentially, it allows the module to bounce up and down, roll left and right, pitch forward and back... But inhibits yaw, which is exactly what we need - since yaw is what we need to fully define the orientation of each module relative to the track!

As a kinematic system, it all works out. This has been bothering me for 2+ years and I've never been able to get a straight answer out of anyone on how exactly is set up, so I was overjoyed to be able to finally crack the nut, so to speak!

[Canard]

Just one photo from me for the weekend here in town:  Ballasted track is going in now along the Hydro Right-of-Way parallel to Fairway Road.

   

I'm very curious how, and when, they'll tamp (align) this track. All tamping so far has been done on track which is either connected to or replacing existing rail lines, so moving the tamping and blasting equipment to the location of the track has been easy. Here, the track is isolated - separated from the main railway line it eventually connects to by embedded track, with three very tight radii turns. The Harsco Mark IV tamper surely can't navigate those curves (it has fixed axles on a very long frame), so I'm quite curious how they plan on doing maintenance on this section of track in the long term.

Also, here's a great little video clip from Matt Morris on Twitter, showing how they're doing the embedded track when the rapidway runs down the centre, and the concrete between the rails is lower to make room for the flanges.  Neat custom device!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is how they finish the cement for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a>.  Hard working crew working in the heat outside KCI. <a href="https://t.co/g9KfeAMdvD">pic.twitter.com/g9KfeAMdvD</a></p>&mdash; Matt Morris (@Matthew_Morris) <a href="https://twitter.com/Matthew_Morris/status/736335528732286976">May 27, 2016</a></blockquote>

[TMKM94]

Just one photo from me for the weekend here in town:  Ballasted track is going in now along the Hydro Right-of-Way parallel to Fairway Road.



I'm very curious how, and when, they'll tamp (align) this track. All tamping so far has been done on track which is either connected to or replacing existing rail lines, so moving the tamping and blasting equipment to the location of the track has been easy. Here, the track is isolated - separated from the main railway line it eventually connects to by embedded track, with three very tight radii turns. The Harsco Mark IV tamper surely can't navigate those curves (it has fixed axles on a very long frame), so I'm quite curious how they plan on doing maintenance on this section of track in the long term.

Also, here's a great little video clip from Matt Morris on Twitter, showing how they're doing the embedded track when the rapidway runs down the centre, and the concrete between the rails is lower to make room for the flanges.  Neat custom device!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is how they finish the cement for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a>.  Hard working crew working in the heat outside KCI. <a href="https://t.co/g9KfeAMdvD">pic.twitter.com/g9KfeAMdvD</a></p>&mdash; Matt Morris (@Matthew_Morris) <a href="https://twitter.com/Matthew_Morris/status/736335528732286976">May 27, 2016</a></blockquote>

Cool he was one of my teachers when I went to KCI 

[MacBerry]

Facebook reminded me what the corridor through Waterloo Park looked like when I took this first photo 4 years ago.



Here it is today:



I am sad we lost all those trees.  While it's going to be great seeing trains fly through here, the math of -Trees and +Fence aren't quite what I had hoped for, from an aesthetic outcome standpoint.

Does anyone know if they used the giant power spades to move those trees or did they just cut them down?

[KevinL]

I'm very curious how, and when, they'll tamp (align) this track. All tamping so far has been done on track which is either connected to or replacing existing rail lines, so moving the tamping and blasting equipment to the location of the track has been easy. Here, the track is isolated - separated from the main railway line it eventually connects to by embedded track, with three very tight radii turns. The Harsco Mark IV tamper surely can't navigate those curves (it has fixed axles on a very long frame), so I'm quite curious how they plan on doing maintenance on this section of track in the long term.

There has to be some way to get the tamper to the ballasted track - I'm guessing some kind of custom truck trailer that can be aligned with the rail, and roll it on and off.

[Canard]

Perfect; thanks!

[tomh009]

Early morning on Charles near Stirling:
   

And Borden near Courtland:
   

[Viewfromthe42]

As a kinematic system, it all works out. This has been bothering me for 2+ years and I've never been able to get a straight answer out of anyone on how exactly is set up, so I was overjoyed to be able to finally crack the nut, so to speak!

Five years in and I'm still amazed at all the ways to solve automation problems, ones I've learned and ones I've yet to be confronted with.

[Spokes]

As we pass the one year mark of tracks being put down, it's crazy to think back.  For a long time it was a question of IF this thing would happen.  So many different mile stones.  The WW Rally for Rails rally seems like ages ago.  Then the election where it seemed like the only topic was LRT.  Now it's happening.  

Crazy.

[JoeKW]

Don't forget about: 

[panamaniac]

Don't forget about: 

It seems so long ago!  Did he end up moving his business due to the construction work?

[dunkalunk]

Nope, still on Northfield as of last Friday