District of Columbia
D.C. Transit
A PCC on Route 42, at Union Station, looking west, operating on conduit plow trackage. All track within the inner city was powered by conduit in the street to avoid unslighly overhead wires. Interestingly, a similar “third rail” system recently opened in Bordeaux, France using a high-tech third rail in the center of the two running rails but controlled by computer boxes that only allows the third rail sections to be energized under the light rail vehicle as its passes. The track before and after is electrically “dead” until the LRV uses the next section or leaves the one behind it.
Caption location from John Shriver
Ed Havens collection Back to the D.C. page
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