Tram Controls - Safety Equipment

Safety Equipment

Generally older trams did not include "dead man's handles", although in some parts of the United States and United Kingdom their use became mandatory in the 1930s after a number of court cases involving trams that had run out of control and crashed. A similar court case was held in the 1930s in NSW involving a run-away tram and the court recommended that dead man's handles be fitted to NSW trams, but the government forgot to implement the recommendation. Being very difficult and expensive the case was forgotten after the war, although Sydney did experiment with deadmans' which cut the power without applying the emergency brake. Where no deadman's handle was provided, the conductor would be responsible for stopping the tram in the event of the driver becoming incapacitated. This would usually be carried out from the rear platform, with the conductor opening the circuit breaker to cut power and then applying the brakes. On mechanically braked trams this would usually be done by winding on the mechanical brake, on air braked trams an emergency brake handle would usually be provided for this purpose. Many trams have "lifeguards", which are devices in front of their bogies designed to prevent persons being caught between the wheels. Typically the lifeguard has a mechanism close to the front of the tram which, when triggered, causes a large grill or scoop to drop down onto the road in front of the tram's leading bogie. Once the emergency has passed, or if the lifeguard was accidentally tripped, it needs to be reset. In many older trams there is a third foot pedal which the motorman can depress to reset the mechanism.