Cable Car Track Brakes
The cable cars of San Francisco are fitted with mechanical track brakes, controlled by a large braking lever next to the grip lever. Pulling back on this lever forces replaceable pine wood blocks against the rails; as a result, a cable car descending a steep hill emits an odor of smoldering wood. These track brakes are routinely used many times while traversing a cable car route.
The true emergency brake on a cable car is known as a "slot blade," a steel wedge that can be forced into the slot-rail between the running rails by a strong spring. If a runaway car is moving fast enough that the slot blade is necessary, the friction has been known to weld the blade to the slot rail, disabling the transit line until the obstruction can be extracted with a cutting torch. The slot blade is controlled by the large red lever near the grip, and is not used except for emergency stops.
Read more about this topic: Track Brake
Famous quotes containing the words cable car, cable, car, track and/or brakes:
“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.”
—Douglass Cross (b. 1920)
“To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars.”
—Douglass Cross (b. 1920)
“Did ye not hear it?—No; ‘twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o’er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The war is dreadful. It is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters—not to talk in armies and nations and numbers—but to track it home.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)