Manual Labour

Driver leaving his 42 year old tram, in order to manually throw the switch. Generally speaking, most switches of the network are automatically aligned thanks to a sender unit on the tram's underside, and a receiver embedded in the tarmac. If this system fails for some reason, or if the switch is not equipped with it, the driver has to break out the lever and do it himself.



This was shot at the terminus Düsseldorf-Unterrath, with the other terminus being the University of Düsseldorf.



Yep, I rode the entire line in this old train, just so I can say that I had done it. Spent the way here in the trailer, and boarded the motorcar for the way back. Quite interesting to see the driver at work, as he's not seperated from the passenger compartment at all! While that may be a bit of a drag in terms of privacy for the driver, it's equally awesome in terms of railfanning, as seen here.