Its time to head to Prague once more for today’s “Trams in Video”. This time out we are at Stejskalova where we see a temporary crossover in action to allow normal services to run during some bridge replacement work. The temporary crossover installed and seen in this footage is known as a “Californien” crossing in Prague or “Kletterwichen” (climbing turnout) – something which could prove useful in the UK but has yet to be used during trackworks on any of our modern tram systems.
This video was shot by Michael Morton and you can see more of his videos from Prague on YouTube.
This brings to an end this series of “Trams in Video”. As with most of our photo and video series a huge thank you to everyone who has allowed us to feature their videos. Will it be back? Again, that is down to you! If you have any videos you would be willing to share please let us know – if they are already on YouTube that is even better as we can just link to those. You can contact us through all the usual channels.
The German name of this extremely useful device is ‘Kletterweiche’.
Didn’t Metrolink use these in Mosley St and Balloon St a couple of years ago during track renewals, or were they a different type of temporary trackwork?
I first came across this type of trackwork in Linz (Austria) during the early 1990s, and very effective it is. Mainland European operators have a strong ‘keep the trams running’ ethos, whereas UK operators (echoing UK mainline railway practice) favour shutdown and ‘bustitution’.