You are right has a young schoolboy I had many rides on the trams , My Uncle was a Tram Driver and has you said the system Symmetrical at both ends , I often watched the drivers at the end of the terminal at Norton green proceed as you described , as kids we spent many hours at the nearby Duck Pond with Happy memories of the rides on those Trams
As a friendly comment, I don”t think turning the pantograph arm through 180 degrees reversed the polarity of the DC power. The track would still remain, say, negative and the overhead conductor positive. (Otherwise all the trams on that line would suddenly go into reverse!) What happened was (and still is) that trams are symmetrical at both “ends”. The driver turns the pick-up arm, if necessary, so that it trails in the new direction of travel, then removes the hand lever from his control unit, walks to the other end of the tram and fits the hand lever onto that control unit. Each unit is connected to supply power to the motor so that it propels the tram “forward” at its “own” end. QED
You are right has a young schoolboy I had many rides on the trams , My Uncle was a Tram Driver and has you said the system Symmetrical at both ends , I often watched the drivers at the end of the terminal at Norton green proceed as you described , as kids we spent many hours at the nearby Duck Pond with Happy memories of the rides on those Trams
As a friendly comment, I don”t think turning the pantograph arm through 180 degrees reversed the polarity of the DC power. The track would still remain, say, negative and the overhead conductor positive. (Otherwise all the trams on that line would suddenly go into reverse!) What happened was (and still is) that trams are symmetrical at both “ends”. The driver turns the pick-up arm, if necessary, so that it trails in the new direction of travel, then removes the hand lever from his control unit, walks to the other end of the tram and fits the hand lever onto that control unit. Each unit is connected to supply power to the motor so that it propels the tram “forward” at its “own” end. QED