Track arrangement of a street railway Grand Union.

In North American street railway practice, a grand union is a rail track junction where two two-track railway lines meet, usually at a street intersection, and railroad switches allow any streetcar coming from any direction to turn either left or right onto the intersecting line. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... a historic postcard showing electric trolley-powered streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, where Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888 A streetcar is a railway vehicle designed to carry passengers on tracks, usually laid in city streets. ... Railroad or railway tracks are used on railways, which, together with railroad switches (points), guide trains without the need for steering. ... A junction may variously refer to: In road transport, a road junction. ... A city-centre street in Frankfurt, Germany A residential street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA A street is a public thoroughfare in the built environment. ... In the field of road transport, an intersection is a road junction where two or more roads either meet or cross at grade (they are at the same level). ... A railroad switch is a mechanical installation enabling trains to be guided from one set of rail tracks (or tramway tracks) to another. ... a historic postcard showing electric trolley-powered streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, where Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888 A streetcar is a railway vehicle designed to carry passengers on tracks, usually laid in city streets. ...

These complex junctions, an example of special work, offered great operating flexibility, but were expensive to build and expensive to maintain. Special parts, sometimes made of manganese steel, were needed for each location where one rail crossed another, and these parts often needed to be custom-made and fitted for each location. General Name, Symbol, Number manganese, Mn, 25 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 7, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Standard atomic weight 54. ...

One of the largest street railway operations, in Brooklyn, New York City, did not have a single grand union. The most extensive surviving street railway system in North America, which has several, is the Toronto streetcar system of the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada. The one time Montreal Tramways Company or Montreal street railway system also had a number of them.^{[citation needed]} This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... A CLRV streetcar, used on most of the TTCs streetcar routes, is seen here in downtown Toronto, shown here on the 506 route. ... The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is a public transport authority that operates buses, streetcars, subways, and rapid transit lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ...

The only surviving grand union in the Southern Hemisphere is Balaclava Junction in Melbourne, Australia. New Zealand formerly had two in Auckland, at Queen Street's intersections with Customs Street and Wellesley Street.^[1] southern hemisphere highlighted in yellow (Antarctica not depicted). ... The Junction sepia toned Balaclava Junction is the only extant grand union in the Southern Hemisphere, a junction where trams can go in all directions from all directions. ... The city of Melbourne, the second-largest city in Australia, is home to the third largest tram network in the world, consisting of 245 kilometres of track, 500 trams[1], and 1813 tram stops [2]. Operated by the private company Yarra Trams since privatisation in 1999, Melbournes trams contribute... Schematic map of Auckland. ... Queen Street in downtown Auckland Queen Street, Auckland, New Zealand, is the major commercial thoroughfare of the countrys main population centre. ...

References

1. ^ Graham Stewart, The End of the Penny Section: When Trams Ruled the Streets of New Zealand, rev ed. (Wellington: Grantham House, 1993), p. 149.