Trolley Tracks and Belgian Block: What They Do to a Car
Embedded rails and stone paving are part of this city's character and hard on suspension, wheels and tires in ways smooth asphalt never is.
Philadelphia keeps a lot of its original street surface, and drivers pay a small tax on it in wheels, tires and suspension bushings. Most of the damage is gradual. Some of it happens in one moment on a wet rail. Philadelphia Towing sees both versions at (445) 275-3339.
The rails are slick, and they run the wrong way
Steel embedded in asphalt has a very different friction coefficient from the surface around it, and the gap widens dramatically when the road is wet. A tire that crosses a rail at a shallow angle can slide along it rather than over it, which is how a routine lane change on Girard Avenue becomes an unplanned direction.
Motorcycles and scooters have the worst of this, since they have two contact patches instead of four and no ability to absorb a slide. Crossing tracks as close to a right angle as the road allows is the standard advice, and it is worth following even in a car when the surface is wet.
The active trolley routes through West Philadelphia and along Girard are the obvious places, and they are not the only ones. There are abandoned rails still embedded under later paving across the city, and they surface as the asphalt above them wears through. Those are the ones that catch people, because nothing about the street suggests a trolley ever ran on it.
The groove beside the rail
Track set into a roadway has a flange gap running alongside it, and that channel is deep enough and wide enough to trap a narrow tire. Bicycles suffer most, but a car with low-profile tires on large wheels can drop a tire edge into it and take a sidewall hit that does not show until the tire fails days later.
If you have taken a hard drop into a rail groove, look at the inner sidewall rather than the tread. A bulge anywhere on the sidewall means the tire is compromised internally and needs to come off the car rather than be watched.
Belgian block is not cobblestone, and it is harder on a car
The rectangular granite setts across Old City and parts of the historic district are Belgian block. They present a repeating series of small edges to every tire, and at any speed above a crawl the vehicle is absorbing a continuous high-frequency vibration rather than the occasional bump asphalt delivers.
What that finds is anything already worn. Sway bar end links, control arm bushings, strut mounts and tie rod ends all loosen faster on these streets, and the noise they make is easy to mistake for the road itself. A rattle that persists on smooth pavement afterward is the component telling you it has had enough.
Alignment is the first casualty and the cheapest to correct. If the car has started pulling or the tires are wearing unevenly on the inner or outer edge, that is the usual explanation in this city, and it is worth correcting before it takes a set of tires with it.
What actually strands people
Three failures account for most of the calls. A sidewall that has been cut or pinched loses pressure suddenly rather than slowly. A bent wheel rim, usually aluminum, stops sealing against the tire bead and goes flat overnight. And a broken coil spring, which happens on tired suspension over rough paving, can drop a corner of the car and cut into the tire.
That last one is worth recognizing. A sudden clunk followed by the car sitting lower on one side, or a tire that starts rubbing, means stop rather than continue. A broken spring end is sharp and it is pointed at the tire.
Driving these streets with less damage
Slow down more than feels necessary. The forces involved rise steeply with speed, and the difference between fifteen and twenty-five miles an hour over stone paving is substantial rather than marginal.
Cross rails at an angle, not along them. Keep tires at the pressure on the door placard, since underinflated tires take pinch damage far more readily. And if you have a choice between a set of large wheels with thin sidewalls and a slightly smaller wheel with more rubber, the second survives this city considerably better.
When to call rather than continue
A flat on a stone street or across tracks is not a good place to change a wheel. The jack needs a flat, stable surface and Belgian block provides neither, and a car that shifts off a jack on that surface does so quickly.
Call for a truck instead of improvising. The same applies to any impact that leaves the car pulling hard, making a grinding noise from a wheel, or sitting visibly lower on one corner. Those are recovery situations rather than roadside repairs, and continuing on them turns a wheel into a hub and a hub into a much larger bill.