cranesfreak

Hi All

-Winding wheels are not "poleas" in this case. As the steel wire rope is wound (bobinado) on the wheel and not only running through it, the wheel is also called a cable drum (tambor de arrollamiento de cable) and not a cable pulley (polea) nor a cable sheave (polea). As ed_freire said they are NOT "ruedas dentadas" because they are not toothed wheels.

-Cable car that runs on the street can be called "funicular" as well as "tranvia de cable" in Spanish.

-In this particular case the central powerhouse is not a power station ( estacion generadora electrica) but a central engine room (sala de maquinas central) with electric motors or steam engines that drive the above mentioned wheels.

-cable trench=trinchera de cable o trinchera para el cable. "Trinchera" is more common for cable conduits in Spanish, even when "zanja" is also right but less common for cables.

-Plier= pinza. For many spanish speaking people "pinza" and "alicate" are not exactly the same tools. In a lot of international tools' catalogs you will see that a plier is "un alicate" but in South America a universal plier is a "pinza universal " to hold the things with it and the "Alicate" is a cutting plier to cut the things like wires with it. So in this translation "pinza" works much better than "alicate".

Cable cars are completely mechanical, and are run by huge winding wheels at a central powerhouse that pull a steel cable through a trench beneath the tracks. The car latches onto the cable with a grip that works like a giant pair of pliers.

Please find my translation as follows:

Los tranvias de cable son completamente mecanicos y son movidos mediante enormes tambores de arrollamiento de cable, instalados en la sala de máquinas central, que tiran del cable de acero que corre a través de una trinchera ubicada entre las vias del tranvia. El vagón se une al cable de acero mediante una mordaza que trabaja como una pinza gigantesca, sujetando el cable de acero.

quote..................

"Overhead wire" = Depending on the context this could be translated as:
"Tendido eléctrico," "cable tendido," "cable suspendido" "cable aéreo" o "cable alto." .............unquote

Silgreen is not explaining where this term "overhead wire" is being used but assuming that he/she is talking about a wire rope hanging on top of our heads like the cable used for the aerial trams or cable cars used to climb the mountains for skiing. In my opinion for this particular case "Overhead wire" = "cable suspendido" or "cable aéreo".

Best Regards

cranesfreak