I think you don't understand how the switch can work if there is no place to put the lever in the middle of a street. The answer is simple: you only put the socked for the lever and every driver bring his own lever. This system is still used today when the electric drive malfunctions.

Here's a video where it can be seen how it's done. We can see the driver putting the lever in dedicated socket.

I think you don't understand how the switch can work if there is no place to put the lever in the middle of a street. The answer is simple: you only put the socket and every driver brings his own lever. This system is still used today when the electric drive malfunctions.

Here's a video where it can be seen how it's done. We can see the driver putting the lever in dedicated socket.