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 This South African Class 9E Series 1 locomotive is both a cool train and cool high voltage electrical equipment. 50 thousand volts!
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Sep 14, 2012 11:42
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:44 |
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Just got a job this summer as a clerk for a Class 1 railroad. It's pretty interesting stuff, and I'm not gonna lie, I bought Train Simulator to try and help teach myself what exactly train crews have to go through when it comes to switching and not exploding and other things I have to review paperwork about. It's pretty neat having access to the different scanners and databases and seeing which cars are going where and seeing which railroads service which towns. Sucks being on the bottom of the seniority list though!
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Sep 17, 2012 06:29
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echoplex posted:Didn't know about that, thanks - will check the iPlayer. It's a gorgeous design. I've got his book and the Class 43 stuff is the best bit. It's a shame they're taking the Valenta engines away, they don't scream any more 
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Sep 17, 2012 20:48
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So, say you were driving a train that was going over some mountainous terrain. You have 2 locomotives that are enough to make it up the mountain. What do you do on the way down? Keep both locomotives running but only use 1/2 as much power (assuming the gradient is exactly opposite on the other side) or shut one off and use the full power of one engine (minus the several hundred tons you're now also towing I suppose) Does the diesel engine have to be running for dynamic braking to work?
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Sep 22, 2012 05:38
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I know goons like mechanical noises, so here's an hour of EMD E-unit engine room sounds (2 x 12-567A prime movers) I recorded earlier today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N76JsEmNnjk The train is heading from Chicago to Quincy, IL on a pair of special excursions on Saturday and Sunday. So I may try to get more recordings at 79 mph. 
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Sep 22, 2012 06:10
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ijustam posted:Does the diesel engine have to be running for dynamic braking to work? Yes. The motors on the locomotive do not have permanant magnets in them so for dynamic braking the field coils of the motors have to be energized using power from the generator. The spinning of the rotor coils in the field-coil provided magnetic field converts some energy into current which gets sent through a large bank of resistors, which have a gigantic fan blowing air over them to dissipate the ~900A of current. Adjusting the amount of magnetic field being produced by the field coils allows the amount of braking force to be modulated. I know some cranes use varying numbers of resistor banks to also adjust the braking force. Do locomotives do anything similar?
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Sep 22, 2012 06:21
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Yes, if equipped, locomotives do use dynamic braking. Simple terms follow... Say your cresting a grade, and you have 2 SD70's and about 7,000 trailing tons. You know that your head end is starting over the hill and there is a 40MPH restriction with in 1 mile. So you slowly notch down from say 6th notch to idle. After waiting 10 seconds from the transition from idle to dynamics, you slowly bunch the slack and use your dynamics to adjust your speed. Also, while doing all modulation, you watch your accelerometer to see what your future speed is. Its a little bit of finesse, but more just knowing your territory. Some times, you know its best to just "drift" where you may just leave the throttle in idle and let the train do the work of coming over the hill and pushing you up the next hill. Knowing your territory is huge. I know it sounds a little crazy, but its very true. I know a few old guys that can actually know where the next crossing is and whistle for it to the tee, just because they know where the throttle is at.
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Sep 22, 2012 06:50
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Lets not forget the Alternator principle. It is totally possible to tap some of the power headed towards the load bank and feed it through the inverters (if applicable) and pass it BACK to the field coils... At least I think this is the case. I will disclaim that I have been awake for 31 hours at this point though, so I might be the brain poisions equivalent to  on this one...DC traction is obviously piss easy, since once things reach equilibrium even a TINY lead acid battery will stabilize a car alternator across varying loads. (Like a little 1.2Ah unit that's slightly smaller than a deck of smokes...  on this one but I'm also pretty sure that there's enough latent magnetism in the armature of most LARGE AC motors to tickle the thing into action provided you're not crowbarring the terminals at 0rpm then trying to run it up. Just a token (gently caress, what's with the  puns?) load on the terminals to keep them from going overvolt, then point it to the load bank. I only think this works for resistive loads, because if it was pointed at an inductive load (xformer or motor) the tickle wouldn't ever resonate enough...
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Sep 22, 2012 09:11
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This is exactly what you think it is AWESOME
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Sep 23, 2012 15:02
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Oregon Heritage Rail center just opened in Portland. They had this just sitting out side    and this was inside.  And they had some out back as well. 
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Sep 23, 2012 20:05
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The 4449 is such a drat sight to behold. I wish I could see that thing in person, it's just so badass, especially in motion.
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Sep 23, 2012 20:24
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Zeether posted:The 4449 is such a drat sight to behold. I wish I could see that thing in person, it's just so badass, especially in motion. I've been lucky enough to see it running down the rails outside of Portland after they finish a rebuild and are testing it out. They're going on an excursion on 10/20 and I'm going to try and get some pictures of it crossing the Steel bridge when they leave. no foamer Comfy sponk fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Sep 23, 2012 |
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Sep 23, 2012 20:59
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That reminds me: I visited a friend of mine in Yorkshire and got to see the great National Railway Museum in York. I was most eager to see the Mallard, but it just happened to be removed for repairs. I definitely have to go back!
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Sep 24, 2012 06:35
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Brother Jonathan posted:That reminds me: I visited a friend of mine in Yorkshire and got to see the great National Railway Museum in York. I was most eager to see the Mallard, but it just happened to be removed for repairs. I went while visiting family in Sheffield years ago, got a bunch of pictures from there I've been meaning to dig up to post in this thread. It was one of my favorite things about my trip to England (that and the airplane museum I don't remember the name of we went to as well). The Mallard is loving amazing in person, it's a shame it wasn't there when you went.
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Sep 24, 2012 06:51
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I'm kinda embarrassed for the host of 'Extreme Trains' on History Channel. The voice-over work is cool, but holy poo poo he sounds like a foaming 'sperg lord when they're filming from the railroad.
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Sep 25, 2012 19:16
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Boomer The Cannon posted:I'm kinda embarrassed for the host of 'Extreme Trains' on History Channel. The voice-over work is cool, but holy poo poo he sounds like a foaming 'sperg lord when they're filming from the railroad. Hes trying to make it exciting... because lets face it. Railroading is pretty boring poo poo. Mostly just hurry up and wait. Hell, I spend about 5 hours of my day sitting still.
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Sep 25, 2012 20:15
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BrokenKnucklez posted:Hes trying to make it exciting... because lets face it. 
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Sep 25, 2012 23:25
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You Am I posted:Yeah, but that's due to your Range Rover being broken down, rather than the train Ha! Actually that's been the only reliable vehicle lately! Yep, I said Reliable and "A British built vehicle" in the same sentence.
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Sep 26, 2012 00:25
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Impressive repurposing of abandoned colonial rail line. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=625_1348889252
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Sep 30, 2012 01:33
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watching this makes me queezy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJyQxoFJCbc
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Sep 30, 2012 02:02
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B4Ctom1 posted:watching this makes me queezy What the gently caress. 1. How the hell did he get under there unless they were dumb enough to be trying to scoot under the train? If they were just lying in wait for a train to go over, wouldn't the engineer have braked? 2. He should have just stayed where he was, though if the train had a plow on the rear that would have been even worse.
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Sep 30, 2012 02:45
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I went ahead and flagged the video for "dangerous content." It worries me that someone is going to see the video, try to repeat the stunt, and get killed.
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Sep 30, 2012 02:50
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Brother Jonathan posted:I went ahead and flagged the video for "dangerous content." It worries me that someone is going to see the video, try to repeat the stunt, and get killed. E: Just saw he decided to get out from under it while it was moving  That's a new one.
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Sep 30, 2012 02:55
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hitze posted:There are so many of these videos though Jumping between the wheels like he does at the end of the video is like playing Russian roulette on camera with half the chambers loaded. edit: Just caught your ninja edit. That's what terrified me.
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Sep 30, 2012 02:58
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Here's more train porn from both ends of the spectrum: Acela test runs at 165 MPH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FNeXXB4uOs Hi-def video of the Black River & Western (NJ) #60 doing test runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2QoEfAQTc
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Sep 30, 2012 16:35
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B4Ctom1 posted:Impressive repurposing of abandoned colonial rail line.
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Sep 30, 2012 18:21
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Here's more train porn from both ends of the spectrum: The US finally has some form of high-speed rail now? And it's with Amtrak? 
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Sep 30, 2012 18:52
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Das Volk posted:The US finally has some form of high-speed rail now? And it's with Amtrak? Acela has been in service for over 10 years.
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Sep 30, 2012 19:00
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ijustam posted:Acela has been in service for over 10 years. And has captured a very significant portion of the DC <-> NYC business traffic from the airlines.
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Sep 30, 2012 19:11
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We really need something like that to connect SF LA and Sacramento in California.
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Sep 30, 2012 19:13
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Das Volk posted:We really need something like that to connect SF LA and Sacramento in California. I would love a Denver to west coast. I read years ago that the UPRR owns a small section of open unused land that Denver needs to connect their light rail to Denver International Airport (DIA). When they asked how much it would cost for the land or just the rights to a tiny strip to DIA, the UPRR responded with a number equal to twice or ten times the budget for the project of the entire line. They must have come to some agreement because this http://eastdenver.kdvr.com/content/dia-light-rail-train-start-running-2016
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Sep 30, 2012 22:17
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Thought you guys might like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGqOPtfV3XM KA942 is a steam locomotive run by some guys called Mainline Steam here in NZ. She did a run from Christchurch to Greymouth (about 240km) early in September.
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Oct 1, 2012 11:10
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Oh boy. Diesel engines are great and all, but steam is amazing. It's as though they've captured Satan and strapped on some wheels. It howls, huffs and hisses. I guess steam engines scare me a little.
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Oct 1, 2012 11:57
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psychoticmeow posted:Oh boy. Incidentally I've got a near-complete collection of the Del Prado N-gauge steam engine static models, it's fascinating to see different steam engine designs from different countries, or how designs from the same country progress over time (since a bunch of the models are of UK engines). There's only 3 US steam engines in the collection, but the Southern Ps-4 is my favorite in the whole set. It's huge and beefy and just screams "BIG AMERICAN STEAM LOCOMOTIVE", I love it.
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Oct 1, 2012 13:19
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B4Ctom1 posted:I read years ago that the UPRR owns a small section of open unused land that Denver needs to connect their light rail to Denver International Airport (DIA). When they asked how much it would cost for the land or just the rights to a tiny strip to DIA, the UPRR responded with a number equal to twice or ten times the budget for the project of the entire line. I'm guessing that railroads have some special protection from eminent domain proceedings, probably dating back to the 1800s?
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Oct 1, 2012 15:54
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Rat Poisson posted:I'm guessing that railroads have some special protection from eminent domain proceedings, probably dating back to the 1800s? Pretty much yes. Railroads are one of the largest land holding companies in the US. They still even hang on to abandoned right of ways still, and have other areas of holdings. Railroads are a very lucrative business and a place to work for.
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Oct 1, 2012 15:58
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B4Ctom1 posted:I would love a Denver to west coast. So that's why there's no light rail service out there. I worked at DIA for a few years back in like '04-'06 and it always blew my mind that there was this nice new light rail system but if you wanted to get to the airport gently caress you get a car. There's a few rarely-used right-of-ways near my college too, and they are currently building a light rail system right through campus - but instead of using the nice railroad bed that goes right past campus (with plenty of room on it for additional tracks, of course) they decided to disrupt the busiest street around and create a ton of headaches by routing it right through the campus core. Turns out CPR (I think) owns the ROW and they were... less than cooperative. wilfredmerriweathr fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 20:01
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:So that's why there's no light rail service out there. I worked at DIA for a few years back in like '04-'06 and it always blew my mind that there was this nice new light rail system but if you wanted to get to the airport gently caress you get a car. It's surprising how many big cities don't have rail transit access to their airports. I don't even think NYC has direct rail access to either airport. You have to get on a bus and then transfer to a subway at a later stop. Fortunately I live in Chicago, where the Blue line has terminated at O'Hare since 1984 and the Orange line at Midway since 1993.  Speaking of which, the Orange line is fast as hell and my favorite CTA line.
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Oct 1, 2012 22:58
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http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1606941
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Oct 1, 2012 23:51
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What a mess. How do they clean that up? Just... pick them up with a crane, put em back on the rails and hope they move again?
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Oct 1, 2012 23:59
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