Train of the Week

I am out of town for work and the Internet service in the hotel isn't exactly up to par with the times, so I guess I'll post this one from my phone with a couple pictures I've taken. For those of you who are interested in what's in the background of the pictures, they ate of course the Canadian Rockies, seen from Golden, British Columbia. The CP 9350 series ES44AC locomotives are EPA Tier 3 emission standard compliant.

The G Class is a 6-axle locomotive operated by various railroads in Australia. It may sound completely strange, but as I will describe in this post (and later posts about other similar locomotives in Australia); it is rather familiar to the typical North American rail fan. Originally for the V/Line in the State of Victoria, 33 units (30 in 4 ft. 8 1/2 in. standard gage, 3 in 5 ft. 3 in. Irish gage) have been built by Clyde Engineering since 1984. The G Class has a full width car body with cabs on either end of the locomotive. Prime mover is a familiar EMD 16-645. More technical information can be found through this link , where you will notice more familiar terms (a couple to spoil here are AR11 generators and D77 traction motors). The familiar looking truck (picture below) may also give you some clue to why we already know the G Class very well. Need I say more about the unit or shall I just leave it to the pictures? If you still have trouble figuring out what the hell ...

The Class 350 is a modern 4-car Desiro EMU first built by Siemens in 2004. They were first operated by Central Trains and Silverlink until the two railroad franchises expired in 2007 ( this article is a good start for some background jazz on how railroads work in Britain after privatization in the 1990s). These trains were transferred to London Midland , a new franchise that took over. Four batches of the Class 350 have been ordered so far, designated 350/1, 350/2, 350/3, and 350/4. The first three batches are all for London Midland and Class 350/4 are ordered for the TransPennine Express franchise operated by First Group. Batches The first 2 batches have been delivered by 2009, batches 3 and 4 are scheduled to arrive Britain between 2012 and 14. The Class 350 has a total power output of 2,000 hp. 350/1 and 2 have a top speed in revenue service of 100 mph, 350/3 and 4 will have a top speed of 110 mph. I had an opportunity to ride this EMU in 2008 when I visited England f...

The Series 255 , built by Kinki Sharyo and Tokyu Car , is one of the very first EMUs in Japan to feature a fancy AC traction motor control system called IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) VVVF (variable voltage variable frequency, or we call VFD, variable frequency drive). The EMU serves on the narrow gage (3.5 ft.) network on Japan’s existing railroad network in limited express services. The Series 255 has car body width of 9 ft. 8 in. and accommodates 4 seats in a row in standard seating arrangement. Standard consist of the EMU is 4M5T and with a combined power output of 2,040 horsepower, the Series 255 achieves a top revenue speed of 80 miles per hour.