It has been a while since I've written about anything fast lately. Lately I've seen a picture of a new trainset being transported to Poland as I stumble around the web for train pictures. This trainset has proven to be quite popular among European countries and is known by many names. Developed by the former rail division of Fiat, now under Alstom of France, this class of trainsets is known by the manufacturer simply as the New Pendolino.
Trenitalia ETR-600
Polish PKP ED250, brand new and shiny
Now if there's a New Pendolino, there must have been an old one. There have been quite a few kinds of those too, the British Rail Class 390 and Finnish Sm3 are a couple of quick examples. A Pendolino is named so because of the fact that she is a tilting train (i.e. the body of the train tilts towards the center of the curve up to 8 degrees, which enables the train to be able to travel faster than non-tilt trains in windy territories). However there are exceptions, like the Chinese CRH5, which is a Pendolino that doesn't tilt.
The Pendolino that doesn't tilt
The New Pendolino not only is an evolution mechanically from the original series, the train also features a more rounded and streamlined design that is much more pleasing to the eye. The trainsets come in a standard 7-car consist (but of course this can vary depending on the order), with 4 of the cars powered with a total output of 7 400 horsepower. The top speed in revenue service of the New Pendolino is 155 mph.
Here's another, Spanish Renfe Avant Class 114, comes in 4-car consists
Last week, we've identified the Janney coupler and briefly looked at its elegant design. This week, let's, again, very briefly, look at the different types of Janney coupler that are widely used today. I will only talk about the head of the coupler, and ignore anything that the general public may need to trespass onto railroad property and get in a unsafe situation in order to have a good look at. As far as coupler heads are concerned, there are 3 types in used today. Type E, F, and H. Types E and F are used on freight, and H used on passenger equipment. Since the withdrawal of passenger service in North America by private railroads, the Type H standard is no longer maintained by the Association of American Railroads, a trade group formed of major freight railroads, but is under the control of the APTA, the American Public Transportation Association. Now let me introduce another term, slack. Slack is an allowed gap between two coupled up couplers. In other words, when most ...
The NPCU or Non-powered Control Units are control cars used by Amtrak that are modified from surplus EMD F40PH locomotives. A control car is a generic term for a non-powered railroad vehicle that can control operation of a train from the end opposite to the position of the locomotive. They can be used with diesel or electric motive power, allowing push-pull operation without the use of an additional locomotive. Control cars first appeared in the USA and France in 1960s. Trains operating with a locomotive at one end and a control car at the other do not require the locomotive to run around to the opposite end of the train when reversing direction. In the United States, most control cars are modified from retired locomotives by removing tractive equipment and adding side baggage doors and have been used on several passenger railroads. The control cars are connected through the consist of the train by standard AAR 27-wire multiple unit jumper cables. The NPCUs at Amtrak are a...
The train of this week is a locomotive unveiled in 2009 by the BNSF Railway. Instead of using conventional diesel fuel, it is powered by hydrogen fuel cells (I have very limited knowledge in this area, so please feel free to comment on this post if you are interested in and familiar with the topic of hydrogen fuel cells). It is called the HH20B, a hydrogen-hybrid switcher locmotive based on the GG20B Green Goat diesel-hybrid switcher built by Railpower Technologies Corp. of Brossard, Quebec (acquired by R.J. Corman Railroad Group of Nicholasville, Kentucky in 2009). The GG20B is powered by a 300 hp 4-stroke Caterpillar diesel-engine and a battery pack with a combined tractive output of 2,000 hp. On the HH20B, diesel engine is replaced by hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen storage is in a set of tanks installed on top of the long hood of the locomotive in a heavily vented enclosure, above the batteries. The BNSF Railway displaying its low- and ul...
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