Today's post is again, inspired by a news article I read online. Apparently, National Express has just unveiled their Talent 2 trains that are set to enter regional services in Germany a year from now. I'm sure the original Talent isn't too strange to riders in Europe, although some may not know that is her name. In fact, a few of them can even be found in North America if you look carefully enough. The O Train for example, a short stubby commuter rail line in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, is a diesel version of the original Bombardier Talent.
Pretty nice looking little thing really
So the Talent 2 is an articulated regional EMU that comes in 2-6 car consists. The trucks on the ends are powered and every other one in between are powered for sets longer than 2 cars (so therefore, 2 and 3 car sets have 2 powered trucks, 4 and 5 car sets have 3, and 6 car sets have 4). Each truck has an power output of 1 010 kW or 1 354 Her Majesty's horsepower, you figure out how much power in total these different consists can pump out.
Interior of the DB Talent 2, pretty simple and clean
With a top speed of 100 mph, the Talent 2 is designed to operate regional services on the mainline. As usual, this Wikipedia page will tell you more, and way more about this little trainset, her operators, routes, etc., and a link from it will probably tell you what S-Bahn exact is (you might need Google Translate, the English page of Talent 2 doesn't really say much at all).
Also, all pictures and videos are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and YouTube.
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...
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 ...
So I got a question on pantographs and did some Googling (thanks for your comment/question Tari btw). I'm not very familiar with them on a technical level, so I'm basically going to believe what the inter-web tells me. If anyone thinks what I'm writing here is a complete load of ___, please and please do leave some feedback! Pantographs , well, for those who don't know what it is, it's the mechanism (with arms and linkages and etc.) on top of an electric train, that collects electricity from the overhead cantenary for the train's propulsion. Maybe I can say it's a fancy version of the trolley pole for trolley busses and old school streetcars. Below is a picture showing the parts of a modern Z-shaped single-arm pantograph from the German Wikipedia page of pantographs (there are many types out there, I won't go into history and all that now but they are linked here). Unfortunately I have not a clue what it's saying... je ne comprends pas Allemand and...
So the Talent 2 is an articulated regional EMU that comes in 2-6 car consists. The trucks on the ends are powered and every other one in between are powered for sets longer than 2 cars (so therefore, 2 and 3 car sets have 2 powered trucks, 4 and 5 car sets have 3, and 6 car sets have 4). Each truck has an power output of 1 010 kW or 1 354 Her Majesty's horsepower, you figure out how much power in total these different consists can pump out.
Also, all pictures and videos are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and YouTube.
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