So this week we'll go across the Pacific instead and have a look at a passenger locomotive developed by the Chinese that's based on a popular Germany family of locomotives. China has apparently bought the technology to Siemens EuroSprinter and Bombardier TRAXX along with thousands of heavy-haul freight locomotives from Germany and they have been busy developing with the technology ever since.
Is it just me or does it look German?
So this locomotive, the HXD1D is a 6-axle locomotive designed to haul long distance passenger trains on China's existing railroad network (I'm guessing since Chinese passenger trains are long, around 20 cars, they need a bit of tractive effort with all the available horsepower and hence 6 axles). The latest government directive apparently dropped the maximum operating speed on existing railroads from 124 mph (or 200 km/h) down to 99 mph (160 km/h) and that's how fast this locomotive is supposed to go.
Interestingly the locomotive was fitted with a Type E coupler, this wouldn't entirely legal for passenger service in North America
Power output is slightly below the European locomotives on a per-axle basis (1200 instead of 1600 kW, or 1630 hp instead of 2175 hp, yeah, that's like a GP38-2 per axle or something). I'm not too sure of anything in much technical detail, the things I know are on the Wikipedia page linked here. Since this is an European electric, the only thing that's usual for those of us outside of the Northeast Corridor on this locomotive is probably the Knorr (New York Air Brake's Germany based parent company) CCB-II electronic brake valve.
Thank Wikimedia Commons and YouTube for all the multimedia material presented here.
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...
The ES44AC (successor of the AC4400CW) is a member of the family of GE's latest and greatest diesel-electric freight locomotives, the Evolution Series . Other locomotives in the Evolution Series include ES40DC, ES44DC, ES44C4 for the domestic market and ES44ACi (Kazakhstan), ES59ACi (China), and ES44DCi (Australia) for export. The direct competitor of the ES44AC is the SD70ACe developed by Electro Motive Diesel (EMD). The name ES44AC can be simply decoded as E volution S eries 4 , 4 00 horsepower AC traction (this naming scheme does not apply to EMD products or the ES59ACi which actually outputs 6,250 horsepower). However, unlike electric locomotives, the rated power of diesel-electric locomotives are measured at the prime mover (i.e. the diesel engine), not at the traction motors. The Evolution Series were developed to meet the stricter EPA Tier 2 emission standards. These locomotives use the GEVO prime movers instead of the FDL prime movers used on th...
What makes most trains, trains, is the fact that locomotives and cars are interconnected by some mechanism (of course they no longer had to be since the introduction of the rail diesel car) that allow them to move along the railroad tracks simultaneously. Before I go further, I wish to introduce, very briefly, buff and draft forces. Two cars are in buff when they push against and are in draft when they pull against each other. A little bit on history: at the very beginning, this mechanism that connects cars together are made up of separate components that deal with buff and draft forces individually. The link and hook take care of draft forces, and buffers (they look like pancakes sticking out the ends of trains as seen in Thomas the Tank Engine) deal with buff forces. Although this system works well once the coupling is complete, which is why it is still in use in many parts of the world, there are many disadvantages to this primitive coupling system that make it unacceptable ...
Power output is slightly below the European locomotives on a per-axle basis (1200 instead of 1600 kW, or 1630 hp instead of 2175 hp, yeah, that's like a GP38-2 per axle or something). I'm not too sure of anything in much technical detail, the things I know are on the Wikipedia page linked here. Since this is an European electric, the only thing that's usual for those of us outside of the Northeast Corridor on this locomotive is probably the Knorr (New York Air Brake's Germany based parent company) CCB-II electronic brake valve.
Comments