Lighting in heavyweight passenger cars

[Villy]

I don't want to think about how long it's been since I travelled in a heavyweight (it would have been either CN or CP)

 I seem to recall that in station lighting (i.e. from the batteries) was incandescent and that flourescents kicked in once the wheel driven generators kicked in..

It seems that a significant % of my seem to remembers are figments of my imagination so help me out here...  What was used for protoypical lighting in those days ??

 

Villy 

 

[Mimbrogno]

Lighting in pre HEP days was always powered by the batteries with a constant connection. It didn't matter if it was florescent or not, all lighting was connected to the batteries. In the stations the lights would have a somewhat dim glow because the battery voltage alone is not that high compared to the lightbulb's rating. When travelling, especially at high speeds, the generator (which was also connected across the batteries and was therefor in parallel with the lighting circut) raised the voltage above that across the batteries in order to recharge them. This also made the lights burn brighter. Most cars had the generators connected to one of the axles and picked up energy from the trains movement. A few cars had little steam turbine generators that made electricity from the steam heating supply. Those cars which had those generators didn't need batteries because their power souce was constantly available as long as it was connected to a locomotive.

 I hope that solves your question!
Matthew Imbrogno
-Mechanical Volenteer, Arizona Railway Museum
www.azrymuseum.org

[Anonymous]

In addition to what Mr. Imbrogno says (and, BTW, the same stuff applied to pre-HEP lightweights), if the cars had compatible battery voltages (and many did--32 Volts was one of the common ones), they could be trainlined with two or more cars electrically in parallel, where they were all sharing all the batteries at that voltage.  This distributed the electrical load among more batteries allowing for greater reliability.  If you have the recollection, that's what the big cables sometimes hanging in the diaphragms between cars were for -- the trainline receptacles were usually located on the car end right at the top of the opening below the roof of the diaphragm.

The cars were also equipped with (usually) 480 Volt ground power receptacles on each side about midway up the car that allowed the onboard motor-generators to be plugged in during terminal layovers to keep the batteries charged.

Unless the car had electro-mechanical air conditioning or other similar special equipment, the electrical load was not terrifically high.

[dknelson]

Speaking as someone whose train watching goes back to the late 1950s, it seems to me that both back in the pre Amtrak era and today, when you see a passenger train go by at night the lights are fairly subdued.  I think some people overdo the brightness in their lighted models.

Dave Nelson

[csmith9474]

In addition to what Mr. Imbrogno says (and, BTW, the same stuff applied to pre-HEP lightweights), if the cars had compatible battery voltages (and many did--32 Volts was one of the common ones), they could be trainlined with two or more cars electrically in parallel, where they were all sharing all the batteries at that voltage.  This distributed the electrical load among more batteries allowing for greater reliability.  If you have the recollection, that's what the big cables sometimes hanging in the diaphragms between cars were for -- the trainline receptacles were usually located on the car end right at the top of the opening below the roof of the diaphragm.

The cars were also equipped with (usually) 480 Volt ground power receptacles on each side about midway up the car that allowed the onboard motor-generators to be plugged in during terminal layovers to keep the batteries charged.

Unless the car had electro-mechanical air conditioning or other similar special equipment, the electrical load was not terrifically high.

I have a set of those cables marked for the Santa Fe.