Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="selector"] Okay, fellas, I'm just trying to make sense of this, and please don't take my statements as implying that I am absolute in my understanding.  I suppose my next approach to making sense of all this for Crandell's sake is the following series of questions: is a comparable diesel doing 20 mph while generating 6000 hp (do they?) going to have the tractive effort to apply to a given tonnage hauled that an H-8 would be capable of doing at 20 mph?  Maybe my terms are muddled.  Should I be asking about adhesion and not tractive effort?  Is adhesion good enough in either case that we need only deal with tractive effort?  Will three SD-40's pulling 10,000 tons apply more of their effort to the rails than a single H-8 would at speeds between 5 and 50 mph?  What does Michael's chart suggest and how would any of you counter it with theory expressed in a credible source?Be gentle.  I bruise easily.[/quote]I would explain it this way:  Tractive effort depends on adhesion, which in turn depends on weight on drivers, number of drivers, and the condition of the rails.  Tractive effort also depends on the ability of the locomotive to produce force (in the form of torque) at the drive wheels.  Turning the wheels against the load by the application of torque is called work.  Work performed per unit of time is called horsepower.  Moving the train is the work.  The faster you move it, the more work you accomplish in a given time.  Theoretically a windup clock could develop enough torque to pull a 10,000 ton train, but just not very fast.  I say theoretically because, from a practical standpoint, there would be so much friction in the massive speed reduction that the clock would not be able to overcome it.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag