Hello all ;
Here's a cab ride I found, recorded in my country. Since I'm from Europe, just see the differences in operation from here and the US, since it's mostly a single track CTC operation. Warning, It's a little long
Here's the featured movie :
watch?v=ky147QNp13Q
Left handed signals threw me a the start. What is the purpose of the 'wheel' horizontally in front of the operator?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
That wheel is the throttle. The locomotive is of a french design, and hterefore uses that kind of system, that was standard in all french built locomotives untill the late 80s/early 90s
Continuously variable? as opposed to the US standard of a notched throttle system.
Mario_v That wheel is the throttle. The locomotive is of a french design, and hterefore uses that kind of system, that was standard in all french built locomotives untill the late 80s/early 90s
It is variable, but still not continuous. The system in case is graded in notches - 32 to be exact, plus 5 field reductions of magnetic field, when full throttle is reached (to apply these the engineers use the L shaped lever shown at the right side of the 'cerclo' (at the left are the 2 brake type commands). In locomotivves of later design that use tyristor type rectifiers, the 'power circuit' is completely different, therefore the variation of the trotlle is continuous. That's for example the case of the first TGVs. It sounds complicated, but it's as intuitive as an american system (We also have alco models, so I can do this comparison very easaly)
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