Can some New Jersey taxpayer get the straight scoop on this?
pajrr This past week here in NJ we have had several consecutive days of 100+ degree weather. NJ Transit has been suffering numerous delays and breakdowns. The problem, according to the NJ Transit website, is that the agency's modern electric locomotives, the ALP-46, is designed to shut down when the electrical compartment reaches 135 degrees in order to protect the electronics. With the ambient temperature already exceeding 100 degrees, the locomotives shut down rather quickly. As a result, trains were sitting, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no power, no AC, toilets, etc, with passengers (who are now paying higher fares) cooking inside. I think they call it progress.
This past week here in NJ we have had several consecutive days of 100+ degree weather. NJ Transit has been suffering numerous delays and breakdowns. The problem, according to the NJ Transit website, is that the agency's modern electric locomotives, the ALP-46, is designed to shut down when the electrical compartment reaches 135 degrees in order to protect the electronics. With the ambient temperature already exceeding 100 degrees, the locomotives shut down rather quickly. As a result, trains were sitting, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no power, no AC, toilets, etc, with passengers (who are now paying higher fares) cooking inside. I think they call it progress.
The real answer will come from the specifications that NJ Transit wrote for the motors. Somewhere in those specifications will be a continous outside motor operating temperature. If it was 104 - 113 F that I would have specified (due to tunnel heat build up) then the manufacturer is going to have to fix it and pay for the failures. If on the other hand NJ T specified a temp around 100 or lower then it will be on their shoulder. Note: 104F = 40C a convient number. 113F = 45C. 135F = 57.5C.
yup but todays electric locomotive is not the ancient EMD your talking about.
Even todays diesels will shut down when certain doors are opened. and Locomotive engineers can guess but can also do a lot of damage to multi million dollar locomotives.
There have been hundreds, possibly thousands, of similar cases with diesel locomotives, a few reported on this Forum, with engineers doing some quick fix to get the train over the road. Usually involving some piece of wood wedging a relay closed and opening cabinet doors, etc. Admittadly the problem here is more skywars-like but at least a temporary fix should have in initiated by now. If this is not true that either the manufacturer's engineers or the NJT management are clearly incompenent. Possibly both.
I think if these were Metro North locomotives, the fix would have been found and announced.
Im sure than NJT is working with German Kassel locomotive plant to get issue resolved, you can't just up the temperature limit and hope there is no technical retributions.
So what is the latest scoop? Just, well the weather has dropped in temperature so we hope it won't happen again?
If you read the posts on the New Haven service interruption you should compare their response with New Jersey Transit's response. After the first NJTshutdown occured, there should have been an immediate telephone call to the locomotive manufacturer with a demand for permission to modify the airflow to the electricals in question, for increase airflow. This could have been done by such matters as speeding up the fans, assuming they could take the added power, leaving cabinet doors open, etc., but the fix should have been immediate and done on an overnight basis. This isn't a skywars problem, but a very simple one, and repeated instances of this kind of problem over several days indicate a real management problem in my book.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.