These work in America ... South America, in Brazil, near São Paulo. After their entrance into service, tonnage on the rack portion of the line doubled in the trains these units are pulling. Do not expect light speed down or up the grade.
Here's a video showing construction,some tests,the inaugural run and first operations (it's in portuguese only,couldn't find any subtitling way, but it think its worth seeing it)
watch?v=LSfpI7Kvqjc
History of the line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo_Railway
Considering the severity of the grade, to require 'rack traction', are the locomotive pulling cars upgrade or are the shoving them upgrade so that the locomotive is the 'last, best' brake on the train should a train separation occur? The rack railways I have seen always have the locomotive on the downgrade end of the train.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Rail Pictures .Net has a photo, and the caption says the maximum grade is 10.4 %. I, too, would think they would be on the downgrade end for effective braking without busting knuckles.
Norm
Sounds like the video is all in Swiss seeing as they verbally translated what the Brazilians speaking Portuguese were saying.
ML
Mario_v These work in America ... South America, in Brazil, near São Paulo. After their entrance into service, tonnage on the rack portion of the line doubled in the trains these units are pulling. Do not expect light speed down or up the grade. Here's a video showing construction,some tests,the inaugural run and first operations (it's in portuguese only,couldn't find any subtitling way, but it think its worth seeing it) watch?v=LSfpI7Kvqjc History of the line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Paulo_Railway
Here is a link for more information on the Stadler built Rack Locomotives.
@ http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/locomotives/stadler-and-mrs-logistics-unveil-rack-locomotive.html
FTA:"'...The 5MW, four-axle locomotives are 19m long and have a 760kN starting tractive effort. They have two bogies which in turn each have two pinion transmission systems that will engage with the trip-lamella Abt rack on 10km-long ramp on the 1600mm-gauge freight line from São Paulo to the Port of Santos. Two of the locomotives operating in multiple will be able to haul a 850-tonne freight train on the 10.4% incline, making them 50% more powerful than those already in use.."
And this Railway Gazette Article ,as well is linked here @ http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/freight/single-view/view/largest-an,d-most-powerful-rack-locomotive-unveiled.html
Here is another linked site link to a number of photographs from this MRS Operations ( including some other than the "Rack Engines". (The Engines that are being replaced are Hitachi-built , and have been inservice for some time). Thre are also a couple of small maps of the Rack Line.
@ https://www.google.com/search?q=Rack+Locomotives+on+MRS+Brazil?&client=firefox-a&hs=2lh&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=TtSrUtqwMKO92wWwhIG4CQ&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=797
I found out the 'official' Staedler datatsheet. Here's the link :
http://www.stadlerrail.com/media/uploads/ZMRS0212e.pdf
Apart from this very specifical operation, MRS is basically an heavy duty railroad carrying iron ore from the state of Minas Gerais (via the 'steel railway') to a port called Mangaratiba near Rio de Janeiro, but they also have other traffic such as general freight and intermodal. their network is about 1300 kilometres long and it comprisies more or less the ancient 'Central do Brasil' railroad network, with some adittions. Here's their official site :
http://www.mrs.com.br/ingles/index.php
As for operation, when going up, yhe engines shove in the back, and when going down the normally go up front. Her's a video showing a little more of the operations (still with the Hitachi engines, maixmum load : 500 metric tons per train)
watch?v=l1ATOTFsiys
Are the rack engines permitted to operate at a higher speed when off the rack?
Comment about MRS locomotive road numbers. The first four numbers are the road number and the last two digits appear to be similar to the check digit code that Southern used in the late 1960's and 1970's.
The rack line between Santos and Sao Paulo is actually an advance. The line originally used a cable pull system to lift cars up the grade. I don't know how downhill cars were handled.
One of the advantages of the Abt system is that the end-of-rack meshing is fairly clean. Swiss Federal Railways and associated private railways do allow higher speeds off-rack for the most part.
I would guess that the cable pull system was used as a brake for down-bound cars if for no other reason than to get the cable end back to the bottom.
About the loco numbers, that's right, it's a 'control digit'. I suppose it exists because there's a specific numbering system in Brazil, comprising both locos and cars
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