Steve
Thanks very much for that very interesting rundown. And yes, I had thought
that the power had to be equal (or very nearly), but your point is clear.
We have a mix of electric and diesel-electric on our railways, but I have a
soft spot for the diesel-electric ones.
Chris
On 6 Apr 14, at 19:03, Steve Troy <sctroy@xxxxxxx> wrote:
snipped
> Now, it is a common misconception that multiple engines must be synchronized
> exactly. That may be the case on side-by-side machines like airplanes. But
> with land vehicles, the ground synchronizes you! Imagine a guy's car breaks
> down and he needs to push it. He calls for help, and a bodybuilder and a
> small child come over. Now, the body builder is giving 300 pounds of push but
> the child is only giving 30. How much push are those two doing? 330 pounds,
> not 270. The child does not weaken the bodybuilder, he adds to it.
>
> So yes, if you have a big 6000 horsepower mainline diesel and also a tiny
> 1000 horsepower switcher, they absolutely can M.U. and they can push the
> train together for a total of 7000 horsepower. They don't have to be equal,
> they just have to push in the same direction, lol!
>
> There's some fairly tricky wiring in the M.U. cables to make sure the
> locomotives push in the same direction. Modern diesel locomotives have I
> believe 21-pin M.U. cables, which include several pins for sorting out
> headlight controls.
> --
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