mrvette
Phantom of the Opera
everyone knows how a steam engine operates, but this question is about Diesel and Electric engines....
I know a typical Diesel/electric RR loco is a Diesel hooked up to a generator which is then loaded to traction motors on the wheels....
but is the generator actually an alternator?? are those traction motors AC or DC operation??
for one thing, I know that the Pennsy RR back when, operated a system of catanary overhead wires, like a town trolley, for running GG1 locomotives all over the country was stretching from Chicago to Boston and far south as Richmond, I think, certainly Wash DC anyway....
I also know the system was shut down by the EPA as the coal fired power plants at trackside were running only 20 hz current to the lines, and to change the system over to 60 hz would have to rebuild all the locos to do that, so they just retired the entire fleet, ending the best locos to ever grace the roadbeds.....
but just how was speed controll and so forth accomplished with AC traction motors, hard to imagine any rectifier possible to make DC voltages at the amps required to run that loco.....so how is the motor controlled???
most AC motors will run at whatever speed soon as power is applied, so how was speed controlled, much less direction??
tried looking it up, found no sites that actually answered the tech questions, just general descriptions....
:stirpot::sos:
I know a typical Diesel/electric RR loco is a Diesel hooked up to a generator which is then loaded to traction motors on the wheels....
but is the generator actually an alternator?? are those traction motors AC or DC operation??
for one thing, I know that the Pennsy RR back when, operated a system of catanary overhead wires, like a town trolley, for running GG1 locomotives all over the country was stretching from Chicago to Boston and far south as Richmond, I think, certainly Wash DC anyway....
I also know the system was shut down by the EPA as the coal fired power plants at trackside were running only 20 hz current to the lines, and to change the system over to 60 hz would have to rebuild all the locos to do that, so they just retired the entire fleet, ending the best locos to ever grace the roadbeds.....
but just how was speed controll and so forth accomplished with AC traction motors, hard to imagine any rectifier possible to make DC voltages at the amps required to run that loco.....so how is the motor controlled???
most AC motors will run at whatever speed soon as power is applied, so how was speed controlled, much less direction??
tried looking it up, found no sites that actually answered the tech questions, just general descriptions....
:stirpot::sos:
