Re: 422's to Broken Hill

[David Johnson <trainman@ozemail.com.au>]

Dave Proctor wrote:

> February Railway Digest says that 422's, operating in multiple, will be
> operating the Broken Hill services, and that they took over from
> mid-January. The article says that, since they do not have the fuel range to
> do the trip, they will shut them down in turn along the way, so that only
> the one is powering.
>
> Has this happened yet?

Yes.

> Also, this *may* be a silly question, but would there be any effects on the
> running of the service at speed from having one loco shut down (I know, the
> IP used to do this when the CLP's were on it). What, if any, effect would
> shutting down the lead loco have on the running of the train?

The only effect would be that the Air Conditioner would probably not work.  It
would have to run off 75VDC, and I don't know how the Control Jumpers are wired,
but I doubt they would be able to charge the batteries with an A/C running.
Does anyone know how it works?

> It obviously is, but I did not think it was possible to shut down the lead
> loco and still drive from it (unless they are going to use the ample
> recovery time in the timetable to rearrange the locos en route).

Yes, that is essentially possible.  When I was riding on quad 48s up North, the
driver shut down the lead loco to reduce the noise and vibration.


--
David Johnson
trainman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/
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