Re: 422's to Broken Hill

["Al Barrett" <ajbarrett@hunterlink.net.au>]

> 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.
>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.

North?.... would that be north west?... yeah um anyway.... the (usually
lead) unit is not shut down, rather it is put into "Idle" as apposed to
"run" on 48's anyway..... this way the unit is still operational (has a/c
and is still compressing air to allow faster pumping up of the trucks after
a brake application) to save noise and fuel on empty trains.
I assume this would/could be the same on 422's but I don't know... never
been in one whilst it was in service