Re: Steam heating and low voltage hep

[dbromage@metz.une.edu.au (David Bromage)]

Bob (gioia@fastlink.com.au) wrote:
>I'll have to find my notes on this but from memory there were also some 44
>class fitted with this feature for the Cooma Mail. It was not considered a
>great success however they persevered with it for many years. It probably
>would not be considered as head end power as the source of the power was the
>locomotives main generator unlike a proper head end powered loco that has a
>separate MG set.

I'd call it proper hep as the train power is provided by the locomotive.
The Amtrak F40PH and Genesis units work the same way, not having a
seperate hep engine. The New Haven's Fairbanks-Morse Speedmasters were the
same.

>The cars were ones with an X prefix to the code. These being
>XAM (TAM), XCM (MCE), XFS (FS) and XBS (BS).

This was part of what I was looking for. Anyone got the 44 and 48 class
locos which were equipped for this? What was the operating voltage?

>The other electric heated cars
>were the E prefix cars that had power supplied by a power van. Although I
>never saw it myself I believe there was a train of these cars ran to Cooma
>during the snow season. As a matter of interest the electric heaters in the X
>and E cars were identical except for the way they were connected ie series or
>parallel.          

What cars were so equipped and what was the operating voltage?

How does all this compare to the air-conditioned cars? (Let's turn this
into a general discussion about hep)

>As for the steam heated cars they did not change their
>code and were not easy to identify especially in latter years when the steam
>equipment was still there but not in use. The only clue was to find the steam
>unit under the seats and a control knob on the side wall below the window at
>floor lever. 

When was steam heating abandoned? 

>There was an even earlier form of  ' head end power' on the
>NSWGR as used on the Yass Tramway where the 13 class supplied power to the
>CCA car via a jumper cable. The 13s power came from the steam driven
>generator that supplies power to locomotive headlights. 

Was this 24 or 48 volts? I assume this would have been in use between the
time electric lighting was introduced (i.e. the end of gas) and the
withdrawal of the 13 class? Dates?

Cheers
David