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Towed diesels


PhilH
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Our hapless soul would have been perfectly sate looking upwards in them, as there was no third rail for safety reasons.  Mostly colliery sidings in the Kent coalfield I believe, and made obsolete by the introduction of the E6000 Electro-Diesels, which nowadays would be called 'Bi Mode'...

 

Ok, how do you tow a dead diesel hydraulic?

If the hydraulic pump is not working, which it isn't because the diesel is shut down and not powering it, then there is no pressure in the hydraulic system, and the final drive units can be disconnected, leaving the dead loco as a free-rolling vehicle.  Simples, as the meerkat says...

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I had to do the "3rd rail course" when a Traction Trainee, (remember them) at Kings Cross, for the 3rd rail into Moorgate and going across the North London Line. As well as having it drummed into us, "watch were you step" when getting off a loco, we had to go down to Drayton Park station where a short section of 3rd rail track (not live) had been set up so we could show off our prowess with a short circuiting bar. Simples in those days.

 

Paul J.

 

Sometime within the past 10 years or so, I did mine just behind the Necropolis station at Waterloo. The instructor demonstrated the s/c bar, on the old siding there, which was still live.

 

Stewart

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Um.  There could still be residual magnetism in the motor field pole pieces, which when driven at speed could possibly self generate.  To be really safe you should withdraw the brush gear.

 

Hydraulics depend upon the system IIRC, some you had to disengage cardan shafts?

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no motor contactors in no circuit..did have a 31 towed on the shed once with motor contacter stuck in wasn't a pretty sight in the electrical cubicle !! Hydraulics assume are the same as DMUs put final drive in neutral and they will freewheel?

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Um.  There could still be residual magnetism in the motor field pole pieces, which when driven at speed could possibly self generate.  To be really safe you should withdraw the brush gear.

 

 

Not sufficiently to worry about. In practice, the effect even when the motors are connected, as in rheostatic braking on electric stock, is so small that no meaning effect results. The traction equipment on LUL stock that had rheostatic braking was provided with a field injection circuit, whose purpose was to give the traction motor fields an initial excitation, after which the field would build up as the (braking) current rose.

 

Jim

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no motor contactors in no circuit..did have a 31 towed on the shed once with motor contacter stuck in wasn't a pretty sight in the electrical cubicle !! Hydraulics assume are the same as DMUs put final drive in neutral and they will freewheel?

Same principle is used when towing certain diesel mechanical shunters, such as Class 03 and 04 where the final drive could be isolated as on a DMU. Hunslet 0-6-0 class 05's and the 0-4-0 version had a Neutral position on the final drive gearbox, and could easily be towed in that position. This may also apply to the Ruston 0-4-0 pair, D2957/8 as they had Hunslet 4 speed gearboxes as well, similar to the 05's. The Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 shunters D2500-19 (SSS Powerflow final drives), and Andrew Barclay D2400-9, (which had a Wiseman type 15 RLGB final drive), had to have the connecting rods from the final drive to the driving wheels removed, except when towed at "Dead Slow" speeds. I'm not 100% sure about class 01 and 06, but as they had the same final drive as D2400-9, they may also have had to have connecting rods removed.

 

Paul J.

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Permanent magnet motors seem to be the latest thing on the big railway, with rare earth magnets being powerful enough to provide the field on a traction motor.  I don't know what happens when trying to tow one of those! 

 

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/permanent-magnet-motors.html

Edited by Edwin_m
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Funny you should say that...when out on the mainline with various locos the one thing that really, and I do mean really, concentrates and exercises my mind is when I have to step over the third rail. Obviously we look for a break in it to cross but sometimes you have no choice. Again, although we have the 3rd rail guards which fit over it, when you have to water with the hose(s) just above it that makes you think hard too.

 

 

It is interesting how the railway divides into two on third rail those who have not worked with it or work in H&S who think it is deadly and treat it with the caution due an angry rattle snake. Or those who have worked with it for years and while somewhat respectful of it particularly in wet weather think it is nothing to be excited about. 

 

Would be somewhat frowned upon these days but I knew of staff who used to sit on the con rail to eat their sandwiches as it was a more comfortable height than the running rail.  

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It is interesting how the railway divides into two on third rail those who have not worked with it or work in H&S who think it is deadly and treat it with the caution due an angry rattle snake. Or those who have worked with it for years and while somewhat respectful of it particularly in wet weather think it is nothing to be excited about.

 

Would be somewhat frowned upon these days but I knew of staff who used to sit on the con rail to eat their sandwiches as it was a more comfortable height than the running rail.

I've not worked on the third rail for many years, but you could always (and probably still can) tell the southern region men from the 'foreigners' by the greatly exaggerated steps we took over the third rail :) as you say those used to it didn't seem to care and I myself have witnessed p way staff standing it on several occasions! Edited by 101
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I've not worked on the third rail for many years, but you could always (and probably still can) tell the southern region men from the 'foreigners' by the greatly exaggerated steps we took over the third rail :)

1804FBCE-4556-4684-9179-2AAAA7436BE0.jpg

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I've not worked on the third rail for many years, but you could always (and probably still can) tell the southern region men from the 'foreigners' by the greatly exaggerated steps we took over the third rail :)

1804FBCE-4556-4684-9179-2AAAA7436BE0.jpg

That's about right :)

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