I agree that it looks strange with the front pan up. Actually I'm surprised I noticed this, since I'm not around NEC trains that much.
Regarding the Acela: What does it mean to have the rear/trailing pan up? I only ask because each power car seems to have only a single pan on top, which happens to be towards the rear of the power car. So would the Acelas even be affected by this memo?
Railroad Forums
The Front Pantograph is up again
- General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment
Moderator: John_Perkowski
Each power car has two pantographs both at rear end of powercar one faces forward one faces backward.
If Conductors are in charge, why are they promoted to be Engineer???
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the front pantograph being up looks weird on these trains, im so used to the rear being up
E-44 freight locomotives with 2 half pans next to each other usually used the "fronter" pan with the "knuckle" leading.
Many Great Northern locos had bus bars, but PRR removed them from the ones they bought in 1958. ConRail didn't use the bus wires on the E-33s, although New Have had when they were EF-4s, and ran with one pan per pair of locos.
Old Reading cars had bus bars, a RDG press release cited 2 advantages: less wear due to less raised pans needed, and less arcing if more than one was up, since they wouldn't always try to arc at once. (If one bounced or ran under dirty wire, another might still make good contact and power the train.)
Some pairs of Metroliners had bus wires so only one pan would be needed. There were special rules at Penn Station, New York, that the other pan must go up before the 1st pan went down, unless the wire was dead. Possibly they were afraid of unquenchable arcs under the low wire? I don't know what happened with single cars, or cars without jumpers, the rule didn't apply. Some Harrisburg Capitoliners were 3 car trains.
Many Great Northern locos had bus bars, but PRR removed them from the ones they bought in 1958. ConRail didn't use the bus wires on the E-33s, although New Have had when they were EF-4s, and ran with one pan per pair of locos.
Old Reading cars had bus bars, a RDG press release cited 2 advantages: less wear due to less raised pans needed, and less arcing if more than one was up, since they wouldn't always try to arc at once. (If one bounced or ran under dirty wire, another might still make good contact and power the train.)
Some pairs of Metroliners had bus wires so only one pan would be needed. There were special rules at Penn Station, New York, that the other pan must go up before the 1st pan went down, unless the wire was dead. Possibly they were afraid of unquenchable arcs under the low wire? I don't know what happened with single cars, or cars without jumpers, the rule didn't apply. Some Harrisburg Capitoliners were 3 car trains.
Amtrak still has the front pan up on the AEM-7s. I saw one yesterday at Metropark Station in NJ.
I'm wondering if the plan is to evaluate wear after a certain amount of time. If this is an experiment of sorts, I wonder if it's been successful.
Why would you use the entire "population" of engines for a sample, I would just try it with three or 4 of each type and see what sort of differences I got.
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geoking66 wrote:I know that TGVs aren't allowed to have the front pantograph up, but I've seen Acelas with both pantographs up, I don't know the whole technical reasons why they shouldn't be raised.On TGV's the powercars have a high voltage cable between front and rear powercar.
On NEC that can not be done due to phase gaps and phase breaks.
so on ACELA each power car has two pantographs but there is no high voltage trainline.
If Conductors are in charge, why are they promoted to be Engineer???
Retired Triebfahrzeugführer. I am not a moderator.
Retired Triebfahrzeugführer. I am not a moderator.