- #1
rollingstein
Gold Member
- 646
- 16
While on a long distance train in India I noticed that there were two huge cars devoted to power generation, one at each end of the train (approx. an 18 car consist). A pic. below. Apparently diesel powered generators. Each car had two exhaust pipes on top (one at each end) so presumably these are four generators per train.
I'm wondering why they wouldn't use the locomotive power itself for this load. What's the typical horsepower of a big railway loco versus what's the size of the lighting / HVAC loads. Is stepping down the voltage a problem? What's typical railway practice regarding this?
It's like Hoover dam running a thermal power turbine for their offices instead of a tapping from a step down transformer. Just curious.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3055/5827726839_66d9e74c49_b.jpg
I'm wondering why they wouldn't use the locomotive power itself for this load. What's the typical horsepower of a big railway loco versus what's the size of the lighting / HVAC loads. Is stepping down the voltage a problem? What's typical railway practice regarding this?
It's like Hoover dam running a thermal power turbine for their offices instead of a tapping from a step down transformer. Just curious.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3055/5827726839_66d9e74c49_b.jpg