Do diesels have outlets in the cab for anything like a microwave or food heater?
Most have 74v DC power outlets in the cab. Atleast the ones that I’ve seen / have in my trains quite often.
Some common 120v AC “simple” appliances like hot plates, crock pots, etc will function on these. My laptop has no problem functioning off them as well. Cell phone charger works too. So does the iPod charger [:D]
Many times microwaves and hot plates that are mounted in the cab are hard wired, without plugs.
Do a simple Internet search for ‘locomotive’ + ‘inverter’, and you should get a good number of results that include information on such devices to supply misc. appliances in the cabs. (That’s what happened the other day when I did that search, except I was looking for info on the main power inverters that are used to supply AC traction motors and how they change frequency with speed and load, etc. - still looking for that at a level I can understand . . . )
- Paul North.
74VDC to 110AC inverters have been around for 20+ years now. Very handy things… I have seen RR crews plug cheapy 110VAC teapots into the 74VDC outlet with decent results. Resistance heating doesn’t care about AC/DC and the lower voltage meant longer times to get the water heated up, but it worked.
I seem to recall, on several occasions TRAINS articles;that made mention that Canadian Pacific locomotives are equiped with microwave ovens for the crews. This apparently, in addition to the standard water cooler, and small refrigerator in the water cooler found in a lot of road-unit cabs