I was recently viewing Railpictures.net and came across a PKP Polish State Railways ET40-04. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=76097
Having been brought up with U.S. Railroading and having worked for U.S. Railroads, can someone please explain the purpose of a Locomotive Steering wheel???[?][?][?]
My guess is a hand brake. But I bet someone out there knows for sure. [8D]
the wheel is the throttle…turn it one way and you go faster…turn it the other way and you slow down…i have seen the same set up on other european electic locomotives…in fact i think the cab of the TGV is set up the same way
csx engineer
ALCO yard switchers had the hand brake on a verticle stand at the rear of the cab. New trainman were told that they had to steer the engine through the yard switches and were praised for learning the job quickly when the engine followed the desired route.
CSX has it…thats the throttle…
See the train brake and independent brake on the right, and the reverser on the left, just under the wheel…turn the wheel one way to speed up, the other to slow down.
Besides…it a polish locomotive…why not use a steering wheel for a throttle?[:D]
Ed
lol…i was going to say it… but i thought…na…way to easy…lol
csx engineer
Alot of locomotives also have wheels like that in the back of the cab for hand brakes.
Dangerous feature. Way too comfortable for at nap time.
Actually I think it may be the brake. If you see the old Burt Lancaster movie The Train feturing French steam of the 1930s and before during WWII, I recall a scene where he needs to stop a steam locomotive in the tunnel (it was being strafed by Allied planes) and he turns a wheel to do so. Just barely stops with the engine nose at the far tunnel entrance – the plane flies off.
Maybe my memory is playing tricks. I do know that that is one of the really great railroad themed movies of all time with tremendous scenes of steam and some shocking wrecks (the movie makers were permitted to destroy a French rail yard that was being abandoned).
Dave Nelson
Dave
Your memory is just fine. Within the last year someone was telling me about the same movie. However, it is my memory which is no so good, I don’t remember the name of the movie. [8] [B)] [:0] [V]
As if Hollywood ever got anything right.
I agree, it is a great movie, was about the French Resistance stopping a german train full of art from leaving the country. I’m not sure if it was a handbrake or a screw-operated reverser, I’ll have to watch the tape again sometime.
Randy
…Before reading the thoughts of the real railroaders I was ready to post of the wheel being a throttle and one can see the red lever for the brake control…Now all it needs is a center air bag. Maybe that’s for the next model. Turn signals too.
Actually that big wheel in the French loco was the reversing mechanism. Turn the wheel one way, and the steam flow moves the loco forward, turn it the other way for reverse, set it in the middle for no steam flow. There is a great view of this in the French film “La Bete Humaine” about a loco engineer goaded into murder, lots of great in the cab scenes. In “The Train” he turns the wheel to reverse the loco and stop before reaching the other end of the tunnel.
As for the wheel in the photo, how else do you think the enginner makes it round all those curves[:D]
Wasn’t the movie "Von Ryan’s Express?
Modelcar: why bother with turn signals? Hardly anyone uses them, anyway. Air bag might be nice, if it could be inflated on demand (would make a great pillow for those long naps waiting in the siding.
“Von Ryan’s Express” was another movie altogether. “The Train” was much better, IMHO.
Maybe that woman who wanted the tram to swerve arund her parked car has seen this pic.
Hope those grade crossing safety fanatics don’t see that - they’ll want steering wheels installed on ALL locomotives…
That is not a steering wheel. I think that in american terminology it would be called “shunting circuits” - eg - system to switch traction motors between several serial/parallel configurations and in the same time controlling resistances that control speed of the loco.
Basicly it can be considered throttle, but also - it is vital for starting heavy trains…
Cough, cough. Nasty cold, nasty I tell ya…
All polish locomotives are equipped with “dead man’s switch”. Fail to press it, within 10 seconds of its activation and it sends the train into emergency. Besides - in civilised countries engineers are consdiered humans, not machines like in the US. This includes actual rest.