Imagine how 5,000 hp would feel on the passengers in run 8! Bill the passenger, [#%^^%$#!@#$^&&^^^*&%$!!] Thank’s for correcting me though. These engines are better at pulling a passenger train.
5000hp on a passenger train isn’t too out of the question…NJTransit’s new engines are over 4000. You don’t notice on the train too much, but when you see one leave the station, they don’t waste time lets just say.
I guess that’s true but I was saying instantley pullindg the throttle out to run 2 or 3, if you didn’t bust a knuckle or anything. Aren’t those engines that Alstom built? I can only imagine that those engines don’t wast any time!
Yeah thats them. They are different but seem to get the job done, though I had heard NJT initially had problems with them. Even though they are still the new engines, after awhile you get used to them. But they do take off pretty fast, some of the others ones, like some of the GP40FHs, took their time getting going.
Theay do look a bit futuristic but if that get’s the job done for NJT then I guess that we will have to deel with it. I think that theay look cool. I’m sure that 4000 hp will get a train moving. You should read the book Locomotives The Moderm Diesel and Electric Refrance. That book tells you about Alstom and the NJT order. I recomend reading it!
I’ve never seen it but I will keep an eye out, sounds interesting.
I got my coppy at my local Barns and Nobles store. It was $50.00. Well worth the cash!!!
Comment on double engines of the 1960’s. Darwin really worked hard on these. Only the EMD’s survived for very long. And then only because they had very reliable equipment with much parts commonality with other EMD designs. The C855, U 50 C & U 50 B designs were very short lived. I thing the U 50 s went to scrap after only 10 years. Baldwin had stopped building locomotives by the time these ideas were being tried.
Rgds IGN
The C855’s also lasted less than 10 years. Does anyone have a picture of just a c855b by itself? I have only seen the A units by themselves.
Baldwin might have been gone by then, but this is the company that tried to put EIGHT engines in one unit, never completed. Probably thankfully.
nariq-01: This is not completely true. Only the C855s and U50Cs were scrapped before their time. The U50, DD35 and DDA35 designs generally lasted at least 15 years. The 15 year date was the measuring stick of the depreciation cycle applied to all heavy pieces of equipment.
Ed
Hey Jim;
Can you settle this for me once and for all: Are they officially DDA40Xs or DD40AXs?? I have seen them listed both ways in the railroad press for years - one has to be the “Right” way, right?
Gary
DDA40X
RWM
RWM is right – here is the UP’s brief history of the class:
Don’t know why the plaqe states the maximum speed as 85 mph. Wherever a train with one of these locos could attain it they ran at 90 mph. Tests with them when new were performed with the Wheel Overspeed Module disabled and the Speed Recorder overspeed switch disabled, the loco got to 106 mph before motor flashover. To quote from the famous Union Pacific advertising gingle of the 1970s “a thousand wheels of freight train doing 90 miles per hour” refered to the DDA40X and a group of SD40-2 locos also geared for 90 mph that typically ran between 2 DDA40X locos on high priority intermodal trains.
This is from the DDA40X Locomotive Service Manual, General Information section:
Gearing…59:18
Ratio…3.277
Full Horsepower Low Speed - Nominal…28.3 MPH
Full Horsepower Max. Speed - Nominal…82 MPH
Minimum Continuous Speed (Full Throttle)…11.3 MPH
Gear Ratio Max. Speed…90 MPH
DP Man
Is there a “maxumun” speed limit for freights set by the FRA? Looks like the DDA40X is just a hude locomotive all together1 I just noteced that the train at the top of TRAINS mag.com is beig pulled bu a Centinial too.
Thanks guys - I knew the “AX” part couldn’t be right… but it seemed to be used as often as the right way: DDA40X. Either way, one thing is for sure: UP Did (Does?) stand for Unlimited Power!
The FRA sets maximum speeds for freight trains based on two things (1) track standards, and (2) Method of Operation.
Track standards is the maintenance quality of the track – whether the track is in gauge, the amount it’s out of cross level, the number of defective ties, the location of defective ties, and so forth. Maximum freight train speed is:
- Excepted track – 10 mph
- Class 1 - 10 mph
- Class 2 - 25 mph
- Class 3 - 40 mph
- Class 4 - 60 mph
- Class 5 - 80 mph
Method of Operation is the system of train control under which a railway is operated. Methods of Operation include Yard Limits, Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), Track Warrant Control (TWC), Direct Traffic Control (DTC), Automatic Cab Signals (ACS), and so forth. Methods of Operation are either Block Systems (the track is permanently subdivided into blocks with fixed limits) or non-block. The FRA sets speed limits as follows for freight:
- Non-block (such as TWC without block signals) - 49 mph
- Block systems (CTC, TWC with automatic block signals, DTC with or without automatic block signals) - 79 mph
- Block systems with Automatic Train Stop, Automatic Train Control, or ACS, 80 mph or greater.
The more restrictive applies. Thus if a line has track maintained to FRA Class 3 and its Method of Operation is TWC-ABS, it is allowed 40 mph for Class 3 and 49 mph for TWC-ABS, and the lesser of the two, 40 mph, is the maximum speed.
RWM
Thanks RWM. So the more sophistacated, well mantained, well kept up track you have the faster you can run on it. I knew that Amtrak had a set limit (79 mph) but I didn’t know if the class 1’s had that or not.
You guys may be following the thread, How Is Horsepower Determined.
A DD40X has 6600hp, is that at the crank shaft or is that the h.p. actually going to the rail head? How would you figure that out? The mechanical energy goes to the altrnator and when it comes out as electrical it goes to the cooling systems blowers, electronic systems, compressers, and motors. So tecnically it isn’t 6600 h.p. moving the wheels right?[%-)]