lenaitch
Senior Member
If they have to turn any equipment, the wye at White River is very short.
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- Thread starter ehlow
- Start date
Bordercollie
Senior Member
One locomotive on each end? Are the RDC's compatible to be run as can cars? But that would defeat the purpose of using locomotive hauled equipment.
roger1818
Senior Member
Or just wye the locomotive, if they only want one.
There will be plenty of excess HEP equipment, so I don't see the need. VIA may just be wanting to retire the RDCs, instead of sending them out for another round of refurbishment. There is a cost advantage to standardizing equipment.
dowlingm
Senior Member
Is there any chance 6250 and 6251 turn up in the Gaspé? There was a rumour that was the next stop of the AllEarth Vermont passenger RDCs.
micheal_can
Senior Member
If they have 2 engines, facing opposite of each other, they could do what they do in Halifax.
lenaitch
Senior Member
Two units seems like a lot for such a small consist, unless they want redundancy for isolated travel but, yes, they could just turn the power.
dowlingm
Senior Member
IIRC they had two back to back F40s leading either Jonquiere or Senneterre a while back when the wye was broken.
Could an RDC be used as a driving cab if all coaches between it and the power were push pull enabled?
Urban Sky
Senior Member
How would an RDC have been designed with the capability to remote-control locomotives built 30 years later?
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nfitz
Superstar
They need to buy new RDCs. I don't think comparability with whatever they get in the 2060s is important right now.
dowlingm
Senior Member
What is the age difference between a Metroliner cab and its power while leading an Amtrak Regional consist, or an early series GO cab and an MP40-T4AC?
In any case, “no”, assuming you are correct in your answer, would have been perfectly satisfactory.
micheal_can
Senior Member
For a consist of ~2 coaches and a baggage car, you're right. However, it is a simple solution and gives redundancy.There is a wye in both places if they wanted to only run one engine.
Considering no one makes them anymore, the better option is to run what they can till the new LDF arrives.
Urban Sky
Senior Member
I might have focused on the wrong explanation: the entire purpose of cab cars is to remote-control a locomotive (which quite probably comes from a different manufacturer), whereas the entire purpose of multiple units is to run in tandem with multiple units of the same model (and thus manufacturer).
Also, the RDCs are self-propelled and thus not intended to run (and especially: lead) with their motors switched off, but that would be a requirement, as you can’t expect them to operate in sync with locomotives which have much larger motors…
crs1026
Superstar
Unless VIA did something fancy with the last refurb of its remaining RDC equipment, RDC MU cables and controls are not compatible with standard locomotive MU wiring and hoses. RDC brake controls are not compatible with brakes on a shoving locomotive either. And RDCs do not draw HEP power from other cars - the diesel propulsion for each car also provides HEP to that car.
Demotored RDC’s also require mods to the suspension to compensate for the loss of weight from removal of motors, transmissions, and fuel tanks - otherwise they ride like WWIi Corvettes in a heavy sea.
- Paul
Demotored RDC’s also require mods to the suspension to compensate for the loss of weight from removal of motors, transmissions, and fuel tanks - otherwise they ride like WWIi Corvettes in a heavy sea.
- Paul
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smallspy
Senior Member
To settle this....
RDCs when built were equipped with a 4-notch throttle. This was incompatible with the 8-notch throttle that was in common use on almost every single other locomotive in North America, and so, as Urban Sky correctly points out, they were designed from the outset as not able to MU with locos.
Fast forward many decades however, and the technology has progressed to the point where the RDCs that are running today - after being very heavily rebuilt - have a computerized control system that, while still using the old 4-notch throttle, is able to be communicated with and through an industry standard 27-pin MU connector (although the connector is set up differently than the standard AAR setup for a variety of different reasons). They also now use the standard 4/0 HEP connectors, and the RDC-4 has a separate engine onboard to provide HEP to the adjoining units if need be.
There's still a catch though. The driveline - the various gearboxes and the right-angle drive - of an RDC is not designed to be towed. Any time one gets towed by other equipment, at the very least the driveshaft needs to be disconnected, and at worst may need to be removed. The right-angle drive, which lives on the drive axle, needs to have regular inspections in this situation. In an interim measure this is workable, but in the long-run if they are to be towed then those components need to be removed.
Dan
RDCs when built were equipped with a 4-notch throttle. This was incompatible with the 8-notch throttle that was in common use on almost every single other locomotive in North America, and so, as Urban Sky correctly points out, they were designed from the outset as not able to MU with locos.
Fast forward many decades however, and the technology has progressed to the point where the RDCs that are running today - after being very heavily rebuilt - have a computerized control system that, while still using the old 4-notch throttle, is able to be communicated with and through an industry standard 27-pin MU connector (although the connector is set up differently than the standard AAR setup for a variety of different reasons). They also now use the standard 4/0 HEP connectors, and the RDC-4 has a separate engine onboard to provide HEP to the adjoining units if need be.
There's still a catch though. The driveline - the various gearboxes and the right-angle drive - of an RDC is not designed to be towed. Any time one gets towed by other equipment, at the very least the driveshaft needs to be disconnected, and at worst may need to be removed. The right-angle drive, which lives on the drive axle, needs to have regular inspections in this situation. In an interim measure this is workable, but in the long-run if they are to be towed then those components need to be removed.
Dan
lenaitch
Senior Member
^^Also, no doubt, towing lot of extra weight unless removed, then you get into the ride issue as previously mentioned.