ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Railroad Practices

Could be these -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leclanch%C3%A9_cell

We had lots of them in the school lab back in the fifties.

Its just a giant zinc-carbon cell with the ability to change out the electrolyte and the zinc rod.

Ian;

As far as I have seen in where I am in Canada the LED signals are only on new crossings (usually part of street widening's) or as part of a government supported safety upgrades to existing crossings

It is not inexpensive to upgrade to LED either, I was looking at Transport Canada's web site before posting here, and they are giving a grant for an average of $5000 per crossing as their share (80%) of Canadian Government supported safety upgrades to LED heads.

At that price I don't think the Canadian or US railways can afford on their own to change all the controlled crossings to more energy efficient heads for many years.

MB,

All good points. Also don't forget you don't have to upgrade all at once, they can upgrade the signals as the bulbs burn out. That's what they've been doing on crossings around here for a little while. Only thing is the bulbs seem to last forever...

So it might make sense for Amtrak that carries people around on trains, but on the freight-lines it might not make sense except for energy usage in the middle of nowhere, where solar could also come in handy.

Ian A.

This seems as good a place as any to add a link to some rail information from fellow Brit Sam Hallas:

http://www.samhallas.co.uk/telecomms.htm

Under the "Railway telecoms" section there is some interesting information about various phone and signaling systems from the past. Also, go to the "Document repository" section and you can find some more railway telecom stuff plus some articles about level (grade) crossings.

Trainwire,

My grandfather (GF) was an electrician for the railroad way back in 1920 something. ( I believe) He started out as a carpenter for the railroad when the railroad asked for some volunteers to become electricians. My GF said, sure why not, so poof! he became an electrician. He taped up his lineman pliers with friction tape and went to work. Electricity was new for the railroad, they started to use electrical signals to let engineers to know if it was safe to travel down the track. My GF had to go from station to station on a handcar and change light bulbs. My dad also worked for the RR as did a bunch of my uncles.