I know we have some railroad buffs amongst our number, so I snapped a few pics when I went by the station in Norwich a while ago.




This station has small diesel-powered local trains coming in from the local (non-electrified) branch line, and the "InterCity" main-line services from further afield.

Power on these lines is 25kV AC.

I only snapped a few quick shots of whatever happened to be there at the time, but if anyone wants them I'll e-mail the ZIP file (about 1.1MB)



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-06-2002).]

Paul,

Great shots!!! Post more pics and information!!!

Send me the images, but if the message gets bounced as 550 [user unknown], let me know with a message in this thread.

One thing I can blab about is Railroad stuff!

TIA!

Scott S.E.T.

Scott,

i already tried sending the file to you, as I had a feeling you'd be interested!

I've tried both your soca.com and pacbell.net e-mails and keep getting it bounced with "Disk quota exceeded."

gosh i miss europe...

<QUOTE>
I already tried sending the file to you, as I had a feeling you'd be interested!

I've tried both your soca.com and pacbell.net e-mails and keep getting it bounced with "Disk quota exceeded."
<QUOTE>

Well, that explains why I haven't been bombarded with Spam, and also why I haven't heard from anyone for Eons

My ISP's Tech Gurus [Net Geeks] must be training Chimpanzees to take over administration! Got that impression the last few times I talked with them, as they found no problems on their end.
They host the mail server [E-Mail Robot] which is denying access and bouncing stuff, so I guess it's my fault <sarcasm>!

Before this happened, I could receive attached stuff upto 3MB per message. Now, >1 KB is bounced!

Anyone in the Forum have an idea why this took place - such as maybe some rampant script[s] stuck in the allocated space for my E-Mail on the mail server [or any other situations causing this]???

Went from 200 + messages a day to 10 in 2 days within a 24 hour period! And without tweaking any settings either!

Go ahead and send the images to me via this address:

dtbigred@pacbell.net

I'll have to use this address for incoming mail for awhile.

Scott S.E.T.

Scott,

Even a short message with no file attachment was being bounced from both addresses.

I've sent the file to your new e-mail address -- No return as yet, so fingers crossed!

Happi,
A familiar sentiment, as I miss a lot about America.

Which parts of Europe have you visited? By the way, our rail network is definitely not a glowing example of efficiency and safety at the moment.

Scott,

BTW,
The notifications that you should get when someone replies to your topics are getting bounced back too. You'd have to change the email address in your profile to fix that (unless they fix your email)

Bill

Small text messages are bounced too!?!?!? Geez, what would happen if I depended on their E-Mail system for _ALL_ my work related items! I would be looking through the Classified ads right now!

I'm really gonna do some major B****ING now! [rhymes with DITCHING or HITCHING].

Bill,

I'll setup my profile with the other address, then when things go back to normal I'll re-edit the profile again.

Need to send out Cc'ed message to my contacts to see what has been lost in the Chimpanzee controlled E-Mail Black Hole. If anyone here has tried sending me anything, let me know in this thread or try forwarding it to the address I listed in this thread and in the other topic I started.

[Sorry, still venting! My Asbestos Keyboard cools down really fast!]

Scott S.E.T.

Pauluk,

You can always tell of a true railroad person, when they stop to listen to the whistle as the train goes by the crossing. My grandfather started working for the railroad as a carpenter, then he turn to that new fangled thing called "electricity". They needed some people to work on the signals, so he grabbed a pair of lineman pliers, wrapped the with friction tape, and started to repair siganls all up and down the main line.
I think I still have his original lineman pliers and an old lock from his tool box.

Caper

Paul-- Is the 25kV rail service single phase 50Hz?

Harold,
When I've been in America I kind of like having to stop at a grade crossing for a train. I'd seen all the old movies and TV shows with the big "X" signs, red lights and the bell, but just pulling up and hearing that bell going the first time I got "lucky" was great, as it just has such a completely different feel to the system over here.

I haven't ridden that many trains in the U.S., but when I went out to Nebraska I decided to go Amtrak to see some more scenery, so I rode New York to Chicago to Omaha. Wonderful experience! (I just had to try the NYC Subway while I was there as well!)

Scott,
Yes, it's 25kV 1-ph 50Hz with return path via the running rails. This is the standard electric system for the longer-distance (by U.K. standards) services across the country. The network takes power from our "National Grid" distribution network.

The other main system used is 3rd rail DC at about 750V (I think there are still some sections at 660V). 3rd rail is used throughout what used to be the Southern Region of British Railways, which covers London down to the South Coast (only about 50 miles). The northern section of that region is very much commuter country with frequent stops.

There used to be some other standard systems in urban areas, such as 1500V DC overhead, but they've all been phased out now. The only other systems are for city transit networks, such as the London Underground (subway). That uses 630V DC with 3rd and 4th rails.

Paul,

I think the Tyne and Wear Metro and Dublin use 1500V DC and Manchester Metro 750V DC overhead – I’m not too sure about Sheffield. Traditional tramway (trolley) systems such as Blackpool, Manx Electric and Snaefell Mountain Railways plus Llandudno, Crich, and Seaton use 550V DC.

Interesting that London Underground (4 rail) and old British Rail (3 rail) use different voltages of 660V and 750V respectively, especially as they share the same tracks in numerous place, i.e at Richmond and Wimbledon on the District and on the Bakerloo and Metropolitan sections. Any idea how they do that – can the Underground stock take the extra voltage or is the fourth rail energized to 90V above ground where the two systems mix?

I have to confess that I haven't really followed the modern metro developments of recent years. It's been a while since I read the details on this, but I think the 1500V DC overhead systems were phased out on British Railways lines by the 1970s or thereabouts, but they may well have been re-introduced on some of the newer mass-transit systems.

I guess I should've mentioned the old "tram" (U.S.=trolley) systems, but it slipped my mind. I've been on the Blackpool trams and the line down in Seaton, Devon.

They were gone before I was born, but it's also worth mentioning the "trolley buses." They had electric traction but ran on normal rubber tires on the road to give greater manueuverability. Pick-up was by two overhead arms.

I've not been able to find a definitive answer on the 660 vs. 750V issue. I've seen older books which quote 660V for the whole of the old Southern Railways area. I'm wondering whether increased traffic meant that at some point they decided to raise the supply to a nominal 750V to allow for greater voltage drop and just regulate it down on-board. I've tried a few web searches, but not found any answer to this.

On the Underground, again I'd like to get a definitive explanation of the development, but from what I've been able to piece together, it seems that most of the network now runs with +420V on the 3rd (outer) rail and -210V on the 4th (central) rail to make up 630V nominal.

Where tracks are shared with 3rd-rail only trains, they apparently revert to full positive supply on the 3rd rail and bond the 4th rail to the running rails and ground.

Some parts of the Underground used other methods years ago. The Central line originally had just a central 3rd conductor rail with return via the running rails. I think it was converted to 3rd/4th rails during the 1950s, if I recall correctly.

One of the other Yerkes tube lines (Bakerloo I think) originally reversed the polarity on the rails due to leakage to the tunnel walls, but was later changed to the normal arrangement.

I'm not even sure if the split 420/210 supply has a solid ground on it or whether it might be resistance grounded. It seems to be remarkably difficult to get the full technical details anywhere.