Future and past meeting outside the shed at Wiri on Friday:
Testing the coupling system between the our first EMU and KR’s diesel locos just in case the new trains ever need to be moved by an old one. When we have more EMUs this will be a much more unlikely possibility as other EMUs will be the first choice for any haulage. But just in case the whole power system was to go down for some reason all of the new trains are equipped with adapters stored cleverly on the side of the motorcars beneath the cab to make connection to locos an option:
It all seemed to work OK:
Then they went for a spin:
Looking good in the sun! A sight we’ll soon be used to seeing all over Auckland:
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Seemed appropriate that they used a MAXX-liveried loco (albeit without a logo) to test this. 🙂
Also it looks like the coupler is in two parts – one that attaches to the EMU coupler, along with a second adapter that slots into it, with either a chopper or automatic coupler – is this correct?
Yes two parts.
Qué onda, esse? Don’t you know I’m loco?
Great, now how about we use one of these to haul the thing down to Britomart for everyone to have a good look at it?
Great idea. Let’s have it in Britomart over several weekends, at a time in the schedule when it’s not being used.
Even better would have been to use it to collect the crowds from Eden Park on Saturday…
I would expect the EMU’s first journeys around the network would be Loco hauled, to test all the clearances, platforms, sidings and the like
But if all the power went out, all the signalling would be out, so they couldn’t be moved anyway, amirite?
Not my area, but they are totally separate systems so it is possible that the power could be down but not the signals.
The overhead power may need to be turned off if the is a breakage with any of the overhead equipment.
If main power did fail to both the wires and the signals there are two options Train Control can play
1) All stop and be stranded
2) (if diesels were to come out and start hauling dead EMU’s):”Stop and Proceed” – pull up to next signal, stop then proceed at low speed on visual/radio cue into the block but make sure you can stop at a certain length before running into back of the train ahead of you. I remember this happening once when a power failure killed the signals from Manurewa to Papakura in a stormy rush hour evening. My train pulled up to each blacked out signal, stopped then proceeded on a cue the drivers are trained for. It was slow but we got home in one piece
I thought we were running steam trains! 😉 http://bythemotorway.tumblr.com/post/39353992245/diesel-boston-road-grafton-past-and-future
We are! A steam train did in fact go smoking past our house on Sunday. Gave us quite a fright for a sec as we thought the neighbours house was on fire.
Heh, being a bit of a foamer I tend to run to the window on a Sunday morning when I hear that lonesome whistle blow. Sad I know, but in my defence I spent my childhood living next to a station with many happy hours on the footplates of those monsters.
Those trains look so nice, especially compared to Wellington’s. think I’m going to have make a trip over in April/May to see them in action