| Posted by Tom on November 7, 2013 | |
Nice shot, Dave. This kind of picture is something that, as a newbie railfan, I am curious about. I wish someone would take the time to go over what some of the more important and more-used pieces are, i.e. the yellow button and items around it, the piece in the round recessed area in front..... You name it, I am curious and I bet many others also. Thanks
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Lots of interesting stuff. It really brings home the fact that being an engineer is far more complicated than the general populace knows. The bottom line is an engineer needs to know his (or her) territory and hope the yard has made up the train for good handling.
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| Posted by NYC Man on November 8, 2013 | |
The piece in the rounded depression is a reverser. Think of it as a key to a locomotive.
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| Posted by on November 8, 2013 | |
piece in the middle is the reverser for which way you want the loco to go( kind of like a gear selector for a car). Yellow looks like the bell or sander.
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Tom, if I am not mistaken, the yellow button would be the bell, the knob above it the sand, and the switch above it is the EOT device. The topmost lever is the horn. To the right of those is the dynamic lever up top, then the throttle, then the reverser, whose key is sitting in the cupholder, I believe.
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I wonder what on earth happened to 'real' speedometers, I for one would not trust a digital one! An dyes what is that thing in the recess on the front desk? It looks like a screwdriver but could it be the control for the sanding equipment, as it seems to be multi directional ! Great image!
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Ok now that I've had a second look and Yes that is the Master Key as its known in the UK. and it fits into the bottom, lever position you can see the squire hole in which it fits, I should have know this partly from train sim and because I've driven a real loco!.....
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| Posted by Andrew on November 9, 2013 | |
What is the "EOT Device"? We could do with a glossary of acronyms, please, for us who have not been on a loco driving course
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The EOT device is End Of Train device and monsters the air pressure of the last car of a freight train, for the brakes you can try if I'm allowed to give a link to the Wabtec site? http://www.wabtec.com/main/product.asp?product_id=52 (is this allowed?) It gives infmation on the devices. There is also a Head of train device !
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There is a spelling mistake in my last comment! It should say monitors the air pressure not monsters . Sorry ! Distracted by watching Dr Who on DVD !!
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I prefer the traditional desktop controls of a locomotive. I have more leg room and my knee doesn't hit the bottom of the desk as much. The lever in the cup holder is the reverser (think of it as a gear on your vehicle, the lever sticking out on the bottom is the bell and the lever next to the radio is the horn. But GEVO's are my favorite loco's because they have great heating and cooling and the smoothest ride ever.
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Tom, the yellow button is the alterter acknowledge. If no buttons are pushed, horn blown, brakes set, etc a timer will go off and a warning will flash on the screen. Instead of operating the controls to reset the timer you can press that button to acknowledge that you're still alive. If for some reason you are unresponsive due to medical emergency, sleep deprivation, etc, failure to respond to the alterter will put the train in a "penalty application" stopping the train. Above the yellow button is the bell. The red cover is for an EOT initiated emergency switch allowing the engineer to apply the emergency brakes from the rear of the train. Above that is the horn. Below the yellow button is the sand button. Below that (not pictured) is the lead truck sanders for higher speeds when it is wasteful to sand on all axles. To the right starting at the top is the Dynamic brake (electronic brake that changes the way the electricity runs through the tranction motors causing a retarding effect), Throttle, and below that is the reverser (handle removed and sitting in cup holder). Below that is the Jog button. Not entirely sure of its function but it relates to the batteries. To the right of that starting from upper left side of breaker panel is the Engine run, Generator field, and Control circuit breakers. Next to them can be any number of other features including window heaters, emergency light reset (resets the obnoxiously bright red light that comes on in emergency), Auto start/stop time reset (allowing more time before the locomotive can shut itself down), rail cleaner (blows air in front of lead axle to clean the rail. Useless in my experience), and Gauge lights. The knob below them is the dimmer for the gauge lights. On the screens you have the instrumentation across the top. The left screen looks like it is on the locomotive monitor screen (not 100% on that). The right screen is on the air brake setup screen. You can see the pressure is set at 90 lbs, automatic brake (train brake) is "cut in", and the independent brake (engine only) is set on "lead". Hope this answers some questions for you.
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| Posted by Tom on November 12, 2013 | |
Thanks to all of you for the helpful and informative comments. I continue to learn, thank heavens !!
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Sound like Antony must drive these things! So the alerter acknowledge, is similar to the AWS (Automatic Warning System) equipment in british locomotives, which a driver must press when the train passed a signal which is set to caution, not sure now if its a single yellow or a double yellow! But again if not pushed within a few seconds it will apply the brakes and stop the train, there is additionally a foot rest with a pressure switch in it that will (hopefully) also stop the train, if the driver failed to keep foot pressure on it. This equipment is constantly being updated. With the addition of train length monitors. Driver sets the number of vehicles at the start of the journey, and can press the switch if the train enters a speed restriction , it will count down till the last car has left the restriction and a buzzer (or bell) will sound to let him know that his train has passed the restriction.
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| Posted by Tom on November 12, 2013 | |
Hey, I am impressed with all the helpful replies. I was sure hoping someone would help those of us who know little but want to know more. Very helpful and a pleasure to see the cooperation.
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I love the layout of the GEVO cabs. They are well configured, designed and very spacious, the computer system is also nice, easy to navigate and the new interface is well organized. The newer SD70ACe cabs aren't too bad either, I'm not a fan at all of the desktop controls, virtually no leg room and it's hard to manuever around without bumping your knee on the bottom of the desk.
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The yellow button is the SNOOZE button ;)
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