FM P-12-42
The P -12- 42 " Speed Merchant" diesel locomotives from Fairbanks - Morse were in 1957/58 obtained by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH ) and the Boston and Maine Railroad (BM ). They served as motive power for the ACF - Talgo trains of both companies.
History
Competing against the car and air travel, the U.S. railroads were forced to offer faster, more comfortable trains. Here you could see a feasible way in aerodynamically favorable and light strokes.
In order to make the most important for the New Haven Connection New York - Boston a better deal, the new president Patrick McGinnis decided to test various systems. We ordered from the Pullman Train- X with two BLH RP -210, called " Dan'l Webster " of the Budd RDC based on the train " Roger Williams" as well as by American Car and Foundry (ACF ) on the Talgo principle based train " John Quincy Adams " with the supplied Fairbanks - Morse P -12- 42nd At each end of the train one of the locomotives was coupled. Along with the mounted pantographs for the busbar in the New York region of the distance they avoided by time-consuming locomotive changes in the terminal stations.
As McGinnis 1956 moved to Boston & Maine, he made sure that a similar train in 1957 for the relation Portland - Boston, but acquired without the busbar equipment was.
However, the trains are not satisfied in use. Due to its lightweight construction, the trains ran very restless, so the ride comfort suffered. Due to the acquisition of three different new vehicle concepts for the New Haven is also the entertainment proved to be very costly and time-consuming. Then there were the various childhood diseases. These negative phenomena eventually overshadowed the positive overall concepts. The planned higher speeds were not realized, as an adaptation of the signaling and the distances too expensive and the operation would have been too expensive by the diesel consumption. In addition to the Talgo trains locomotives wrong later with the Budd passenger cars from the Pioneer III series.
On the NH- haul trains was eventually replaced by trains with the dual-system locomotives EMD FL9. The locomotives of the NH was scrapped in the late 1960s, the locomotives of the B & M in 1964 retired in 1970 sold to the National Metal Converters, where she served as stationary diesel until 1979.
Design features
The locomotive body was built by following the C -Liner of Fairbanks - Morse. To be able to go faster with the trains through the corners and into the Grand Central Terminal, the height of the locomotive has been reduced. So the focus was about 40 cm lower down and reduces the total overall height by 91 cm. This was possible through a deeper 1.75 m machine floor. To improve the Kurvenläufigkeit you increased the distance of the main suspension springs from 1.52 m to 2.34 m.
The trucks were redesigned based on the standardized AAR design. Between the axles compensation elements were, lying outside the coil springs were fitted with friction shock absorbers. The two drive motors from GE were housed in the front bogie, because in this the axle load remained constant while the rear bogie due to the diesel tanks located there changed the axle load. To facilitate maintenance, the motor bogies had no cross beam at the ends.
The eight-cylinder opposed-piston engine was normally designed for 1,175 kW. Especially for the Leichtgewichtszug the power output was reduced, addition there were some additional power take-off, so that was a power of 895 kW is available for the pure drive. The controller was designed so that the engine was running at a speed of 850 rpm, and was the only speed control of the electrical control. Thus it was possible space, save weight and cost. The power supply of the train with 415 volts and 56.7 Hertz took place via a three-phase busbar.
When traction constantly were both locomotives in operation. In order to avoid synchronization of the alternators, the bus bar was separated into two equal halves, which could be connected together in an emergency. For this, it was necessary that each generator must be dimensioned for the power supply of the whole train.
Locomotives of New Haven were equipped with two pantographs for the power rail to travel by train without changing locomotives up to the Grand Central Terminal can. The customers sat at the inner axles of the bogies. To drive the main generator used was a 600 -volt motor in diesel operation as a generator for ancillaries (blowers, cooling fans, compressors ) was used.
In order to keep the engine compartment from soiling, a higher internal pressure has been built up by a blower. The unit was designed to be sufficiently ansaugte filtered air in order to supply the engine, the air compressor and the fan driving motor can.
At the rear of the locomotives were equipped with a special page slidably mounted clutch. This clutch wore the same busbar, control cables and the brake air line. Compared to the conventional clutches, she was placed at a height of 48 cm above the tracks. By the Kurvenanlenkung side to side of the first axis of the subsequent car was supported.