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GO Transit Fleet Equipment and other

Willybru21 said:
I remember being on a 6 car train being pulled by a MP54 with both prime movers on, ended up reaching Malton just under 5 minutes early as the crew was pushing it to the max
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The acceleration of the MP54's is impressive. Found this railfan video of two MP54's hooked up hauling 12 coaches. Look how fast it takes off from the station. Dare I say, almost on par with an electric locomotive.
 
Bojaxs said:
The acceleration of the MP54's is impressive. Found this railfan video of two MP54's hooked up hauling 12 coaches. Look how fast it takes off from the station. Dare I say, almost on par with an electric locomotive.
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Honestly speaking why instead of getting electric locos they develop power cars for the bi levels and bookend the consists with cab cars. Not to mention they can kill 2 birds by making some diesel power pack cars for the non electric lines. Quick way to getting multiple units without the hassle of selling off their beloved bilevels
 
cplchanb said:
Honestly speaking why instead of getting electric locos they develop power cars for the bi levels and bookend the consists with cab cars. Not to mention they can kill 2 birds by making some diesel power pack cars for the non electric lines. Quick way to getting multiple units without the hassle of selling off their beloved bilevels
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Tractive effort. Because of its weight, a loco can put out way more force on the rail than any power car (or pair of power cars) could. This would negatively affect the acceleration of the train as it gets away from a stop, or up a grade.

That said, I don't think it's an entirely crazy idea - look at NJT who is supposed to be getting 54 of them, although the progress on the development of their cars has been somewhat glacial. There also becomes an issue of cost - we're now getting into bespoke equipment with packaging issues, and thus prolonged development times and high costs. And the fact that they'd need several of them per train.

Dan
 
Bojaxs said:
The acceleration of the MP54's is impressive. Found this railfan video of two MP54's hooked up hauling 12 coaches. Look how fast it takes off from the station. Dare I say, almost on par with an electric locomotive.
Click to expand...
Two MP54s put out 10800 hp, which is more than the 8500 hp an electric locomotive puts out. They also have twice as many powered axles, with both scenarios having about the same weight per axle.

So yeah two MP54s should be able to outperform an electric locomotive. But it's hardly an economical way of accomplishing that. And even then I doubt they would outperform an EMU off the line, since an EMU can have far more powered axles (more than enough to outweigh the lower tractive effort per axle).
 
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reaperexpress said:
Two MP54s put out 10800 hp, which is more than the 8500 hp an electric locomotive puts out. They also have twice as many powered axles, with both scenarios having about the same weight per axle.

So yeah two MP54s should be able to outperform an electric locomotive. But it's hardly an economical way of accomplishing that. And even then I doubt they would outperform an EMU off the line, since an EMU can have far more powered axles (more than enough to outweigh the lower tractive effort per axle).
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Nitpick: Two MP54s would put out far less than 10,800hp to the rail, as you have to account for transmission losses, HEP, onboard power requirements, etc.

The rule of thumb is that it takes the equivalent of about 1,200hp to provide the HEP and onboard power (for a GO train - others will vary), and transmission efficiency is approximately 90%.

And weight per axle? That's very variable, but most North American electric locos built thus far are considerably lighter than diesels. It remains to be seen if the electric units that GO ends up getting will be ballasted to the same degree as the diesels - but they could do that if they so chose.

Dan
 
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