Elvas Tower: Some possible issues with electric traction - Elvas Tower

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Some possible issues with electric traction Rate Topic: -----

#1 User is offline   darwins 

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Posted 14 May 2019 - 09:46 AM

I have been trying to write an OR file for an old, third rail electric train, fitted with vacuum brakes.

Two issues encountered:


(1) OR by default seems to assume that any electric traction starts with "pantograph lowered"

This is regardless of setting PantographToggle1 ( 0 1 0 ) or PantographToggle1 ( 0 1 1 )

This is something of an irritation for third rail traction - as so long as it is on an electrified section the shoe would normally be in contact with the rail.

There seems to be an issue of OR having some controls by default - bell, lamps, wipers, pantograph - even if these are not present in the eng file (because they were not found on the prototype!)



(2) This is an observation, though I don't know if it is needed by any prototype. Maybe by some modern South African emu:

For an air braked train:

DoesBrakeCutPower( 1 )
BrakeCutsPowerAtBrakeCylinderPressure( 15 )

works fine.

For a vacuum braked train:

DoesBrakeCutPower( 1 )
BrakeCutsPowerAtBrakeCylinderPressure( 15inHg )

Results in the train has no power even when the brake pipe is fully charged to 21inHg.

#2 User is offline   Coolhand101 

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Posted 22 May 2019 - 06:14 AM

I'm 99% certain the former features are hard-coded and cannot be adjusted.

With the latter, the brakes cut power parameters do not work correctly for vacuum brake trains, as I found out a couple of years ago . The brake cylinder parameter is really suited for modern stock where this actually applies when there is no train pipe on the train. Older air-brake and vacuum stock have always used the brake/train pipe to cut the power below a certain value via a cut-off governor.

What we really need is a "BrakeCutsPowerAtBrakePipePressure( * )" parameter which will cater for vacuum and older air brake trains!

Thanks

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