How much horsepower does a train have

The seats have a suspension system as well. Inside the cab there are two seats: one for the engineer and one for the fireman. The engineer has easy access to all of the locomotive's controls; the fireman has just a radio and a brake control. Also inside the car, right in the nose of the locomotive, is a toilet. The trucks are the complete assembly of two axles with wheels, traction motors, gearing, suspension and brakes. We'll discuss these components later. The head-end power unit consists of another big diesel engine, this time a four-stroke, twin-turbocharged Caterpillar V The engine itself is more powerful than the engine in almost any semi-truck.

It drives a generator that provides volt, 3-phase AC power for the rest of the train. This engine and generator provide over kW of electrical power to the rest of the train, to be used by the electric air conditioners, lights and kitchen facilities.

By using a completely separate engine and generator for these systems, the train can keep the passengers comfortable even if the main engine fails.

It also decreases the load on the main engine. This huge tank in the underbelly of the locomotive holds 2, gallons 8, L of diesel fuel. The fuel tank is compartmentalized, so if any compartment is damaged or starts to leak, pumps can remove the fuel from that compartment. The locomotive operates on a nominal volt electrical system. The locomotive has eight 8-volt batteries , each weighing over pounds kg.

These batteries provide the power needed to start the engine it has a huge starter motor , as well as to run the electronics in the locomotive. Once the main engine is running, an alternator supplies power to the electronics and the batteries. The "" means that each cylinder in this turbocharged, two-stroke, diesel V has a displacement of cubic inches That's more than double the size of most of the biggest gasoline V-8 car engines -- and we're only talking about one of the 12 cylinders in this 3,hp engine.

So why two-stroke? Even though this engine is huge, if it operated on the four-stroke diesel cycle, like most smaller diesel engines do, it would only make about half the power. This is because with the two-stroke cycle, there are twice as many combustion events which produce the power per revolution. It turns out that the diesel two-stoke engine is really much more elegant and efficient than the two-stroke gasoline engine. You might be thinking, if this engine is about 24 times the size of a big V-8 car engine, and uses a two-stroke instead of a four-stroke cycle, why does it only make about 10 times the power?

The reason is that this engine is designed to produce 3, hp continuously, and it lasts for decades. If you continuously ran the engine in your car at full power, you'd be lucky if it lasted a week.

This giant engine is hooked up to an equally impressive generator. It is about 6 feet 1. At peak power, this generator makes enough electricity to power a neighborhood of about 1, houses!

So where does all this power go? It goes into four, massive electric motors located in the trucks. The trucks are the heaviest things on the train -- each one weighs 37, pounds 16, kg. The trucks do several jobs. They support the weight of the locomotive. They provide the propulsion, the suspensions and the braking. As you can imagine, they are tremendous structures. The traction motors provide propulsion power to the wheels.

There is one on each axle. Each motor drives a small gear, which meshes with a larger gear on the axle shaft. This provides the gear reduction that allows the motor to drive the train at speeds of up to mph. The trucks also provide the suspension for the locomotive. The weight of the locomotive rests on a big, round bearing , which allows the trucks to pivot so the train can make a turn.

Below the pivot is a huge leaf spring that rests on a platform. The platform is suspended by four, giant metal links , which connect to the truck assembly. These links allow the locomotive to swing from side to side. The weight of the locomotive rests on the leaf springs , which compress when it passes over a bump.

This isolates the body of the locomotive from the bump. The links allow the trucks to move from side to side with fluctuations in the track. The track is not perfectly straight, and at high speeds, the small variations in the track would make for a rough ride if the trucks could not swing laterally.

The system also keeps the amount of weight on each rail relatively equal, reducing wear on the tracks and wheels. Braking is provided by a mechanism that is similar to a car drum brake. An air-powered piston pushes a pad against the outer surface of the train wheel. In conjunction with the mechanical brakes, the locomotive has dynamic braking. In this mode, each of the four traction motors acts like a generator, using the wheels of the train to apply torque to the motors and generate electrical current.

The torque that the wheels apply to turn the motors slows the train down instead of the motors turning the wheels, the wheels turn the motors.

The current generated up to amps is routed into a giant resistive mesh that turns that current into heat. A cooling fan sucks air through the mesh and blows it out the top of the locomotive -- effectively the world's most powerful hair dryer.

On the rear truck there is also a hand brake -- yes, even trains need hand brakes. Since the brakes are air powered, they can only function while the compressor is running.

If the train has been shut down for a while, there will be no air pressure to keep the brakes engaged. Without a hand brake and the failsafe of an air pressure reservoir, even a slight slope would be enough to get the train rolling because of its immense weight and the very low rolling friction between the wheels and the track.

The hand brake is a crank that pulls a chain. It takes many turns of the crank to tighten the chain. The chain pulls the piston out to apply the brakes. You don't just hop in the cab, turn the key and drive away in a diesel locomotive. Starting a train is a little more complicated than starting your car. Since four-bar crossing gates that completely block the road are roughly twice as expensive as the standard two-bar gates, railroad companies are loath to install them.

And with increasing numbers of municipalities passing no-horn-blowing-after-midnight noise-pollution regulations, even this weapon is being disarmed.

Granted, a train weighing thousands of tons is going to turn even a 4-ton dually pickup into shrapnel, but the front end of a locomotive is not a nice place to be when the blast goes off. The Evolution driver sits in a kind of glass cockpit, behind two large CRT monitors upon which he can call up some 30 different graphic pages of instruments, gauges, graphs and information, with a separate monitor for the helper.

The telemetry will spot a fault and transmit data to the closest service shop, telling the technicians what the problem is. They will alert the crew to stop if the problem is urgent. Toughest duty for a crew is not a zillion-ton coal drag two miles long. No, the worst kind of trip features a bunch of ungated crossings as well as car exchanges that require the drivers to constantly climb in and out of the train.

Not really, says Schell. The only people who can hurt an engine are the railroads, by not doing the proper maintenance.

Still, between each of the alerter resets, humans are in control, and they can lose control. Plus, it's 70 percent similar in it parts to a Chevy Colorado ZR2 pickup. Larger tires should allow drivers to push their vehicles even harder. This is how Pirelli developed them. How much horsepower does a freight locomotive engine have? This particular freight locomotive has 4, horsepower. Remember what I was saying about the tractive effort and horsepower?

How much horsepower does a passenger train have? A passenger locomotive usually has more horsepower than a freight one. How come? You have 5 tons of load needed to be moved, what would you choose? Can we get to the point? Short answer: Between 6,, - way more than a freight train. Can trains run in high winds? October 15,