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G'day BW,
I didn't know that there were so many different electrified systems in the UK.
Europe seems to suffer a similar situation.
E Loks dropping pans and coasting into stations where the overhead system changes.
EMUs possessing multiple pantographs to permit separate system operation.
I am waiting until the local library reopens for business before I attempt to grab any of the specific system documents.
My limited home www access would quickly go belly-up if I scrounged any of the reference documents listed by Wikileaks.
I have also started viewing my UK DVDs, attempting to find the particular segment featuring the fourth rail.
I have not encountered that segment as yet, but have squizzed a number of brief glimpses of fourth rail.
I had not taken much notice of those previously, one being at Stanmore (?).
I was slightly aghast at the mention of the Tube utilizing asbestos padding in an attempt to reduce noise.
E GADs, I do hope that such has been removed today.
I am on the asbestos register, having worked Butter Boxes (NSWR 46 class Metro Vickers) which were full of asbestos.
Our initial uniform, other than overalls, was composed mostly of nylon.
I could well imagine it melting if exposed to intense heat.
Yes, some of the DB third rail cars seemed to possess collector shoes in close proximity to driver's cab steps.
No DB end vestibule doors or cab front doors, you are stranded in the car you jump into.
It was mandated early on here for our rat holes (underground) that all emus must have communication doors for evacuation.
Oh, and I hope that before you thump that Pan Down button, that you firstly flick the Main Switch or Reverser to Shut-down.
Otherwise, you will see sparks when the overhead lands on the roof.
25kVA as utilized in Brisbane and Perth is a good system, except for owners of pet dogs who use metal choker leads.
The dog apparently needed to lift it's hind leg as they were clambering over a foot bridge.
ZAP, fried them both.
Another facet of the Brissy 25kVA system that I am slightly unsure of, be the inability to employ regenerative brake.
Hence all E Loks only possess dynamic brake.
This supposedly due to the power grid supply for the rail network.
This might be just an old wives tale, as I envisage a waste of energy with electric traction dynamic brake.
The NSWR prehistoric 1500 vDC system permits regen, though did limit the maximum for multiple locomotives.
Exceed 1950 volts and you risked blowing up the substation.
Them old Butter Boxes were unique in that you could Motor in Regen.
With a light load train, descending and climbing light grades, you could set them up in series-parallel regen.
Then as the train got to the bottom and commenced to climb, they would go out of regen and into power.
Look Mum, NO hands.
No good if you were in a hurry or on heavy grades.
The subsequent Comeng Mitsubishi 85 and 86 class were not capable of this ability.
Them butter boxes were a pain though with the trio of metal head control jumper cables.
Plus, they were that modified that no two units were the same towards the end.
I remember an incident in 1990, working home with a trio of them butter boxes.
We relieved the train at Enfield North Box.
I had to enter the machinery room hunting for something.
Can't hear nada inside there with the Compressors, Motor Gennies and Traction Motor Blowers raging.
I returned to the cab to find me driver gone awl.
Poking me head out the cab, I heard people yelling at me from the tall grass near the signal box.
GET DOWN here, somebody is shooting at us !; my driver and the signalman bother cowering in the grass.
WHAT !
The dash was lit up like an Xmas tree with fault lamps.
HMMM.
After no more "gun" shots were heard, my driver joined me in the cab.
We discovered that the rear unit rear cab had shrapnel on the floor and black scorch marks all over the cab wall and roof.
This all seemingly emanating from near to the battery knife switch box on the wall.
HMMM.
We managed to reset the thing and away we sailed.
Upon arrival at home, I went into the electric foreman to ask questions.
For some inexplicable reason, a high voltage coil had been positioned exposed in the cab of that unit.
WHAT !!!!!!!.
That should not have been done by Enfield, gasped the foreman.
I hate to think had we or any crew been in that cab when the coil exploded.
Yes, a buzz to drive, but MOST uncomfortable, especially during winter.
Heavily modified over the years, and useless once coalies had extended to 3300 tonne.
So, I helped to get rid of them in 1996, being union cab committee, by demanding impossible cab improvements.
Steve.
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