Baureihe 101

[iCe]

http://www.railpictures.net/images/1/101-047-9.jpg.30834.thumb (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=32948)

First off, thanks to Peter for that great photo.

This locomotive is becoming the new "workhorse" of the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), much like the P42DC for Amtrak.

Just wanted to point out that this "little" locomotive, weighing only 87 t, has 8700 horsepower! Its top speed is 220 km/h. Remember, this is not for high-speed trains (there's the ICE for that). It's just a normal locomotive for everyday inter-city trains. I just want to know why the ALP46, ASEA AEM-7, or any other locomotive in North America can't do this. Also, why doens't Amtrak buy this loco? It seems like the perfect replacement for older locomotives in the Northeast Corridor!

[E.M. Bell]

87 tons and 8700 HP..I bet the engineers hate those things..how do you keep the many horses coupled to rail with no OD weight??

[petertenthije]

This train is electric, I don't believe all track in the US is electric. Even if it is, it may be a different kind of electric track. There are variations in DC, AC, voltages etc.

The German railways have very high power, more so than most other (European) railways. This is in part to feed the ICEs which use a lot of power, but of course the normal trains use the same power.

[iCe]

This train is electric, I don't believe all track in the US is electric. Even if it is, it may be a different kind of electric track. There are variations in DC, AC, voltages etc.


That's why I specified in the Northeast Corridor. The system there seems to be the same/or similar to Germany's. I know because they were doing test runs of the ICE 1 on those tracks. :D In the end, they chose the Acela, but that's another story.

[petertenthije]

The German class 101 trains have the following specs:
15kV, 17Hz AC
Source (http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/list/germany/germany_db_rt.html)

The Acela has the following specs:
25kV, 60Hz AC
12kV, 60Hz AC
12kV, 25Hz AC
source (http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/acela.html)

It would appear that kV wise the train can be used but I am not sure if the same applies to the Hz. I am no technical expert, let alone an expert in English technical terms. I therefore may be completely wrong.

If I am, my apologies. At least you have another 2 nice bookmarks! :lol:

In case it is raining on your side of the pond, you may like this (http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/models/model-acela.html) to waste a few hours.

[iCe]

Hmmm, I don't know about this either.

Never the less, it would be cool to see such efficient locomotive here in North America.

Oh, and acutally it's SNOWING here! :(
I saw that page before, I was almost going to build it, but then I saw how complicated it looked, so I didn't bother. :lol:

[bitburger]

I've uploaded a new pic from a 101 (yeah brandnew, took it yesterday) pulling an EuroCity...too bad i only catch the dirty ones.
But have a look yourself

http://207.44.222.57/images/images2/2/2003-11-23-kahbf_br101_ec3-002.jpg.47321.thumb

Click here (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=40092) to view the picture full-size.

Hope to catch a cleaner one soon ;)

[iCe]

I still think they should design one for North America! :D