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Path: utzoo!dciem!ntt
From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: Diesels, MU, and double-heading steam locos
Message-ID: <585@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Dec-83 10:47:41 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.585
Posted: Fri Dec 23 10:47:41 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Dec-83 11:26:52 EST
References: <156@tymix.UUCP>
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 19

I'd like to point out a couple of diesels that are not diesel-electric.

Budd RDCs need no introduction around here, but I don't know about you, so
I'll say that they are multiple-unit railcars, which are widely used in
Canada (usually in sets of from 1 to 3) on routes that can't support a
locomotive-hauled passenger train (financially, I mean), but are not yet
ready to be abandoned.  And RDCs are diesel-hydraulic, not diesel-electric.
(I don't know exactly how the transmission works, though; the driver's control
simply has a linear sequence of positions, high being used from rest up to
full speed, and no shifting is perceived as in a car.)

On British Rail, there are also a lot of multiple-unit trains on minor
passenger routes, but in some parts of the country these are diesel-mechanical.
Here the gear shifting is very noticeable; the motor seems to spend as long
slowing down during the shifts from 1st to 2nd and from 2nd to 3rd as it does
accelerating the train in 1st and 2nd!  I presume the reason BR has these units
is that they were cheap to build.

Mark Brader, NTT Systems Inc., Toronto