On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 1:53:50 AM UTC-4, Glen Labah wrote:

> Yes, the Budd RDCs crammed all that into a very compact locker at the 
> end, but that was a much simpler era.  Electronically controlled engines 
> and transmissions require a lot of electronic equipment.  Compare the 
> amount of stuff under the hood of today's automobiles to the era of the 
> RDC for a good comparison of all the new control equipment for engines 
> and transmissions today.

Well, by way of comparison, my four cylinder car is more comfortable and more
powerful than my prior 6 cylinder car, yet the motor and accessories fits in a
much smaller space under the hood.  I can't help but suspect that electronics
and modern 
equipment is smaller than that of years past.  For instance, in cars, a/c used
to require an 8 cylinder engine, but today run fine off of a 4 cylinder.

I suspect that if a new Budd RDC were to designed today, with the same
performance specs, the propulsion and auxillary equipment would take up less
room, and the unit would be more fuel efficient.



> 
> 
> 
> Then we get into things like HEP equipment.  The Colorado Railcar DMUs 
> 
> had a separate engine for providing HEP.  This is also how the Danish 
> 
> Flexliner did it.  There aren't too many 480 volt 3 phase inverters that 
> 
> are large enough for HEP that run from the 72 volt standard locomotive 
> 
> battery voltage, and in the case of the Colorado Railcar DMUs the 
> 
> engines weren't even available with a 72 volt electrical system.  They 
> 
> had to use a 24 volt DC starting battery system for the main engines, so 
> 
> the amount of power available off of an inverter from the battery system 
> 
> was even more limited.  Really, the separate 480 volt HEP generator made 
> 
> a lot of sense, but it also meant more controls to find somewhere to put.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Please note this e-mail address is a pit of spam due to e-mail address
> 
> harvesters on Usenet. Response time to e-mail sent here is slow.

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