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Distributed power on the Gotthard

yatton123
 

I've been sent a couple of photos of freights on the Gotthard with the assisting lok mid-train (no banker).
Does anyone know when this practice was discontinued and why ?
Max Wyss
 

There is rarely any freight over the pass anymore. 

Additional locomotives (German term Zwischenloks) were used when the train's weight was beyond the allowed maximum, leading to excessive longitudinal forces. The locomotive was cut in where the forces were still allowed, leaving the rest to the leading locomotive(s). 

With the base tunnel, this practice is no longer needed. 

FWIW, over the Lötschberg, they were using pushers, which stayed on the train until Domodossola, allowing to use regenerative braking of the train, without getting beyond the maximum buffer pressure.

Max.
Guerbetaler
 

Am 05.01.2022 um 20:03 schrieb yatton123 via groups.io:
I've been sent a couple of photos of freights on the Gotthard with the assisting lok mid-train (no banker).
Does anyone know when this practice was discontinued and why ?
EA 3/1993 wrote: Ab Fahrplanwechsel 1993 wird der rangieraufwendige Zwischenlokdienst am Gotthard und Ceneri aufgegeben und durch Schiebedienst mit maximal einer Re 4/4 II/III ersetzt. Die Vielfachsteuer-Kombinationen Re 6/6 / Re 4/4 werden meist Basel—Chiasso durchlaufen . Maximale Anhängelast auf den Rampenstrecken 1300 t für Re 6/6 / Re 4/4-Kombination; 1600 t bei Spitze Re 6/6/Re 4/4 und Schub Re 4/4.

So it ended in May 1993 for Gotthard and Ceneri, because it was too expensive to cut the mid-train helper into the consist. It was then possible to use a banker to incrase maximum load from 1300 t to 1600 t.

In following numbers I found, that for some time two consists Re 460 - 14 container wagons were coupled, where the second Re 460 was MUed over the ep-cable.

Markus, Gürbetal
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