If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

New power units

Discussion in 'Diesel & Electric Traction' started by olly5764, Aug 10, 2017.

  1. goldfish

    goldfish Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2009
    Messages:
    14,900
    Likes Received:
    12,241
    I expect the supply of parts will significantly outlast the sufficient number of skilled enthusiasts able to maintain them…

    Simon
     
  2. olly5764

    olly5764 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2006
    Messages:
    1,887
    Likes Received:
    1,015
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Engineer
    Location:
    Normally in a brake van somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    You are basing that statement on...... ?
     
  3. olly5764

    olly5764 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2006
    Messages:
    1,887
    Likes Received:
    1,015
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Engineer
    Location:
    Normally in a brake van somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Agreed. Subcomponents, depending on the part required, are actually not that hard to make.
     
  4. ssk2400

    ssk2400 New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2010
    Messages:
    164
    Likes Received:
    28
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    electrical engineer
    Location:
    South cumbria
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I work on some pretty archaic electronice control equipment and generators up to 2Mw and to be honest it's easy enough and modern electronics are so cheap to install on old equipment
     
  5. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2015
    Messages:
    9,185
    Likes Received:
    7,226
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Thorn in my managers side
    Location:
    72
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Until about 1997 I was involved as a volunteer on Balmoral

    In those days she had the original engines - see http://rowifi.com/ndc/mv-balmoral.html

    Clearly as 30's designed 2 stroke coaster diesels intended to be operated by untrained staff they were very different to even the most basic main line loco power plants. What also helped was that they were 'built up' rather than a single large casting. The Chief seemed to be able to get most things made/fixed however what killed them in the end was cracking in the bed plate - which may have existed from the start. The resultant rebuild, if it could have been done in the UK would have taken a year with the ship out of service for a complete season.
     
  6. Phil-d259

    Phil-d259 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2015
    Messages:
    703
    Likes Received:
    736
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    It depends....

    If the control cards are relatively basic and predominantly use discrete complements (i.e. individual resistors, transistors, diodes, relays, etc.) then it should still be possible to repair / make copies when needed.

    However its a different story if the cards contain microprocessors or other advanced Integrated Circuit chips - as you say with the speed computing technology has advanced over recent decades the older stuff is quite simply not produced any more*

    * One of the big driving forces behind the likes of the "WestLock" and "SmartLock" signalling interlockings (both of which can still talk to BR design SSI modules trackside) was the increasing difficulty in obtaining computer chips slow enough to put into the old BR designed SSI interlocking modules. Today the only source of such chips are indeed from other BR SSI modules that have been removed and re-programmed such is the advances in processor speed and architecture.
     
  7. Hirn

    Hirn Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2015
    Messages:
    462
    Likes Received:
    295
    Gender:
    Male
    Very interested by the apparent longevity of the chips: I had long wondered what their life might be .
    One reason for adopting such a system was the vast step they enabled in reliability. And once programmed
    - in unforgiving machine code - they were either quite right or clearly and self evidently wrong.
    And I think you have explained why someone had had a safety concern raised with them over where
    they could get spares and repairs for their miniature electric staffs for extensive single line working.
    The person who raised it must have had to do with early computer interlocking and extended the problem
    back a few generations to early electromechanical kit of no sort of microcircuitry whatsoever - probably
    it running on DC led them to, or confirmed them in, their notions.

    Might you have any further details of the critical bits in the SSI Modules and especially roughly when the
    supply of compatible chips dried up?









    s
     
  8. The Green Howards

    The Green Howards Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Feb 20, 2016
    Messages:
    14,116
    Likes Received:
    7,639
    Occupation:
    Layabout
    Location:
    Naughty step
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Indeed - I'd be happy to offer up bits of LS TTL and CMOS that I might have (and will never use now) to preservationists.
     
  9. Grashopper

    Grashopper Member

    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2011
    Messages:
    274
    Likes Received:
    88
    Occupation:
    Assistant FLeet engineer Southern Railway
    Location:
    Surrey
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Just take a look at what the group restoring the class 89 are doing to see what can be achieved with reverse engineering and updating of electronics and the like. However, some of that work can be carried out by a "detemined-cleverist" in his/her shed/loft. Manufacturing a new block for a generator or a new crankshaft for the same is probably more of a group effort and also more expensive, plus the risks are higher.
     
    olly5764 likes this.
  10. guycarr360

    guycarr360 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2005
    Messages:
    4,414
    Likes Received:
    2,729
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Chester le Street County Durham
    I think 3 D printing, and scanning will in time come to the rescue of many projects like this.
     
  11. Fred Kerr

    Fred Kerr Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2006
    Messages:
    8,239
    Likes Received:
    5,250
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Freelance photo - journalist
    Location:
    Southport

    But hasn't the ACLG also replaced some old equipment with more up to date equipment that is cheaper to buy, more reliable in service and is easy to obtain spares for ? In essence the loco is externally original but internally upgraded to include more reliable components for modern day operation.
     
  12. Eightpot

    Eightpot Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2006
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2,264
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Engineer Emeritus
    Location:
    Aylesbury
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    If you are thinking along the lines of things like new pistons, liners, main and big end bearings etc., if the parts are not available then some researching into acquiring original drawings would be a good idea, assuming they still exist.
     
  13. olly5764

    olly5764 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2006
    Messages:
    1,887
    Likes Received:
    1,015
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Engineer
    Location:
    Normally in a brake van somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I wasn't I was thinking along the lines of whole engines. I certainly know a lot of cylinder liners are still available or can be made courtesy of a former employer.
     
  14. 1. 'Thrash'.
    2. 'Clag'.
    3. What colour it's painted.

    The three most important thing to your average diesel punter with short arms and deep pockets...
     
  15. Inadvertent duplicate
     
  16. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2006
    Messages:
    16,510
    Likes Received:
    7,753
    Location:
    1012 / 60158
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    True at present but it will probably change as the fan base ages and as mentioned before, decisions have to be made over different noise vs. No noise.
     
  17. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2015
    Messages:
    9,185
    Likes Received:
    7,226
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Thorn in my managers side
    Location:
    72
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I think for a Diesel the 'noise' - not the 'volume' but the 'music' is a major part of the experience.

    A 33 (say) with a modern power plant just would not be the same thing, and as for a 1st generation DMU...............
     
  18. Snifter

    Snifter Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2014
    Messages:
    1,628
    Likes Received:
    4,210
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    A business contact is an expert in this field. I was in his office admiring an extremely complex heat exchanger used in a jet engine. It had been 3D printed with metals of different properties used in different areas. His comment was that anything that was a casting could be scanned and printed at will. Replicating forgings is a step too far at present.
     
  19. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2017
    Messages:
    12,172
    Likes Received:
    11,493
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Brighton&Hove
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Blimey..... I came across discussions like this about DCC and simulators. This is still 304.8mm/ft scale?
     
  20. olly5764

    olly5764 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2006
    Messages:
    1,887
    Likes Received:
    1,015
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Engineer
    Location:
    Normally in a brake van somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    This is probably because of how forging alters the grain structure of the metal where as 3D printing would actually cause a shear plane across the corners of say a crank. A casting on the other hand, tends to be brittle anyway so isn't used in high tensile areas
     

Share This Page