Power trolley

The power trolleys are generally railway machines diesel, sometimes electric (it is the case in Suisse), used mainly for the operation of the Wagon S and the formation of the convoys. It is also a machine used in many heavy industries for internal transport. They are also sometimes used on short distances for the service road of secondary lines or about particular junctions and one then speaks about locomotive operation-line .

North America

Several companies manufacture or manufactured power trolleys for work in marshalling yard and side track. ALCO was one of the pionnières in this field with her Canadian subsidiary company Montreal Locomotive Works. General Electric is still in this crenel.

One of the main features of the North-American power trolleys is that the Cabine is broader than the remainder of the engine, is in withdrawal and only one portion occupies any. It gives a very good visibility forwards and the back of the convoy in addition to being sedentary in the event of collision for the personnel. One can make the turn of the remainder of the engine thanks to a footbridge. The North-American power trolleys are in general more imposing than their European fellow-members due to the higher size of the coaches to be tractor drawn and to the fact that they are not used only in marshalling yard but very often to move the convoy at certain distances as for the delivery of coaches towards industries in the area.

France

Historically, the power trolleys started to replace the steam engines of operation following the vote of the Loi the 8 hours, about 1920. It was a question of being able to have a machine of traction in a minimal time thanks to the use of a spark-ignition engine. This motorization will not be adapted, in Europe, with the engines that as from the Fifties approximately.

Certain models, called rail-road can rise on tires for operations out-rail thanks to a hydraulic system. The smallest power trolleys use the weight of the Wagon on which they are coupled to increase their adherent mass and to have a better traction.

The series in service in 2006 with the SNCF are the Y 7100, Y 7400, Y 8000 and Y 8400.

The industrial power trolleys are often of old materials the SNCF, but they were sometimes built in great series for this only use. The companies Moyse, Fauvet-Girel, Decauville are of the manufacturers emblematic of this type of power trolleys diesels. With regard to the electric power trolleys, used in significant environment, one will retain the name of Milhoud, whose productions were called limp with salt because of their shape of caps.

The power trolleys also are very much used on Narrow gauge railway where they were used very early instead of the steam engines. The soldiers, for example, used them during the First World War in order to avoid visible smoke by far.

See too

Shunter

The machines of railway operations are exploited on marshalling yards, platforms, connected up industrial sites ready to receive coaches freight or port areas, engineering departments and/or restoration of railway materials. They are also called power trolleys. The power engine, their speed is limited compared to the machines of lines, their equipment is sophisticated less than the machines of lines. The machines of operations are propelled mainly by diesel engines and were before 1980 very often in diesel-electric technology by feeding coupling of a diesel engine with a generator of the electric engines of traction. This diesel-electric technology offered a very large couple to starting and a smoothness speed of traverse favourable with the railway operations of positioning of the coaches. The technology of the electric diesel is replaced today by the hydraulic clutch or transmission powershit quite as effective but cheaper with construction and simpler in maintenance. Today their manufacturing costs are so important taking into consideration potentiality of the market in Europe, that the users prefer to use for the operations in particular junctions the technology of the tyred power trolley or machine of railway operations Rail General-purpose Road. This mode of railway propulsion using the properties of great adherence of rubber on the rail is old in its design. The “rail-cars” with tire-rails and the “rail-road” (trucks modified to be able to circulate on the railways) use this property of tyred power trolleys. (see vehicles rail-road). Adherence is increased considerably, by 5 to 7 times more than for the railway wheel on a rail. Generally these tyred power trolleys or Rail-road are equipped with a retractable system with one with the two modes (railway in general). The raising is hydraulic. In 2007 very few marks are present on the market. The market is confidential, although capital for the development of railway and the Piggyback traffic. One notices the Italian leader Zephir Eurotract and north American Trackmobile and Shuttlewagon. However the American machines north are not usable in Europe because the materials freight on American rail networks northern are not equipped with railway plugs, obligatory plugs in application coaches freight in Europe . One saw smaller machines of railway operations in the years 1970 using the weight of the coach on which they are coupled to increase their adherent mass by transfer of load and to have a better capacity of traction. This system is prohibited because the gripping of the cross-piece of the coach to take care and optimize railway adherence is not authorized. Certain machines of railway operations or power trolleys use railway wheels, of which the contact part with mushroom of the rail, is hooped with a tread out of polyurethane to increase adherence. It is an intermediary between tires of the rail-road and tire-rails. In particular junctions legislation UIC (International union of the Railroads) is applicable. Also the railway plugs, attachments, braking and indication are regulated. The small Rail-Route trucks without railway plugs are reserved for the trams applications in 2007. They were used largely in the past in particular junctions and allowed has many industrialists to ensure their railway operations by receiving coaches freight. They are supplanted today by machines of more powerful in capacity of traction railway, more specialized and more effective railway operations. One found in the past machines patented mixed lifting truck and power trolley. 110 machines were manufactured under the Chariotrac mark in Nice, patent Christian Louveau. The Italian manufacturer Zephir - Eurotract builds machines of railway operations in particular junctions in normal way 1435mm, or 1000mm mainly for Africa, in Spanish way 1668 mm, or 1676 mm for Russia. One finds even machines having double railway spacing to circulate at the Spanish border on the two networks with different spacings 1435mm and 1668mm. The marks like Moyse, Decauville and Fauvet Girel disappeared since the years 1970 from where obsolescence from the park power trolleys among connected up industrialists. The French navy obtained into 2007 with a large machine railway operations Rail general-purpose Route with motricity by the tires the EUROTRACT E4000 version SKIPMOBILE, for the railway traction of the nuclear missiles (M51 project), for their loading in the French strategic submarines.

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