Thread: Pantograph Arc at Morton

BuddSilverliner269 wrote: The pantograph will always arc when coming towards or away from the wire with MU cars. On electric locomotives, you can manually open the main circuit breaker and that shuts the car off and doesnt draw an arc. The MU's you cant manually shut off the main circuit breaker so when you raise or lower the pantograph you will always get that big arc. Its nothing out of the ordinary, but it is pretty .Hahaha Budd, you...

As I suspected mu 345 shot the line yesterday and that was the boom you heard. Also as a result, all automatic signals were at stop and proceed resulting in 20 minute delays

The catenary also "jumped" in the air prior to the car coming into view. By "jumped" I mean moved about two feet in all directions (up, down, side-to-side) from it's normal taut position. That's what I saw when I heard the "Pop!" I know the wire moves a little, but this was like something fell or pulled on it with great force......never saw that before and I walk past that spot...

early80sNECguy wrote: The catenary also "jumped" in the air prior to the car coming into view. By "jumped" I mean moved about two feet in all directions (up, down, side-to-side) from it's normal taut position. That's what I saw when I heard the "Pop!" I know the wire moves a little, but this was like something fell or pulled on it with great force......never saw that before and I...

If you snap off a breaker before lowering the pantograph, then the same arc will happen inside the breaker. The arc will be smaller when the motorman shuts off power (coasts) before lowering the pan. The arc will be smaller when the pan shoe separates from the wire rapidly. If the arc was tremendous, perhaps there was a malfunction within the car such as a short circuit. >>> the catenary jumped It is possible for the train...

Disney Guy wrote: It is possible for the train proceeding at a certain magic number of MPH to set a defective or imperfectly hung catenary into a harmonic bouncing motion and a few seconds later a pantograph could lose contact momentarily, and then an arc will occur. If you sit at New Brunswick and watch express trains at night, there's lots of arcing

Disney Guy wrote: If the arc was tremendous, perhaps there was a malfunction within the car such as a short circuit. Given what Budd said, I'm guessing the PL relay did it's thing. You have to understand the design of the Silverliner car. Now, I know some IVs had main breakers, but most don't, and the II and IIIs don't either. That's right, there's no circuit breaker on the primary side. At all. No fuses, either....