Diesel Engine Question

[Justin99]

Can someone tell me how an engineer controls all of the engines that are coupled together no matter which direction any of them are pointing?

What I'm thinking of is the cords that are to the left & right of the couplers at the front & back of the engines. I assume that each indivial cord carries particular information.

If 3 engines are coupled together & all of them are facing the same direction then the back left cords of the head engine are connected to the front left cords of the middle engine, & the back left cords of that engine are connected to the front left cords of the last engine. But if the middle engine gets turned around, how does connecting the back left cords of the head engine to the back right cords of this engine, etc. do any good?

 

[slabay]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...fHIx_ji3T4fpq0uZw&sig2=GI0b8EpDaL7ODwpU0xaXJw

This will open a pdf to explain it.

---Scott

 

[log0008]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=29&ved=0CFsQFjAIOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ogaugerr.com%2Fimages%2FRPM%2F221_MU_Setup.pdf&ei=Of4-T5v6K5CUtwft1tyaBQ&usg=AFQjCNGzRpxR_ULBNfHIx_ji3T4fpq0uZw&sig2=GI0b8EpDaL7ODwpU0xaXJw

This will open a pdf to explain it.

---Scott

Looks a bit like plugging in a trailer to are car, lol

 

[fran1]

Looks a bit like plugging in a trailer to are car, lol

Only a bit more heavy duty.

 

[Justin99]

Thanks, slaybay. I've wondered about this for years.

Something I noticed about those engines is they only had cords on 1 side of the coupler. I understand how those are always on the correct side when they couple to another engine. But what about the engines that have cords on both sides?

 

[whitepass]

There were at lest 8 deferent types of MU cabals used.

 

[slabay]

Something I noticed about those engines is they only had cords on 1 side of the coupler. I understand how those are always on the correct side when they couple to another engine. But what about the engines that have cords on both sides?

One of them is probably a dummy plug to hang the unused cable end in when not connected between locomotives.

 

[RacerTodd]

Check out this page on Multiple Unit operation. The section at the bottom titled "Forward and Reverse" shows how the wiring in the locomotive and MU cables are setup to ensure that all locos that are MU'd together pull in the same direction no matter which direction the engine itself is facing.

http://www.railway-technical.com/muops.shtml

Todd

 

[Justin99]

Thank you, RacerTodd. Now I finally do understand.