Random pictures thread
In 1917 Altoona works with Westinghouse built a single electric locomotive for the Pennsylvanian Railroad, a prototype design designated as a FF1 numbered 3931, eventually given the nickname "Big Liz". It was built to haul freight trains across the Allegheny Mountains where the PRR planned to electrify. "Big Liz" proved workable but too powerful for the freight cars of the time with its 4600 available horsepower and astonishing 140,000 lbf of tractive effort. Pulling the train it regularly snapped couplers and when moved to the rear as a pusher its force was sufficient to pop cars in the middle of the train off the tracks. In total this behemoth was 76 feet and 6 inches in length, 14 feet and 8 inches tall and weighed in at 516,000 pounds. However, though she was powerful and massive the locomotives top speed peaked at 20.6 mph. She had a 2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement in two half-frames, connected in the center. Each frame had a pair of three-phase AC induction motors driving a jackshaft through gearing and a spring drive; side rods then drove the wheels. The jackshafts can be mistaken for an additional fourth axle but the "wheels" are cogwheels to transfer power from the motors to the jackshaft. Three-phase power for the 4 massive motors was supplied from the single phase overhead supply via a large rotary converter housed in the body of the locomotive. With three-phase induction motors there was no way to control the speed of the motors; changing the wiring of the motor poles allowed for two speed settings, 10.3 and 20.6 mph, which were considered enough to drag heavy freight trains up and down steep grades. Its intended use as an Allegheny climber never realized and its power too much for the rolling stock in service at the time, Big Liz was sidelined until being cut up for scrap in 1940.
In 1917 Altoona works with Westinghouse built a single electric locomotive for the Pennsylvanian Railroad, a prototype design designated as a FF1 numbered 3931, eventually given the nickname "Big Liz". It was built to haul freight trains across the Allegheny Mountains where the PRR planned to electrify. "Big Liz" proved workable but too powerful for the freight cars of the time with its 4600 available horsepower and astonishing 140,000 lbf of tractive effort. Pulling the train it regularly snapped couplers and when moved to the rear as a pusher its force was sufficient to pop cars in the middle of the train off the tracks. In total this behemoth was 76 feet and 6 inches in length, 14 feet and 8 inches tall and weighed in at 516,000 pounds. However, though she was powerful and massive the locomotives top speed peaked at 20.6 mph. She had a 2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement in two half-frames, connected in the center. Each frame had a pair of three-phase AC induction motors driving a jackshaft through gearing and a spring drive; side rods then drove the wheels. The jackshafts can be mistaken for an additional fourth axle but the "wheels" are cogwheels to transfer power from the motors to the jackshaft. Three-phase power for the 4 massive motors was supplied from the single phase overhead supply via a large rotary converter housed in the body of the locomotive. With three-phase induction motors there was no way to control the speed of the motors; changing the wiring of the motor poles allowed for two speed settings, 10.3 and 20.6 mph, which were considered enough to drag heavy freight trains up and down steep grades. Its intended use as an Allegheny climber never realized and its power too much for the rolling stock in service at the time, Big Liz was sidelined until being cut up for scrap in 1940.