wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Oct 2005 12:29:52 +1300, "Ken Taylor"
wrote:

wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 17:19:42 -0400, Ari Silversteinn
wrote:

DHS has proposed a change in scenario. They want an on locomotive
alerting
system that could be commandeered and driven at, near or about a
disaster
site. Everything else stays more or less the same, overbroadcasting on
local AM/FM, power off the locomotive, selective or full frequency
broadcasting, train (s) to be in motion at all times. 20-30 second
messages
that would also combine a message to be aware that a locomotive (at
speed)
will be flying by the at grade crossings.

Comments?

Tracks across Lake Ponchartrain fell in.

Granted they were put back in service faster than anything the
government had connection to.

Why a loco anyway? It would appear to be the mistaken assumption that
anything that big must have power to burn on anything plugged in by a
user.
Not the case - the power from a loco is, not surprisingly, applied to the
tracks.

Actually, it's not.

What made you bring up tracks anyway -- my reference to the
tracks on the lake falling in? My point was that the locomotive is
going nowhere there aren't usable tracks.

On a diesel-electric locomotive, the generator's output is
applied, not to the tracks as you seem to think, but rather through
control circuitry to the stator around the axle. It's rather amusing
to see a repair yard worker with a set of wheels-and-axle (they're all
one single piece, in case you didn't know) clamp a stator around the
axle, connect a battery with a pair of short jumper cables and walk
the whole arrangement across a concrete floor as though he were
walking the family dog.

BTW, at 4,000+ horsepower, you could plug in nearly anything a
user might want, given proper appliances and the right plug. :-)



The electric generators used for powering gear other than the
train's vitals are not high power.

Ken

4,000hp is a lot but not enough to swamp all the broadcast radios, which is
what the OP wants.

Incidentally my reference to tracks was just that the loco is made to move,
not power a boom-box. Like your anecdote though. :-)

Cheers.

Ken