Eurostars do turn up in funny places...

duncharris · Post by **duncharris** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 4:10 pm

Interesting front page...

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 4:37 pm

They might not find it so funny when they get a bill on monday morning!

steve33108 · Post by **steve33108** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 6:34 pm

just to clarify for you duncharris, the eurostar isnt electrically or physically compatible with the america system, it isnt the same gauge or voltage.

spartacus · Post by **spartacus** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 7:04 pm

I think an e-mail should be sent to the relevant people at Eurostar.

steve33108 · Post by **steve33108** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 7:06 pm

mr basil is eurostar personnal. i am sure he will be writing a strongly worded letter to about something soon!

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 8:10 pm

spartacus wrote:I think an e-mail should be sent to the relevant people at Eurostar.

Like I said, you can rest assured they will be hearing about it first thing on monday morning - well apart from the fact they will all still be in bed when I get to my office....

spartacus · Post by **spartacus** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 8:41 pm

All the more reason to get on the blower!

ICuthbert · Post by **ICuthbert** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 8:48 pm

I find the lack of knowledge of several of our southern (not south of Barnsley - south of London) members appalling. Not only can't they spell, they have little cognisance of English grammar.

Some claim to be apprenticed to proper railway TOCs. STANDARD GAUGE UK (4ft 8.5 in) is also STANDARD GAUGE in the US, and has been since 1896. see http://www.sdm.org/faqs/gauge/index.html

LOADING GAUGE is a different matter but I suspect we in this country have the tightest spec for this and the Americas the most relaxed.

If you are using AC, it doesn't matter about electrical supplies. 25kv 50Hz single phase is a standard supply in the UK and certain parts of Europe for traction ONLY. Distribution supplies, apart from the 415v TPN local low voltage supply, include 3.3kv 6.6kv, 11kv, 33kv, 66kv, etc. etc. all at three phase. Transformers can do wonderful things.

The only issue in the unlikely event of the consideration of synchronous traction motors is the supply frequency - 50Hz in this part of the world and 60Hz in the Americas. However current design electronic controls and invertors ignore historical protocols and this is no longer a problem.

It is interesting to note that the consortium designing and building the latest Acela US trainsets is reported to be Bombardier and Alstom. I wonder who designed and built the Eurostar?

Ian

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 8:56 pm

ICuthbert wrote:I find the lack of knowledge of several of our southern (not south of Barnsley - south of London) members appalling. Not only can't they spell, they have little cognisance of English grammar.

Some claim to be apprenticed to proper railway TOCs. STANDARD GAUGE UK (4ft 8.5 in) is also STANDARD GAUGE in the US, and has been since 1896. see http://www.sdm.org/faqs/gauge/index.html

LOADING GAUGE is a different matter but I suspect we in this country have the tightest spec for this and the Americas the most relaxed.

If you are using AC, it doesn't matter about electrical supplies. 25kv 50Hz single phase is a standard supply in the UK and certain parts of Europe for traction ONLY. Distribution supplies, apart from the 415v TPN local low voltage supply, include 3.3kv 6.6kv, 11kv, 33kv, 66kv, etc. etc. all at three phase. Transformers can do wonderful things.

The only issue in the unlikely event of the consideration of synchronous traction motors is the supply frequency - 50Hz in this part of the world and 60Hz in the Americas. However current design electronic controls and invertors ignore historical protocols and this is no longer a problem.

It is interesting to note that the consortium designing and building the latest Acela US trainsets is reported to be Bombardier and Alstom. I wonder who designed and built the Eurostar?

Ian

I actually spent some time over in the US when they were getting ready to introduce the Acela's based at Philadelphia - for staff training purposes (the systems are very similar to the Eurostar and the technology was included as proven to work). As tempting as it was to clarify some of the more salient points to others on the forum who seem to think they know a lot, I decided against it, or I would have been accused of continuing the nonsense on here. I am glad to see someone else takes my point as it can be difficult to say nothing and let things pass - which then makes those who make the comments actually think they know something - and worse still, others might take it as gospel too....

steve33108 · Post by **steve33108** » Sat Nov 02, 2002 10:27 pm

sorry if anybody has seen this post before now, i thought this was another topic, i take back everything i said towards you on that last post dale stewart.

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Mon Nov 04, 2002 10:48 pm

steve33108 wrote:just to clarify for you duncharris, the eurostar isnt electrically or physically compatible with the america system, it isnt the same gauge or voltage.

correction (sorry) A eurostar has 4 different power supplys. The eurostar is compatible with the NE corridor and many other electric lines in america. There is no gauge problems either look at Coronation csot when she went over and the flying scottsman did many tours over there

Kevo00 · Post by **Kevo00** » Tue Nov 05, 2002 10:30 am

Chances are to be apprenticed for a TOC these days you don't even need to know about things like gauges...

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Tue Nov 05, 2002 1:00 pm

salopiangrowler wrote:
steve33108 wrote:just to clarify for you duncharris, the eurostar isnt electrically or physically compatible with the america system, it isnt the same gauge or voltage.
correction (sorry) A eurostar has 4 different power supplys. The eurostar is compatible with the NE corridor and many other electric lines in america. There is no gauge problems either look at Coronation csot when she went over and the flying scottsman did many tours over there

Within the Eurostar fleet there are a number of differences - all have 750v DC except the three that are 'hors pool' and used only by SNCF (they also don't have yellow fronts and so are not permitted in the UK), all have SNCF 25kV AC, SNCB 3kV DC, and ET 25kV AC overhead and 12 power cars also have 1.5kV AC French Overhead which is why you will only ever see one of six SNCF allocated sets from the 32xx series work on the ski train to Bourg St Maurice. There are test facilities at North Pole Depot for all systems except for the 1.5kV...

salopiangrowler · Post by **salopiangrowler** » Tue Nov 05, 2002 11:27 pm

didnt know that there were any eurostars without warning panels. Since they are all built at washwood heath, thought it was standard practise for all of them. More to the point i have seen all bar 4 33xx series eurostars working in the uk including 3299

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Tue Nov 05, 2002 11:35 pm

salopiangrowler wrote:didnt know that there were any eurostars without warning panels. Since they are all built at washwood heath, thought it was standard practise for all of them. More to the point i have seen all bar 4 33xx series eurostars working in the uk including 3299

Well not all the power cars were built in Washwood Heath and there is no 3299 - you mean 3999 which is our spare power car - though it actually got renumbered 3206 for the best part of two years before being renumbered back to 3999 when 3206 was rebuilt at Le Landy. The 'Hors Pool' sets did have yellow fronts until they became internal French units. In times of shortage, we have 'borrowed' two of the French sets (3203/3204 and 3223/24). They worked into Waterloo with SNCF Branding and the repainted TGV style panels on the doors in pink and lime. Political wranglings led to the units being banned from the UK and to prevent this, the shoe gear has been removed and the fronts painted to remove the obligatory yellow ends.

The two sets of 33xx units that you haven't seen will be 3307/08 which was the North Pole christmas Tree and 3313/14. They have recently had a test run in readiness for instrument fitting ready for high speed testing of the CTRL route next year and 3307 and 8 are currently being rebuilt for test train operation.

See the next page for photo of said reliveried French TMST (ex Eurostar train)...