On Wednesday, 4 June 2014 21:27:13 UTC+2, Marc Van Dyck  wrote:   
   > Jishnu Mukerji wrote :   
      
   > > But a vanilla Vectron in Europe has an axle load over 22.5 t. So it is   
   > > not like it is a pure American phenomenon. No FRA in Europe.   
   >    
   > Vectron = 5.2 MW (7000 HP), tractive effort 300 kN. I don't believe   
   > you could transmit thit to the rails with less weight than that.   
      
   For passenger work, tractive effort is not the limiting factor, rather total   
   installed power is.  For example, the Swiss Re460 (late 1990s electric) is 6.1   
   MW (maximum) 5.6 MW (continuous), 200 km/h (125 mph) on 4 axles at 84 tonnes   
   (21 tonne axle load),    
   and I have personally travelled on a 14 car train[1] pulled in ice/snow   
   conditions by a single example on its own.   
      
   > As far as I know, you need roughly two US-built CC diesels to achieve   
   > the same power (tractive effort I'll admit I don't know). How much   
   > weight would that be ?   
      
   For pulling heavy freight trains up hills at low speed, tractive effort is the   
   limiting factor.  For pulling/pushing light weight passenger trains at speed,   
   tractive effort is largely irrelevant, as even a very powerful electric   
   locomotive will be    
   limited by power not tractive effort.   
      
   [1] winter weekend trains between Zürich and Chur are *very* heavily loaded   
   with day trippers skiing, and routinely run with the standard 8 car IC2000   
   double deck set strengthened by 6 car EW IV sets, push/pulled by a single   
   Re460.   
      
   Robin   
      
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