AN ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE WHICH WAS HAULING NEARLY 15 CARS STOPPED WHEN A PERSON PULLED AN ALARM CHAIN . IT COULD NOT START AS THE ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE EXACTLY STOPPED IN THE NEUTRAL ZONE AND PEOPLE HAD TO GET DOWN AND PUSH THE CARS TO MAKE THE LOCOMOTIVE MOVE AWAY FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE. AS SOON AS IT EXITED FROM THE NEUTRAL ZONE THE LOCOMOTIVE GOT BACK THE POWER. i WANT TO KNOW WHY THERE SHOULD BE NEUTRAL ZONE AND WHETHER IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE FUNCTIONING OF ELECTRIC TRACTION.
2007-05-19 04:18:49 · 5 answers · asked by smartman 1 in Environment ➔ Alternative Fuel Vehicles
That's a circuit break. That's how you separate one electrified section from another.
You know your house has multiple fuses or circuit breakers. That way if you pop a circuit breaker in the kitchen, it doesn't kill the whole house. It doesn't even kill your refrigerator or your lights. They're on separate circuits.
Same with the railroad. Different sections of track are on separate circuits, so that a problem in one section won't kill the whole railroad.
Where the circuits meet each other, there has to be some distance of insulation so the circuits don't "short out". The train was just unlucky and stopped right on that insulation! Whoops!
For city streetcars and trolley buses, there are often symbols painted on the street, to tell the driver where a circuit break is, so he knows not to stop there. In San Francisco, they are yellow dots.
Now, most trains have 2 pantographs, and that's a reason why. He should have been able to just "put up the other pantograph" and had power again.
2007-05-19 11:29:27 · answer #1 · answered by Wolf Harper 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I imagine the neuteral zone plays a part in the electrical distribution system....
This would probably play a nessary part in making the transmission of electricity over long distances for the train more possible.
This is as high voltage 3 phase systems have a positive neuteral and negative
I imagine there may be a small gaps along the wires transmission lines where it is a neuteral zone to stop the wire getting too hot and expanding and breaking, so they all run independantly of each other... and as they dont expect trains to be stopping on that part of the track.
2007-05-19 05:18:56 · answer #2 · answered by Keyan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Neutral Zone is a portion of track on an electric railway that does not have any power running through it. It is there to allow railway workers a portion of track to operate from (if there is a problem) until they can halt rail traffic and take the power down.
2007-05-20 04:58:01 · answer #3 · answered by bootus91 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There has to be a neutral zone if the train runs on tracks that have had their polarity switched, otherwise the tracks would short out.
2007-05-19 13:34:02 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
CHAPTER XVII
WORKING OF TRAINS ON ELECTRIFIED
SECTIONS OF RAILWAYS
http://www.southernrailway.org/tpjsec/GRS/Chapters/CHAP17-1.HTM
Happy reading.
2007-05-19 09:25:38 · answer #5 · answered by Beach Saint 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋