Was there a significance to which electric motors (Quills, 'Joes, Boxcabs) had the front or rear pans raised when in service? I think I remember reading somewhere, that with icy trolley conditions, both would be raised.
They'd raise both pans, when weather was lousy for best conductivity. Also, when they had really heavy tonnage and were heavily drawing amps. Which pan was raised, front or rear? Well, in reality they went by type of motor, rather than Division. Bipolars most often had the rear pan up. B-W seemed to be whichever one by whim. Boxcabs had the lead unit pan up, and one other which could be a mid or the rear unit. Joes I recall with the lead pan up on a single or two, and conversely, the rear pan up on a single unit, or a pair. If there was a policy, it was not adhered to, and actual use was all over the map. Boxcab E50
Interesting! I wonder if Noel Holley covers this in his book? I received it for Christmas! Patty is so supportive, she got me off to a good start rebuilding my Milwaukee library! Ken, I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge of the Milwaukee! You are very much appreciated! :thumbs_up:
I am a fountain gushing forth gallons of trivia. I was just making a quick pass through a couple of books. I know I have seen it written there was a policy, differing between Divisions. However, what I see after making a fast journey through many dozens of pictures seems to nicely back up my memories. Boxcab E50
Pantographs in the world Hi everybody! I'm writing from italy and I had a relative working for our railroad company. He used to gave me his old "corporate" reviews and now I've loads of them in the garage. Anyway, according to this magazines almost all over the world electric engines/locomotives usually raise their rear pantograph while moving. With "rear" pantograph they mean the pantograh on the rear end of the locomotive according to its direction. As explaination, they wrote that it is because of the air flow streaming on the front part of the body of the locomotive. I think that it is particularly true for our european trains which travel much faster than american trains... Anyway, double pantographs are seen in our continent only in very hars weather conditions (as high wind moving the catenary or heavy ice on the wires) to avoid any loss of power during travel. But after almost 11 years as commuter students on our railroad I can say that at least local trains do not strictly adhere to this "rule" because they usually shuttle between the terminals at speed not exceeding 100mph. I would say that there is not any STRICT rule about which pantograph has to be raised...
IIRC, the Pennsy and NH usually ran rear pan up on their heavy motors. The logic being that if the rear pan suffered damage while running at speed, the front pan would still be available. Whereas if the front pan were damaged, it would probably damage the rear pan even though it was down, especially at speeds above 30, up to 100 mph with the GG-1s and E-4s. On the other hand, MU commuter cars were random due to every car having two pans, and having 3 or more cars in a train.
