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Comment by nwiswell | Hacker News Reader

> You can't use the electric side of a locomotive drive train anywhere else than in a locomotive, and for fully electric locomotives you can't even use the transformers in any non-railway setting simply because the frequencies used are generally incompatible with usage on the normal power grid.

This is a surprise, because it calls to mind this old story:

https://gizmodo.com/that-time-a-canadian-town-derailed-a-die...

Was this simply an unusual locomotive, and therefore compatible with the grid? What's going on?

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A locomotive can still output a transformable voltage if you disconnect the traction motors and instead hook them up to something else. A Diesel-Electric engine really is just a generator riding on top of an electric locomotive.

In this case they took MLW M420W locomotives and just straight hooked them right up to the local grid.

That doesn't sound far off from a PTO generator, assuming you've got the right interconnects exposed seems reasonable. From my limited understanding most diesel electrics go Diesel -> AC -> DC -> AC -> Wheels. If your taking power from the first AC part the engine RPM determines frequency(as with a PTO generator). Most diesels used in these applications with similarly buffered powertrains(some tractors/heavy machinery with HSTs/etc) have good governors to keep the engine from running away.

From the article it sounded like it wasn't ideal(there was damage to the gearbox from driving the engines down the road).

(as an aside this is why I think a diesel-electric tractor or pure electric would be pretty nifty thing)

> (as an aside this is why I think a diesel-electric tractor or pure electric would be pretty nifty thing)

Electric motors on tractors are an absolute rarity (usually, the motors need cooling, which is in conflict with the wheel/tracks being rated for driving through water and mud).

The usual is either direct drive or using the hydraulic generator for the power tools and actuators also for the drive train... and you can get electricity generator packs that you can simply plug in into the hydraulics port for a power tool [1].

[1]: https://hk-hydraulik-kontor.de/de/147440-Hydraulik-Generator...

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