German Trains Randomly Losing All Power

I’m not sure if this is just a problem I’ve been dealing with but it’s quite annoying

so far this has happened to me with the db br 103 on semmeringbahn and with db br 363 on Maintalbahn

it will just randomly apply the brakes and won’t release them or will just cut power and won’t start up again

 

It could be that you are passing through a neutral section for semmeringbahn. Or you have the transformer switch on for the 103 which you shouldn't by the way.

Or your getting stopped by a safety system or going over the speed limit.

 

I don’t have the safety systems on and even if I did I was under the speed limit but I will do some testing tomorrow/ today

 

Interesting you should mention the 103. I had the same issue trying to do a run with it the other evening, on Frankfurt to Fulda. For some reason I had the PZB go in, so came to a stand and reset everything, including reverser on and off. Unable to get power. Cycled the pantograph, master switch etc. and still no joy. No neutral zone in the area but even if there was, the actions I took should have restored power.

 

Also, the 363, while that is obviously not subject to neutral sections, has safeties (not the safety systems, these I think stay on) that prevent it from overspeeding its gear max speeds, so if you went over....I think it was like 60kph, that may be it with that?

 

I barely got over 40 kph with 363 and I was under the limit

 

Have you put on the "Trafo" switch on the DB 103? That could be the cause of loss of power after some time.

 

i don't think so

 

Also, you should be resetting the circuit breaker also. If you go up to many taps too soon, power will be cut. Reset the pantograph AND circuit breaker. Otherwise, power will not be returned. It took me a while to figure that out. I'm used to just going 100% throttle.

 

Fairly certain I did all that Ben, literally cycled back to a cold start but couldn’t get going again.

 

strange. i always have problems with German locos.