I am aware it is not a physical switch. Assumed it was short for switchover. Why do you get 500amp rheo brake during the rundown then? Auxiliary rheostatic braking?
According to the BR manual it's rheostatic braking obtained from the train heat winding via a step down transformer - which seems a cunning solution to the inability to generate rheostatic braking until the taps have run down.
Yeah, interesting I was just reading that bit in the driving manual. Which all rather confirms that they were designed to have a brake application made when 'notched up' if necessary.
Yes, they’re designed for the brakes to be applied when the tap changer has not yet run down to zero, but not for the brakes to be applied when under power. The Driver first moves the power handle to ‘Off’ and that immediately cuts the power.
That makes sense actually. So what was the down side of going straight to off from a high notch then? Bad for the components, bad for the ride quality, or both?
Mainly ride quality. It caused the coaches to ‘snatch’ which caused a jolt. The further you can run the taps down before going to ‘Off’ the less severe the jolt. The other disadvantage is that the element of braking you do without full rheostatic brake available places more wear on brake pads and discs for the equivalent rate of deceleration. The difference is significant. In leaf fall season we used to isolate the rheostatic brake during leaf fall season as it tended to worsen wheel-slide. As a result the brake pads had to be replaced about three times as frequently during autumn.
Very interesting, I might try driving with the rheostatic brake isolated next time I run in the autumn .
Even better run with one traction motor out. I find that adds to the challenge, automatically isolates the regen braking and you get to hear the brake blocks rubbing on the loco wheels.
Great info. Thanks. So in the sim, would a more realistic behaviour be to automatically cut the power to the motors and run the tap changer down to zero if a brake application is made and the power handle is not set to off?
On the 87, if you isolate the Rheo via the wall switch, you can't turn it back on. Works fine on the 86 though.
I’m actually not sure what would happen on the real thing if you were to apply the brake with power still applied. From the description in the BR manual it sounds as if the movement of the brake handle away from the Running position would cut the traction power, but whether the tap changer would run down with the power handle still in Hold, I don’t know.
Have the bogies been fixed yet? Can't see any mention that it's been done but I'm thinking about getting it in the sale if they have been.
Has the carriage file naming error been fixed yet or is it still the case that we cannot see Mk1 buffet liveries (from Livery Designer) in-game?
Partly, as you say, the distances between stops made maximum speed more critical on the Carlisle and Glasgow services, but also just the much longer journey times meant the difference was bigger too.
Thanks for your reply, it completely makes sense and made me realize I've read too fast (thought you were talking about Preston - Carlisle portion only).
