Can a Sprinter or Super-Sprinter Operate on One Engine?

[Tomnick]

A 2-car heritage dmu with one engine would only have one axle powered - the two engines each drove the nearer axle on the bogie at their end. The driving trailer obviously contributed nothing.



This is where heriatge dmus were ahead, as they had separate combustion heaters with a separate fuel tank. It was realised at the start that the engine exhaust would not provide sufficient heat. Obviously an unpowered trailer always needed its own heat supply. The Railcar site has a useful description of them :

Heaters

Sprinters also have auxiliary heaters, which kick in when the engine coolant (which is circulated through the cab and saloon heaters) drops below a certain temperature. There's also an electric heater in the cab. Neither are any good, for long at least, without the engine running as they rely to some extent on power from the batteries. The heaters on 1st gen DMUs were surely no different in that respect?

 

[Taunton]

Sprinters also have auxiliary heaters, which kick in when the engine coolant (which is circulated through the cab and saloon heaters) drops below a certain temperature. There's also an electric heater in the cab. Neither are any good, for long at least, without the engine running as they rely to some extent on power from the batteries. The heaters on 1st gen DMUs were surely no different in that respect?

Somebody else will need to reply in detail (or supplement that linked article), but I think it's unlikely because the same heaters were installed on power cars and trailers, the latter obviously without a power source. I think the batteries were charged from a dynamo on an axle, normal in those times - flat batteries were one of the recurrent problems for starting engines, but that was a much different current demand.

 

[krus_aragon]

Units running on the Cardiff valley lines could continue operation with only one engine in some circumstances. One example I recall is of services to Penarth would run non-stop through Dingle Road, as restarting on the gradient would be challenging. The train would call at Dingle Road on the way back down the hill, with passengers advised to double-back via Penarth. I think this was done with Pacers and 150s.

I'm sure there were some similar arrangements on lines north of Cardiff, but I didn't happen to encounter those.

 

[ashkeba]

It's baffling why RHTTs often don't run Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Leaves take weekends off from falling?